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Parliamentary question - E-000299/2018Parliamentary question
E-000299/2018

Health implications of cheap food

Question for written answer E-000299-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Louis Michel (ALDE)

Consumers and consumer-rights organisations are blaming the EU following the emergence of a health scandal linked to excess food production. For years, encouraging the mass production of cheap food has been justified by the claim that it meets the needs of families on the lowest incomes.

It turns out, however, that this approach carries an exorbitant price tag: the presence of endocrine disruptors in food is costing EU Member States EUR 217 billion annually, a figure equivalent to 1.48% of Union GDP or EUR 428 per person per year. Skyrocketing rates of obesity, and of non-communicable diseases associated with it, such as diabetes, cardio-vascular disorders and stomach cancer, have been caused by the consumption of highly-processed, industrially-produced food, and 80% of healthcare spending in the EU goes on treating these problems.

What does the Commission plan to do to tackle this situation and to safeguard the quality of European food products?

Does it intend to introduce a new EU label to certify the quality of food produced on European land by European farmers?

Is it planning measures to make organically produced food more affordable?

Last updated: 5 February 2018
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