REPORT on ensuring food security and long-term resilience of the EU agriculture

10.5.2023 - (2022/2183(INI))

Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Rapporteur: Marlene Mortler
Rapporteur for the opinion of the associated committee pursuant to Rule 57 of the Rules of Procedure:
Anja Hazekamp, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on ensuring food security and long-term resilience of the EU agriculture (2022/2183(INI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 39 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which lists assuring the availability of supplies, stabilising markets and ensuring that supplies reach consumers at reasonable prices as objectives of the common agricultural policy,

– having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2020 on the European Green Deal[1],

– having regard to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognise the right to food as part of the right to an adequate standard of living,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 3 October 2012 entitled ‘The EU approach to resilience: learning from food security crises’ (COM(2012)0586),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 12 November 2021 entitled ‘Contingency plan for ensuring food supply and food security in times of crisis’ (COM(2021)0689),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 23 March 2022 on safeguarding food security and reinforcing the resilience of food systems (COM(2022)0133),

– having regard to its resolution of 24 March 2022 on the need for an urgent EU action plan to ensure food security inside and outside the EU in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine[2],

– having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2022 on addressing food security in developing countries[3],

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December on the resilience of critical entities and repealing Council Directive 2008/114/EC[4], which adds food production, processing and distribution to the list of sectors covered,

– having regard to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Reports, to the Global Report on Food Crises and the Global Nutrition Report, including the 2021 edition thereof, to the Right to Food Guidelines of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition of the FAO Committee on World Food Security, to the FAO’s ‘10 Elements of Agroecology -Guiding the Transition to Sustainable Food and Agricultural Systems’ and to the 2014 Framework for Action for Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises,

– having regard to the UN General Assembly resolution of 25 September 2015 entitled ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’,

– having regard to the UN General Assembly resolution of 1 April 2016 entitled ‘United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025)’, which aims to trigger intensified action to end hunger and eradicate malnutrition worldwide and ensure universal access to healthier and more sustainable diets for all people, whoever they are and wherever they live,

– having regard to the Voluntary Guidelines of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security of 2012 and to the CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems of 2015,

– having regard to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to how closely linked and integrated they are, in particular SDG 1 (end poverty in all its forms), and SDG 2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture),

– having regard to the UN Report of 30 December 2021 entitled ‘Seeds, right to life and farmers’ rights’ (A/HRC/49/43) by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 9 November 2022 entitled ‘Ensuring availability and affordability of fertilisers’ (COM(2022)0590),

– having regard to the report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the development of plant proteins in the European Union of 22 November 2018 (COM(2018)0757),

– having regard to its resolution of 13 December 2022 on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas –Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040[5],

–  having regard the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee,

– having regard the opinion of the Committee of the Regions,

– having regard to Rules 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Development,

– having regard to the own initiative report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (A9-0185/2023),

A. whereas on 24 February 2022 the Russian Federation illegally invaded Ukraine, which has had disastrous consequences, including a serious threat to global food security, with the most vulnerable countries being most at risk; whereas Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has seriously aggravated an already difficult and challenging situation in the agri-food sector, which is still recovering from the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and is suffering from the ongoing climate crisis and rising energy and fertiliser prices;

B. whereas the effects of the crisis caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine have put food security and the resilience of the global food system at the centre of the political agenda; whereas European food production must therefore be considered a strategic sector and be placed on an equal footing with energy security, defence and the fight against climate change at the EU and international levels;

C. whereas, according to the FAO, at the beginning of 2022 Ukraine and Russia accounted for nearly 30 % of global wheat and maize exports, while Russia was the world’s top exporter of fertilisers; whereas more than 30 countries, mainly in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, depend on Ukraine and Russia for over 30 % of their wheat import needs; whereas Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is exacerbating this global food insecurity and could lead to a further 8 to 13 million people suffering food insecurity, according to FAO simulations;

D. whereas the common agricultural policy (CAP) has made a positive contribution to strengthening the CAP’s role of European agriculture in the 60 years it has been in place; whereas it should continue to do so in future with budgetary support that is sufficient and extensive enough to guarantee food security and supply in Europe;

E. whereas the war against Ukraine and the significant increases in prices for inputs such as fertiliser, energy and feed resulting from the conflict, together with food speculation, are leading to significant cumulative distortions and tensions on global agricultural, fisheries and aquaculture markets, in particular for cereals, vegetable oil and livestock; whereas food production and access to food must not be further endangered and must under no circumstances be used as a geopolitical weapon, as this will have an impact on economies worldwide, especially on citizens and the most vulnerable in society;

F. whereas the first food riots that broke out in Arab countries in 2008 demonstrated how effectively food can be used as a weapon to cause geopolitical instability;

G. whereas not only consumer food prices but also household incomes are crucial drivers of food security; whereas, when faced with unprecedentedly high food prices, lower-income households, which spend a large share of their budget on food, can be obliged to choose more unhealthy and less diverse foods, making them particularly vulnerable to the risk of non-communicable diseases linked to poor diets;

H. whereas although food prices are high, they are not offsetting production costs for EU farmers and agri-cooperatives; whereas their production costs have been increasing exponentially over the past year due to soaring energy and packaging prices as well as availability and price issues with fertilisers and machinery;

I. whereas according to the International Grains Council, Russia and Ukraine accounted for 8.6 % of global grain production, excluding rice, and 24 % of exports in the 2021 harvest year; whereas as a result of the war being waged by Russia against Ukraine, disruptions and bottlenecks in critical infrastructure, in particular transport and storage facilities for agricultural products, are restricting the movement of food, feed and other agricultural products, in particular cereals and oilseeds from the Black Sea; whereas prices on global agricultural markets had already risen prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, partly due to climate impacts and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;

J. whereas transport and storage infrastructures are essential for ensuring efficient and secure trade flows, supplies and market stability; whereas any disruption to these may affect previously reasonable consumer price levels; whereas food security goes beyond agriculture and food production and has impacts on several areas, not only on primary producers and consumers, but also on the wider economy, trade, development and humanitarian efforts, and on social and regional cohesion;

K. whereas the Commission should use all possible means to ensure that the European single market functions well; whereas the Commission should step up its efforts to address all agri-food related barriers in the single market, including the unblocking of transport bottlenecks;

L. whereas according to the FAO, the concept of food security is not limited to food production, but also includes the dimensions ofavailability, accessibility and stability, and also encompasses the internationally recognised human right to food and affordable access to healthy and nutritious diets for all; whereas no human right is so frequently breached;

M. whereas healthy and balanced nutrition makes a positive difference to people’s lives  and enables the equitable and sustainable development of society; whereas consumers are increasingly opting for healthy and safe food choices, sustainable products, transparency in the supply chain, better traceability of all production and distribution processes on the basis of their right to more information on the origin and production methods of the foodstuffs they consume;

N. whereas access to safe and healthy food for all is an internationally recognised right; whereas it is essential for society to focus on food availability and affordability for all, given their social, economic, environmental implications and consequences as well their effects on human health;

O. whereas the right to food is a fundamental human right; whereas Sustainable Development Goal 2 aims to eradicate hunger by 2030; whereas the EU should champion the right to adequate food as a priority for food systems in order to achieve food security and improve nutrition;

P. whereas according to the UN Report entitled ‘Seeds, right to life and farmers’ rights’  by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, the right to food is inherently tied to farmers’ seed systems and their indivisible right to freely save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds; whereas Team Europe should support programmes that take the needs of farmers’ seed systems or informal seed systems into account and support seed banks or seed libraries that allow farmers and gardeners to collect, conserve and share native seeds, landraces and varieties;

Q. whereas the food crisis respects no borders and no country can overcome it alone; whereas there is an urgent need for joint action and solidarity;

R. whereas as a result of the global supply crisis, the FAO estimates that international food and feed prices have risen to levels unprecedented since the FAO began carrying out price analyses and above their already high levels, even for products for which no price increase was justified; whereas food price inflation reached 17.26 % in October 2022; whereas many people in the world are at risk of food shortages, hunger and food becoming unaffordable; whereas in order to identify, prevent and eliminate food speculation that contributes to food price volatility, operators along the food supply chain need to be more transparent about their share of value added, which would increase overall market transparency;

S. whereas global food insecurity is not primarily caused by supply shortages but by conflicts, unequal food distribution, unaffordable food and global supply chain disruptions; whereas increasing food prices mostly affect families on low incomes, who spend the largest proportion of their income on food; whereas it is essential to analyse the factors driving up prices for agricultural inputs and the effect this has on the increase in food prices;

T. whereas one in three people worldwide still do not have access to adequate, sufficient food and healthy nutrition; whereas 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021; whereas many of these people are employed in agriculture; whereas according to the WFP, acute food insecurity affected a record 349 million people in 2022;

U. whereas hunger and food insecurity are increasing across the world and many countries are significantly off track to meet the zero hunger target by 2030; whereas malnutrition is a lifelong burden for individuals and societies, as it prevents children from reaching their full potential and therefore curtails human and national economic development;

V. whereas the 1994 Marrakech Agreement and in particular the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture have contributed to agricultural regions specialising in the production of specific commodity crops, thereby creating path dependencies in production systems; whereas this situation is not resilient to crises, in particular since it leaves food-importing countries vulnerable to price shocks;

W. whereas nature and biodiversity interact with agriculture, food and nutrition in a number of key areas by providing a variety of plants and animals from domesticated and wild sources;

X. whereas crop biodiversity is important as it allows individual farmers to adapt their agricultural planning to climate conditions and makes food systems naturally more resilient to climate change, pests and pathogens; whereas, at the same time, this nature-based approach contributes to enhancing biodiversity; whereas a number of innovative projects have been set up by some non-EU countries, such as the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa, which promotes agro-ecological projects; whereas EU support for sustainable food systems is one of the priorities of the multiannual indicative programmes adopted with around 70 partner countries under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) – Global Europe instrument for 2021-2027riod;

Y. whereas the availability of food varies due to economic shocks, climate, seasonality and disruptions; whereas the EU has to invest in the resilience of the agri-food sector and achieve a transition to more sustainable agriculture, which will strengthen long-term food security and could provide alternative sources of income for farmers; whereas efforts to combat global warming are required to ensure that agriculture is resilient and sustainable in the long term;

Z. whereas 63 % of people on low incomes worldwide are employed in agriculture and the overwhelming majority of them work on small and medium-sized farms whose economic sustainability is currently threatened;

AA. whereas according to World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) assessments, competition for the use of agricultural land and forests is increasing at the same pace as the growth in the world’s human population, which it is estimated will increase from 8 billion today to 9.5 billion by 2050;

AB. whereas the present and long-term food security of the European Union is directly linked to the ambitions of the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy; whereas the Farm to Fork Strategy outlined several important initiatives, including an EU contingency plan for ensuring the food supply and food security in times of crisis;

AC. whereas ambitions of the Green Deal could make the EU food system fairer, healthier and more environmentally-friendly, as EU and global food security depends on resilient and sustainable food systems in the short and long term; whereas the cumulative effect of implementing Green Deal-related legislation must be to preserve EU food production capacity, involve a smooth transition as regards both timing and requirements and must not increase dependence on imports from third countries, all of which could jeopardise food security in the EU; whereas it is vital to earmark a sufficient public funding for the crop and livestock sectors so as to protect them against adverse effects and prevent a decline in EU food production;

AD. whereas the implementation of the Green Deal should ensure a fair transition that guarantees adequate protection for farmers, especially small and medium-sized farmers, and sufficient amounts of safe and affordable farm products for consumers, in line with the EU’s long-term resilience and sustainability goals; whereas a sustainable livelihood for primary producers, whose income is still lagging behind, is central to the sustainable management of the current crises on the agricultural markets and to the lasting achievement of Green Deal targets;

AE. whereas almost 34 % of European farmers were 65 or older in 2016; whereas the fact that many farmers will retire in the near future is a matter of great concern in a number of Member States; whereas generational renewal is one of the biggest challenges for the continued existence of a resilient agricultural sector and resilient food systems in the EU; whereas, while being an EU priority, the efforts made through the CAP have so far proved insufficient to turn the tide and therefore a broader set of policy tools will be necessary;

AF. whereas young farmers in particular are innovative, especially in the use of new technologies; whereas, if properly remunerated, motivated and empowered, they are willing to make investments that may increase the agricultural sustainability, production capacity and competitiveness; whereas connectivity to high-capacity broadband networks is crucial for the modernisation of farms, increasing productivity and improving efficiency; whereas incentives are needed to promote IT training for farmers;

AG.  whereas the sharp and significant rise in global fertiliser and energy prices together with the sharp rise in other input costs is creating difficulties for farmers and threatening future crop production and thus food security and affordability; whereas in September 2022 the nitrogen fertiliser prices increased by 149 % compared to prices on the EU fertiliser market in the previous year; whereas in light of the current input and energy crisis the Commission must pay close attention to the economic situation of European farmers;

AH. whereas current geopolitical challenges prove that food security is not a permanent achievement, that European food production should be considered a strategic sector and should be preserved and strengthened in this respect; whereas the correct functioning of the European single market is a precondition for ensuring food security; whereas all tariff and non-tariff barriers in the agri-food sector should be reviewed; whereas stronger, vibrant, resilient and prosperous rural areas and communities are key for Europe’s food security and autonomy and the prosperity of the European Union;

AI. whereas agriculture is of great importance to the economy of the EU’s outermost regions, which often face a particularly fragile food security situation; whereas due to the nature of food security, the costs of reacting after the fact are higher than for intervening earlier on;

AJ. whereas if the EU wants to avert destabilisation, food poverty, famine, social and political unrest in other countries, the Union has to develop a vision for ensuring food and nutrition security in the EU and contributing to food security at the international level;

AK. whereas an estimated 20 % of all food produced is lost or wasted; whereas, more than 36 million people cannot afford a proper meal every other day; whereas the neediest population is increasing as a result of the current economic crisis;

AL. whereas food companies involved in logistics and wholesale distribution, large-scale industrial production and processing have been identified as crucial entities whose resilience needs to be strengthened as they provide essential services; whereas wholesale markets are entities of public interest that provide vast regional and inter-regional areas with a service which is essential to the supply and distribution to the final consumer of fresh and perishable agriculture and fisheries products and which guarantees their quality and compliance with health standards; whereas, moreover, wholesale markets have already proved their resilience and the vital role they play by ensuring the continuity of food supply and distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic;

AM. whereas only 11.9 % of all farm managers in the EU in 2020 were under 40 years of age, while 33.2 % of EU farm managers were aged 65 years and over; whereas the average age of European farmers has increased to 57; whereas in 2020 there were 5.3 million fewer farms in the EU than in 2005, a decrease of 37 %; whereas, the number of farm managers fell by 11.2 % between 2016 and 2020; whereas most EU Member States recorded an overall decline in the number of farm managers;

AN. whereas women play a vital role in rural areas; whereas, with a view to countering the predicted decline of these areas in the EU, it is vital for women to be granted recognition and visibility for their work on and co-ownership of farms; whereas actions and measures are needed to also close the gender gap in the agri-food sector, and it is imperative to involve women in the decision-making process at all levels when developing plans and policies;

Challenges to EU food security

1. Highlights the resilience of the agri-food sector during the recent crises, its ability to maintain the functioning of food supply chains and ensure food security in very difficult circumstances; notes that the COVID-19 pandemic and the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine have, nevertheless, exposed structural problems in the European agricultural sector and pose significant risks to Member States’ agricultural markets, especially those geographically closest to the war;

2. Highlights the need for the EU to strengthen its food security, strategic autonomy and the resilience of its farming sector and entire supply chain by reducing dependence on imports from outside the EU and by diversifying supply of critical production imports such as fertiliser, feed and raw materials; emphasises that supply chains must not become a geopolitical tool to destabilise and jeopardise food security at global level, especially in the most disadvantaged and vulnerable countries; stresses that short and regional supply chains should be improved in a sustainable manner;

3. Welcomes the adoption, due to the exceptional current circumstances, of temporary measures to support EU farmers, which should be maintained if the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues; stresses that these measures will allow farmers to sustainably increase EU agricultural production and guarantee the survival of farms during the 2022-23 harvest season, which will contribute to safeguarding food security; calls on the Commission to present without delay a holistic strategic plan to ensure food security for the EU, which could include the use of strategic food stocks; highlights the need to enhance stability in the face of unpredictable yields due to climate change and other factors, which can be worsened by speculation;

4. Calls on the Commission to pinpoint the sectors worst affected by the crisis and to take all necessary steps to allow urgent and more substantial support to be provided to them;

5. Stresses that food dependency aggravates the indebtedness of developing countries, thereby jeopardising achievements made in food security; calls on the Commission and the Member States to evaluate all the means available to avoid any defaults in the balance of payments of food importer countries, including debt relief under the auspices of international initiatives, direct funding and debt restructuring; reiterates the importance of grant-based financing, especially for least developed countries;

6. Welcomes the new Temporary Crisis Framework to help European producers cope with the effects of the war in Ukraine, but underlines the necessity of identifying new financial support to ensure European and third country food security; underlines the critical situation of the pig and milk market in some Member States and calls for direct and immediate financial support for these sectors;

7. Recalls the principle of policy coherence for development (PCD) enshrined in Article 208 TFEU, which specifies that ‘the Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries’, and the importance of ensuring coherence between all EU policies in order to guarantee the effectiveness of development cooperation for the benefit of developing countries and to increase the effectiveness of the EU’s commitment to global food security; insists that ensuring PCD for food security is important for contributing to safeguarding basic human rights and preventing humanitarian crises;

Sustainable and resilient agriculture

8. Points out the central importance of the agricultural and food sectors in the economy and in providing decent and sustainable job opportunities with safe working conditions in rural areas; notes that the rising costs of farm inputs adds to already high production costs and endanger farmers’ revenues; calls on the Commission to take the necessary measures to provide production planning security for farmers, as well as adequate financial resources and guarantees, making it possible to maintain and, if necessary, increase food production, strengthen sustainable farming systems, increase the diversity of EU food crops and increase product quality, while rejecting artificial, industrial imitations;

9. Calls on the Commission to ensure that farmland remains available primarily for sustainable the production of food and feed since this land contributes to biodiversity conservation while also contributing to food security and can also help reduce EU energy dependence; emphasises that this must be taken into account in all relevant legislative proposals, which must take into account both the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse biodiversity loss, in line with the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, and the need to ensure long-term food security and be in line with the CAP objectives; calls therefore on the Commission to ensure, in the implementation of the Green Deal, the diversity of agricultural models across the EU and to ensure that agricultural entrepreneurship and activity is maintained across the Union from a strategic point of view in terms of food security;

10. Calls on the Commission to take particular account of highly efficient farming models in areas with fertile agricultural land where food is produced sustainably; emphasises the need for specific implementation conditions for agriculture in urbanised areas where family farms face higher costs and other challenges;

11. Notes that due to increasing urbanisation and global population growth there has been an enormous reduction in the land available for agriculture, and that it is possible to produce significantly more on less land by means of sustainable intensification or urban farming;

12. Highlights the potential of vertical farming for food production which is independent of the weather and seasons, and which could attain higher yields with less water and pesticide use; calls for greater recognition of this practice in EU policy, as well as for initiatives to increase investments in research and development (R&D) in vertical farming;

13. Recalls that legislation in support of low-carbon agriculture must be easy to implement by the stakeholders who could help improve Europe’s food security by ensuring farmers receive better pay while enabling the agricultural sector to play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions; expresses regret, nonetheless, at the fact that the Commission’s proposal did not take account of emissions reduction on farms and only included sequestration;

14. Stresses the importance of the protection and promotion of local communities’ right to food security; deplores, in this context, the fact that land grabbing is rife in many countries, which undermines food sovereignty; calls for the EU to strongly support the prevention of land grabbing; stresses the importance of launching an inclusive process with the aim of guaranteeing the effective participation of civil society organisations and local communities in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies and actions related to land grabbing; calls for calls for the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) to be implemented in all projects that promote the protection of land rights, including in trade, and also for measures to ensure that projects do not endanger the land rights of small-scale farmers;

15. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the future EU framework law on sustainable food systems promotes social considerations and favourable food environments where healthy and sustainable food options are the most available, affordable, advertised and attractive, and that it promotes short supply chains and the consumption of local and seasonal products;

16. Points out that farm income in the EU is still less than half of  gross wages and salaries in the EU and that therefore economic stability should be moved up the agenda in view of inflationary trends;

17. Underlines that the value of food must also be understood as far more than a mere commodity but as a right for people that must be upheld, and that economic, social and environmental impacts and externalities must be better assessed, mitigated or leveraged as required;

18. Notes that the European Green Deal could be a milestone in the EU transition to a greener, more sustainable and resilient economy and agriculture; points out, however, that some of the proposed measures might have unintended effects, which have not yet been properly assessed and identified at farm level, in particular on the need to ensure food security in the long term and the viability of farms, especially small and medium-sized farms; calls on the Commission, therefore, to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impact of Green Deal legislative proposals on the EU farming sector in a holistic and systematic manner covering all dimensions of sustainability, in particular environmental, economic and social, with a view to ensuring food and nutrition security, the viability of farms and agricultural production in the Union; calls on the Commission to avoid a situation where European farmers face unfair competition from imports that do not meet our standards;

19. Insists on the need for proportionate measures, a just transition, a suitable timeframe for adaptation and a fair remuneration mechanism with a view to maintaining the competitiveness, productivity and social resilience of the EU agri-food sector;

20. Underlines that agri-environmental-climate practices, such as agroecology, agroforestry, integrated pest management (IPM), organic farming, precision and carbon farming, have the potential to address climate, biodiversity, environmental, economic and social challenges; stresses the importance of making efficient and well-targeted investments in mitigation, as well as in adaptation measures, in order to reduce risks and avoid significant costs in the long term;

21. Calls on the Commission to provide farmers with better tools that allow them to make an increasing contribution to the green transition currently under way; points out, against this background, that farmers need to be able to contribute (beyond self-consumption) to the production of energy, particularly renewable energy, in the EU, so as to give real impetus to the development of the circular economy and clean energy practice; believes, furthermore, that it is necessary to actually involve farmers and their representative organisations in designating suitable areas;

22. Stresses that food security also includes food safety and nutrition, and that it should be seen in a short-, medium- and long-term perspective;

23. Calls for account to be taken of the link between public health and biodiversity, in line with the ‘One Health’ approach;

24. Calls for the strict application of the One Health principle, which links human health, animal health and environmental issues, in all policies that affect the availability and accessibility of food; stresses that food safety must never be jeopardised and emphasises the importance of steering policies in a just and socio-economically fair way towards promoting nutritional, affordable food produced in a way that is sustainable for the long term, in line with biodiversity conservation and agro-ecological solutions; stresses the importance of proper and transparent labelling which facilitates healthy choices for consumers;

Generational renewal

25. Expresses its great concern over the decline in numbers of farms and farm managers in combination with the increased average age of European farmers; emphasises that in the long term, the key priority for ensuring European food security is generational renewal;

26. Calls on the Commission to develop an ambitious, comprehensive EU strategy on generational renewal in the agricultural sector, aiming to increase the number of young farmers, improve their competences and skills, in particular for fully harnessing the opportunities offered by smart farming and artificial intelligence; calls on the Commission and to include a ‘socioeconomic young farmers check’ in all upcoming agricultural, climate or environmental legislation;

27. Points out that a lack of access to land, insufficient remuneration which does not allow a decent living, better non-farm employment opportunities and an increasing regulatory burden are key factors explaining why more and more farmers feel compelled to leave the sector and why fewer people are inclined to take up farming; highlights the importance of ensuring that farmers have a predictable source of income and can make a living from their activity;

28. Draws attention to the need to boost investment, including digitalisation; calls on the Commission, in this context, to draw up in close cooperation with the Member States guidelines aiming to facilitate synergies between CAP funding strands and those of cohesion policy;

29. Calls on the Commission to communicate actions related to food security consistently and in coordinated manner; reminds the Commission to evaluate impacts on procedures and food security in its legislative proposal;

EU protein strategy

30. Calls on the Commission to present a comprehensive EU protein and feed strategy that must include effective measures to increase European production in the short, medium and long term; believes that this strategy should focus on domestic production in order to fully harness its potential and reduce dependence on imports from third countries; believes equally that the strategy must safeguard, or increase the farmers’ incomes from sustainable production;

31. Considers that the Commission should assess the potential of maximising the synergies with EU renewable energy production to increase the availability of high protein content feed; underlines that a high dependency on food and feed imports exposes populations to global market volatilities; stresses the need, due to the disruptions to global production chains and increased price volatility, to develop open strategic autonomy for the EU with the aim of ensuring access to key markets and reducing dependency on imports of critical goods such as plant-based protein sources and feed;

New cultivation methods

32. Recognises the importance of making crops more resilient to climate change and new pathogens, and of increasing and maintaining yields in the short and long term, in particular in view of the droughts and water shortages that are afflicting an increasing number of EU Member States;   stresses that this hinges on the restoration and conservation of biodiversity, soil health, the use of agro-ecological and organic methods, and underlines the importance of seed security and diversity; stresses that breeders and farmers need to have guaranteed access to quality seeds of plant varieties adapted to the pressures of climate change and low-input farming systems, including traditional and locally adapted varieties and heterogeneous material; stresses their need to have guaranteed access to the genetic resources needed for further breeding;

33. Points out that innovative and resource efficient cultivation practices in controlled, enclosed environments require a secure supply of growing media raw materials; believes that EU production and supply of these materials should be guaranteed;

34. Calls on the Commission to advocate for the targeted use and further development of new breeding techniques in agriculture; calls for the EU to speed up the adoption of legislation on the use of new breeding techniques in partnership with the Member States, while complying with the precautionary principle in order to sustainably increase yields and make crops more resilient to climate change and new pathogens, particularly in view of harmful organisms, droughts, floods, water shortages and other extreme weather conditions that are afflicting an increasing number of EU Member States; points out that new breeding techniques can promote sustainable agriculture, which is not possible without innovation;

35. Emphasises the importance of ensuring that the results of research are brought into farming practices as this would play an important part in achieving the goals of the European Green Deal, by developing a more sustainable agriculture, including by giving European farmers alternatives for reducing the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides;

36. Emphasises the importance of granting equal access to technological and scientific innovations that can improve the resistance of varieties and foster the diversity of genetic resources and food production systems, in compliance with EU food safety regulations;

37. Calls on the Commission to properly and better assess the effects of genetically modified organisms on health, biodiversity and social inclusion, and on farmers’ and consumers’ freedom of choice;

38. Calls for an comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental effects on the food system of patents on breeding processes, plant propagation material and parts thereof, including their potential to increase market concentration and monopolisation in the food chain, as well as their impact on the affordability and availability of food;

39. Believes that the targeted application of new genomic techniques and the approval of seeds using these techniques in the EU are important measures for making agriculture sustainable in the context of the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy;

40. Calls on the Commission to promote a Europe-wide dialogue on the opportunities offered by new breeding methods for tackling climate change and to educate the public about the differences between transgenic plants and new breeding methods;

41. Underlines the importance of seed security, diversity and in particular of promoting EU-grown plant proteins for producing locally-sourced food and feed with high nutritional value, while granting farmers access to quality seeds for plant varieties adapted to the pressures of climate change and low-input farming systems, including traditional and locally adapted varieties and heterogeneous material;

42. Calls for the EU and its Member States not to grant patents on biological material; calls for them to safeguard the freedom to operate and breeders’ exemption for varieties;

Artificial intelligence and precision crop management

43. Emphasises that digital technologies and precision crop management can provide forward-looking solutions to key challenges as they can allow the monitoring of deforestation, reduce the use of pesticides, fertilisers and water consumption in agriculture, increase yields and improve economic and environmental performance; points out that these technologies often involve high initial investment costs and that suitable solutions and additional funding for farmers are therefore needed to make them affordable and accessible for family and small-scale farms; highlights that these technologies should be accessible to small-scale farmers and that farmers always retain the rights on their data;

44. Calls on the Commission to step up the use of sustainable digital innovation to modernise EU agriculture, enabling farmers to achieve their full production potential and safeguard their incomes in the context of the green transition, including through optimised nutrient cycling, while also ensuring digital inclusion; stresses that these new technologies can also provide alternative solutions for European farmers which help them meet new requirements, particularly on pesticide and input reduction;

45. Highlights that space data and artificial intelligence technologies can be a source of valuable information for agriculture and the whole food chain, with technology enabling the movement of information from the producer to the consumer and vice versa, improving the operation of the entire value chain, reducing wastage and lowering logistics costs; points out, however, that currently it can still only be put to very limited use, as in most cases it is not freely available or is too complex to be used by farms or local authorities; calls for the increased use and availability of such data and technologies in order to help farmers through the green and digital transitions and ensure the resilience of EU agriculture; calls for the development of a secure and trusted data space to allow the farming sector to share and access data, which would improve economic and environmental performance in the field;

Logistics

46. Calls on the EU to recognise the strategic importance of logistics centres, in particular wholesale markets, as an integral and complementary part of primary agricultural production, without which farmers and transport companies would be unable to ensure consistent supply that meets the needs of consumers;

47. Calls for investment in infrastructure for more sustainable transport and storage facilities for fresh or other farm products, which also helps to reduce food waste and the sector’s environmental footprint; calls, in this context, on the EU to recognise regional differences, to stimulate local food production and to take into account sparsely populated areas and their needs;

Pesticides

48. Acknowledges the fact that new rules to reduce the risk and use of pesticides in the EU with the aim of having a fairer, healthier and more environmentally sound food system in line with the European Green Deal is an important societal demand;

49. Underlines that pollinator numbers have been declining throughout Europe and highlights the urgent need to protect bees and pollinators, in particular by promoting biological pest control and reducing the use and risk of pesticides; highlights, however, the fact that the Commission presented a legislative proposal with binding reduction targets for pesticides, including a ban on their use in so-called sensitive areas, without first offering farmers affordable and sufficiently effective pest control alternatives or taking into account the impact that the lack of tools to protect plants from harmful organisms might have on EU food security, its dependence on imports from third countries and ability to maintain proper plant health; highlights that this proposal does not take into account the regional specificities of European agriculture and does not include an overall impact assessment with quantified impacts on food production, the competitiveness of EU farming, the potential impact on farmers, dependencies on food imports, food prices and the spread of harmful organisms; reminds that restricting the use of pesticides in sensitive areas is already regulated in some Member States' legislation;

50. Stresses the key role of IPM in reducing pesticide dependency and urges the Member States to ensure its proper application; calls on the Commission to ensure that farmers are supported financially and by other means in shifting towards these practices;

51. Expresses concern at the Commission’s ambiguous definition of ‘sensitive areas’ and the way in which plant protection products are to be used in these areas, which may in practice lead to a decrease in agricultural production and hence to a drop in farmers’ incomes and, in the medium to long term, the disappearance of small and medium-sized crop farms, a heightened risk of farms being abandoned, an increase in unfair competition, a rise in food prices and a growth in imports from third countries, all of which directly affect food security;

52. Calls on the Commission to ensure the availability of sufficient effective plant protection products by speeding up authorisation and avoiding delays, to allow for an adequate toolbox against pests and diseases, and to ensure a science-based and harmonised approach to access to plant protection products throughout the EU;

53. Highlights that sufficient effective plant protection products will remain indispensable to protecting crops from new pests and diseases in order to avoid food production losses; expresses concern that further restrictions on the availability of plant protection products could undermine efforts made to implement the holistic approach of IPM;

54. Condemns the EU’s double standards on pesticides, which enable the export from the EU of hazardous substances which are themselves banned in the EU; calls on the Commission to ensure reciprocity in international trade agreements, particularly for agriculture and agricultural products, and to lead by example by ensuring that hazardous pesticides banned in the EU are not exported to partner countries, thus preventing residues of banned pesticides from being tolerated in food on the EU market and strengthening the enforcement mechanism of the trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters;

Training and knowledge sharing

55. Calls on the Commission to note the importance of active lifelong training of farmers and of support for new mitigation and agricultural practices in order to increase the attractiveness of the agricultural sector and rural areas; stresses that peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and transfer on issues such as land management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, agro-ecological practices and fair and resilient value chains could be a key factor in fostering more sustainable agri-food production while safeguarding agricultural productivity;

Food supply chain

56. Emphasises that the Commission must take additional measures to develop a more resilient, transparent and fairer food chain, in particular by strengthening the position of primary producers in the whole food supply chain; calls on the Member States and the Commission to ensure the effective enforcement of the Unfair Trading Practices Directive and to consider measures to combat food speculation; considers that producer organisations, which can include cooperatives, can help to strengthen the role of farmers as business owners in the food chain, adding value through innovative measures and optimising production costs by pooling services and purchases;

57. Stresses the need for full use of school schemes in order to ensure deprived children have access to food; highlights, furthermore, that public procurement programmes are useful for fostering public support for purchasing from smallholders and local producers when sourcing nutritious food for distribution, which can prevent food insecurity;

Women in rural areas

58. Stresses the importance of closing the gender gap in the agri-food sector by investing in women and promoting measures to attract more women to the sector; points to the need to support women’s entrepreneurship, employment and political representation; stresses the need to secure the inclusion of a gender perspective in the management of food security and ensure the participation of women in the decision-making processes on this;

59. Stresses that sustainability means balancing economic development, environmental impacts and social equality, including gender justice; highlights the adverse gender impacts of rising food insecurity, as women tend to cut back on their food consumption in times of food shortages. and women and girls account for 60 % of the undernourished; notes that 60 % of women living in Sub-Saharan Africa work in the agricultural sector and are highly vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate on their food and water security;

Fertiliser strategy

60. Emphasises that the fertilisers sector is essential to guaranteeing food security globally; welcomes the inclusion in the Commission communication on ensuring the availability and affordability of fertilisers (COM(2022)0590) of a strategy to help farmers cope with exceptionally high costs; considers, however, that while it contains certain valid medium and long-term policy recommendations, the communication fails to include measures to reduce dependency on increasingly costly external inputs, to set out concrete steps and to propose adequate immediate measures to support farmers in the current crisis, which could have very serious implications for food security; stresses in this regard the importance of the upcoming revision of the multiannual financial framework (MFF);

61. Calls on the Commission to set out a long-term vision for achieving strategic autonomy in fertilisers in order to incentivise the industry to reorient to more sustainable production methods; stresses that farming practices and alternative sources of nutrients can improve nutrient cycles and reduce dependence on chemical fertilisers, thereby reducing dependence on fertiliser imports; stresses in this context the need to further support research and innovation at EU level; emphasises that to ensure food production in the long term, resources that are readily available and produced within the EU, such as organic fertilisers, should be utilised and developed to the fullest;

62. Calls on the Commission to raise the limits for the use of nitrogen fertilisers derived from animal manure, e.g. RENURE (REcovered Nitrogen from manURE), digestate from bio-waste and any other effective and verified source; calls on the Commission, in the meantime, to allow a temporary derogation in order to bring down the cost of fertilisers, while seeking the introduction of long-term framework provisions to promote a circular economy on farms and reduce dependence on third country resources; points out that these longer-term measures should include the drawing up of farm intervention strategies, including factors relating to nutrient management plans, soil recovery, precision farming, organic farming and the use of leguminous crops in crop rotation schemes, and be accompanied by sufficient and fair transition periods;

63. Recognises that the fertiliser industry in the EU must have access to the raw materials needed to produce fertilisers within the EU and to ensure that prospects for EU harvests are not jeopardised;

64. Welcomes the Commission's intention to source key nutrients such as phosphate and potash from other origins and calls on it to speed up this process in order to anticipate future shortages;

Combating food losses and waste

65. Reiterates that around one third of all food produced worldwide is lost or wasted at some stage in the food supply chain from farm to fork; draws attention to the fact that food losses and food waste can be avoided if a holistic approach is implemented, including measures on the use of sustainable and recyclable packaging, and if animal diseases are prevented and managed; believes that food loss and waste can also be minimised if measures are taken to reduce the presence of pathogens in food, for example by ensuring proper hygiene and using improved technologies along the entire value chain;

66. Underlines the positive effects that supporting local production and the consumption of seasonal, local products from short and genuine food supply chains can have in reducing food waste; stresses the positive effects in this regard of consumer education on this; recalls that reducing food waste would make a major contribution to food security worldwide; calls on the Commission, therefore, to promote campaigns to raise awareness among producers, consumers and retailers of the importance of avoiding all types of food waste and of the economic, social and environmental repercussions of such waste; calls on the Commission to support the Member States in implementing effective food waste prevention programmes; stresses that Member States should also improve the measurement of food waste volumes and monitor food waste across the supply chain; calls on supermarkets, in particular, to urgently address the issue of preventable food waste through alternative options, for instance working with local community projects, such as food banks, to alleviate local food poverty and insecurity;

67. Considers it urgent for the necessary measures be taken to change the perception of ‘imperfect food products’ i.e. those with appearances that do not meet market standards even if this does not affect their taste or nutritional value, and for legislation on best before/preferred consumption dates on food labels to be amended;

68. Points out that the OIE estimates that around 20 % of global production of food is lost due to diseases in farmed animals and that reducing the incidence of these diseases is therefore one of the priorities to be considered in order to feed the world;

Biofuels

69. Calls on the Commission to develop a realistic biofuel production scenario that takes into account the EU’s protein strategy, since ceasing biofuel production would also eliminate protein-rich by-products, , thereby significantly exacerbating rather than helping to alleviate the food crisis; calls on the EU to prioritise food production over crop-based biofuel production;

70. Stresses the important role of farmers in the production of renewable energies in the EU and the need to eliminate current limits on self-consumption in order to allow a concrete contribution towards the development of best practices for circular economy and clean energy production;

Livestock

71. Calls on the Commission, Member States and economic actors to think strategically about the place of sustainable livestock farming in all European territories, taking into account, in particular, its role in the nitrogen cycle and the supply of organic amendments to crops, the best use of all types of agricultural soils and the promotion of a diversified and balanced diet; calls on the Commission and Member States to earmark sufficient public funding for all agricultural sectors in order to prevent adverse effects, including a decline in EU food production that could jeopardise food security;

Natural resources

72. Highlights the contribution to food security of more sustainable and efficient farming that preserves natural resources such as soil, water and forests and takes advantage of the opportunities offered by sustainable bioenergy and sustainable bioeconomy; calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure environmental, economic and social sustainability that strikes a balance and generates synergies when implementing legislation that concerns the agricultural sector;

73. Calls on the Commission to set up a specific programme to support Member States in improving water management in agriculture, water savings and water storage capacity by completing, modernising and optimising existing irrigation facilities and promoting new infrastructure, while complying with applicable environmental rules and improving soil water storage capacity, increasing the resilience of the agricultural production system and guaranteeing water supply; calls on the Commission to support the development, storage and use of treated wastewater for agriculture; calls for an accelerated implementation of cohesion policy and specific infrastructure development measures to combat extreme droughts in Europe;

74. Highlights how conflict, the climate and biodiversity crises and the pandemic have been turning points for world hunger, which had previously been declining, but now affects around 10 % of the world population; emphasises the need for continued efforts to resume and maintain Ukrainian grain exports, which should alleviate pressures in the Global South; calls on the Commission, in this context, to intensify its ‘food diplomacy’ efforts, also bearing in mind that today the Union is one of the largest global wheat producers and that food supply shortages in the Global South may make these third countries more vulnerable to the influence of authoritarian regimes;

75. Stresses that innovative digital technologies should not create new path dependencies, and emphasises that they should not reinforce farm concentration but should be available and accessible to small-scale farmers;

76. Believes that small-scale on-farm energy production installations have an enormous potential for energy production in rural areas and for increasing on-farm circularity by transforming the waste and residual streams of the farm, among others manure, into heat and electricity; emphasises that all barriers should be removed in order to encourage farmers to invest in these circular farm technologies, such as small-scale biogas plants; calls on the Commission to support the uptake of these innovative installations; stresses the need to make use of the residues of this process, for instance RENUREs, which it should be should be categorised and used as chemical fertilisers;

77. Considers that a contribution to food security could be also made through projects financed under the new REPowerEU chapter and encourages the uptake of projects that are beneficial for both energy and agriculture sectors;

78. Stresses the need to continue to support supply management through support for producer organisations and interbranch organisations;

79. Highlights the fact that European farmers meet the most stringent production requirements in the world and stresses that policies must not lead to the relocation of production or an unequal level playing field;

CAP and future of farmers

80. Reiterates that the CAP must continue to ensure food security while improving the response to new societal demands for sustainable food and healthier nutrition; highlights the importance of ensuring that farmers have a predictable source of income and can make a living from their activity; calls, in this context, on the Commission to support the CAP budget in the MFF so as to ensure both food security and green transitions while providing the necessary leverage for investments;

81. Calls on the Commission and Member States to combat the decline in the number of farms in rural areas and stresses the need to focus on support for the continuation of farming and for innovation; highlights the contribution of small farms to the EU’s sustainable food autonomy and security, in particular in local food systems, and stresses the importance of ensuring that small-scale producers are properly involved in decision-making processes when they are affected;

82. Calls on the Commission, when it draws up its communication on the future CAP, to consider making it a policy that will integrate food production and food safety in a coherent way, while at the same time ensuring its coherence with trade policy, environmental policy and humanitarian and international development policies;

83. Welcomes and supports the comments made by the Agriculture Commissioner, who has stated that the current CAP budget of less than 0.4 % of EU GDP is insufficient to deliver food security and that it should therefore be raised considerably in the next MFF at the latest; calls for the agricultural crisis reserve to be endowed with additional resources on top of current CAP funds and for the crisis reserve, if spent, to be replenished by other means than budgetary discipline, as this would mean paying farmers EU funds to manage the crisis with one hand while taking them (direct payments) back with the other;

84. Stresses the importance of identifying a more flexible way of applying CAP requirements, through the inclusion of advance payments to producers and by raising the level of these payments;

85. Stresses the need for European aid to reach the most vulnerable populations as quickly as possible and to adapt to the context of multidimensional crises, and the importance of a reinforced humanitarian approach; underlines the fact that in 2022 the Commission allocated over EUR 900 million to humanitarian food assistance, which was 60 % more than in 2021 and nearly 80 % more than in 2020;

86. Calls for the EU to ensure continuity between humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peace actions in order to tackle the deep-rooted causes of food insecurity and address the weaknesses of food systems in developing countries, in line with the nexus approach;

Resilient and diverse ecosystems as a driver of food security

87. Notes that the impact of climate change on agricultural production is becoming more evident, with crops and yields being negatively impacted by the increased frequency of droughts, floods and other extreme weather conditions;

88. Recalls that biodiversity degradation, especially of melliferous species, contributes to poorer agricultural yields, therefore undermining our food security; highlights that agriculture relies on resilient ecosystems, in particular functional soil ecosystems, and sufficient populations of pollinators and pest predators; underlines that increasing the climate resilience of European agriculture will enable the sector to remain competitive on the global market, providing employment and economic growth;

89. Welcomes the Commission’s comprehensive analysis of the drivers of food security; underlines its conclusions pointing to the urgency of transitioning to a sustainable food system capable of ensuring food security in both the short and long term;

International dimension of food security

90. Stresses the urgent need to bring EU trade policy into line with European standards for sustainable food so as not to the EU’s hamper competitiveness; notes that the EU plays a key role in the global trade in agricultural and food products and that it is fundamental for EU trade policy to also be in line with European sustainability goals;

91. Calls for food and agricultural products to be granted a dedicated chapter in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and agreements and for them not be considered as mere bargaining chips in these negotiations; expresses concern at the impact that the multiplication of free trade agreements without strong sustainability provisions has had on the European agricultural sector, which often faces unfair competition from third country producers who are subject to far less strict legislation; calls, furthermore, for greater reciprocity between European and third country producers on production standards;

92. Highlights that food security is a complex and multifaceted subject and it requires a coherent and integrated approach, taking account of current challenges from different perspectives: economic, trade, environmental, regional and international development;

93. Emphasises the EU’s responsibility not only in ensuring its own food supply, but also in contributing to fighting hunger in other disadvantaged parts of the world; underlines that the EU should support partner countries in setting high environmental objectives, as well as assist and guide them in this transition when needed; highlights that due consideration should be given to partners from developing countries and countries in a fragile food security situation for whom special and differentiated treatment could be required;

94. Considers that in the medium to long term, the EU, as a major global player in the agri-food sector, should advocate for higher global sustainability criteria and engage with international partners to jointly develop the benchmarks and international standards for resilient and sustainable food systems in line with WTO rules;

95. Stresses that humanitarian and development funding, as well as other measures, for addressing hunger and malnutrition in Europe and beyond need to be dramatically scaled up to properly address the global food security crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine;

96. Stresses that the Commission should develop a genuine integrated strategy with partner countries to encourage the development, strengthening and scaling up of local food production capacities, reduce the vulnerabilities due to international dependencies, especially in fertilisers and grains, while strengthening local and regional markets through infrastructure programmes, such as for market infrastructure, cooling systems and roads, and also for online farmers’ markets so to enhance in particular smallholder farmers’ resilience, in particular through the Global Gateway Initiative;

97. Deplores financial speculation on agricultural and food commodities, which is exacerbating price volatility and inflating wholesale prices; notes with concern that financial speculation on food commodities particularly affects developing countries and the most vulnerable populations, particularly in a context of war; calls on the Commission and European Securities and Markets Authority to evaluate the role and extent of speculation in the setting of commodities prices;

98. Underlines that transparent statistics on grain stocks from both public and private stakeholders are essential; calls on the Commission, Member States and food business operators to intensify their efforts to strengthen transparency rules on global agricultural prices and stocks, particularly by strengthening and extending the Agricultural Market Information System;

99. Points out that developing countries are the most vulnerable to rising global food and agricultural prices, which threaten the affordability of food; calls on the Commission and Member States to work on the FAO proposal aimed at establishing a food import financing facility to help low-income countries that are the most dependent on food imports to access global food markets; stresses, further, the need to develop trade rules, including those in the remit of the WTO, with the objective of helping low income countries to build stronger local food systems;

100. Stresses the need for greater focus on actions in agriculture to safeguard developing countries’ right to food security as a priority and enhance their capacity to meet the nutritional requirements of their populations; calls on the Commission to adopt a more systematic approach to determining and assessing the impact of EU policies on PCD objectives;

101. Welcomes the commitment by the EU and its Member States to allocate nearly EUR 8 billion in humanitarian and development aid for global food security in the 2021-2024 period, including a further EUR 600 million to help countries in the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) deal with the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; calls on the Commission to report to Parliament every year until 2024 on the goals, measures and results of this commitment;

102. Calls for the European Union and its Member States to increase development cooperation, humanitarian aid and food assistance, to scale up essential nutrition services and to adopt other short- and long-term sufficient measures in the most vulnerable countries and regions, particularly the 19 ‘hunger hotspots’ identified by the FAO and WFP, which continue to suffer from a lack of humanitarian financing for addressing hunger and malnutrition;

 Compromise 26

103. Calls on the Commission, Member States and European development financing institutions to create synergies between the NDICI – Global Europe instrument and the new Global Gateway strategy by using the Team Europe approach in order to coordinate investments in food security in partner countries; urges the Commission, in the mid-term review process of the NDICI - Global Europe instrument, to closely examine the amounts and projects associated with food security in partner countries and to fully assess the effectiveness of the measures supported;

104. Welcomes the launch of several multilateral food security initiatives; calls on the Commission and Member States, however, to play a leading role in coordinating the various initiatives to ensure an effective international commitment to global food security; calls on the EU and its Member States to support the establishment of an international food crisis preparedness and response mechanism under the aegis of the FAO and WFP with the aim of identifying risks and vulnerabilities, particularly in critical food infrastructure and supply chains, and improving the coordination of responses during crises; supports, furthermore, the development of strategic food reserves, given the role that stocks can play in buffering the impacts of food crises; calls for the role of the Global Network Against Food Crises to be strengthened;

105. Calls on the Commission to ensure that a significant proportion of the 30 % of NDICI-Global Europe funds assigned to combating climate change is allocated to projects which improve the resilience and adaptation of agriculture to climate change, including through slope stabilisation, land reclamation, reforestation, irrigation, watershed management and support for education efforts on this issue; insists that these investments should be in line with Agenda 2030, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity and take into account the FAO and CFS VGGT and the FAO and CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems;

106. Notes that according to the FAO, women make up 43 % of the global agricultural labour force, playing a vital role in rural areas, and yet face significant discrimination in land and livestock ownership, equal pay, participation in decision-making entities and access to credit and financial services; stresses that children and women are the most vulnerable to food insecurity;

107. Stresses that the global gender gap in food insecurity has widened in recent years, in particular due to prevalent gender inequality and discrimination in the countries concerned; calls, therefore, for actions and measures to be taken to support gender equality in the farming sector and points out that ensuring food security is one way of reducing inequalities between women and men; calls on the Commission and local and regional authorities in partner countries to ensure that women, including women’s organisations, are involved in drawing up programmes and implementing projects as well as in the decision-making processes for combating food insecurity;

108. Emphasises that the creation of viable jobs in agriculture is central to ensuring the long-term viability of this sector globally; recalls that investments in the smallholder sector yield the best returns in terms of poverty reduction and growth, enhancing the incomes of smallholder farmers, especially women smallholders;

109. Calls on the Commission to draw up a policy that will integrate food production and food safety in a coherent way, while at the same time ensuring its coherence with trade policy, environmental policy and humanitarian and international development policies;

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110. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and to the Commission.

 

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Ensuring food security should be a top priority. In view of this, the EU and the Member States should live up to their responsibility to provide for their citizens while, at the same time, contributing towards global food security.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of climate change and Russia’s brutal military aggression against Ukraine have laid bare the vulnerability of the EU’s food systems, sparked fears of a global food crisis and shown the importance of food self-sufficiency.

 

These events also make it clear that the EU needs more strategic autonomy. While this is true in areas such as defence and the supply of energy and medicines, it is even more important that the EU is able to produce and supply high-value agricultural commodities, thus ensuring food security at all times.

 

These aims are to be achieved by increasing capacity for sustainable agricultural production, improving distribution channels through EU supply chains and securing food stocks to prevent possible global food crises.

 

The Commission needs to use all the means at its disposal to ensure that the European single market continues to function smoothly in times of crisis and to remove all non-tariff barriers in the single market’s agri-food sector, including transport bottlenecks.

 

Logistics and transport are integral to the resilience of the food supply chain. The transport of fresh agricultural produce and the maintenance of production, supply and distribution chains must be assured at all times and must not be impeded by unjustified restrictive measures in the single market.

 

The Commission should therefore propose additional financial support for the industries hardest hit by price rises and take targeted measures to help farmers absorb the effects of skyrocketing fertiliser prices. Setting aside fertile land and indiscriminately banning the use of plant protection products is irresponsible in times of a supply crisis and climbing inflation.

 

Food security and the resilience of agriculture in the EU depend, to a large extent, on the availability of water resources, which are becoming scarcer in Europe. This problem should provide the EU with an additional incentive to focus on new technologies that promote sustainable agriculture – whether digital technologies, new breeding technologies or agroforestry systems; future challenges call for a comprehensive strategy combining both precision farming and resource protection.

 

Agriculture in the EU should continue to uphold sustainable production through optimum use of production factors and the harnessing of technical advancement, in order to deliver food security, reasonable prices for consumers and just economic growth in rural areas.

 

OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY (2.3.2023)

for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

on ensuring food security and long-term resilience of the EU agriculture

(2022/2183(INI))

Rapporteur for opinion: Anja Hazekamp

 

 

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

A. whereas nature and biodiversity are the foundations of food and, without strong political action to conserve and restore nature and biodiversity, including access to clean water and good conditions for pollinators, food security for all citizens and the right to food will be irreversibly endangered;

B. whereas the UN has identified the current global food system as the primary driver of the loss of biodiversity, wildlife and habitat; whereas in 2020, with food representing around 45 % of the environmental impacts of EU consumption, the EU food system alone transgresses several planetary boundaries, including in relation to climate change, particulate matter freshwater ecotoxicity and the biogeochemical flows of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; whereas this seriously compromises the long-term viability and resilience of the environmental foundation of the food system[6];

C. whereas nature and biodiversity interact with agriculture, food and nutrition on a number of key issues, by providing a variety of plants and animals from domesticated and wild sources;

D. whereas the climate and biodiversity crises are a direct threat to food production through extreme weather events (including exceptional droughts in southern Europe), rapidly changing farming conditions and by spurring conflicts over scarce resources;

E. whereas, according to the FAO, the concept of food security is not limited to the supply of food, but also encompasses the internationally recognised human right to food and stable affordable access to healthy and nutritious diets for all;

F. whereas Russia’s unprovoked and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine has resulted in a severe loss of lives and livelihoods as well as environmental and material damage, while also disrupting food security both in Ukraine and globally;

G. whereas the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine have exposed structural problems in EU food supply chains, while at the same time primary production is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss; whereas the cost of non-action hugely outweighs the costs related to transitioning to a resilient food system; whereas the EU needs to further cut emissions, scale up biodiversity conservation and agro-ecological solutions and move away from fossil-based fertilisers;

H. whereas past and forecast data on EU agricultural production from 2010 to 2020 show that the EU is relatively self-sufficient in commodities that can be produced in Europe’s climate zones and is not overly dependent on food imports which could potentially endanger the food supply; whereas there are still certain exceptions, particularly for the import of oilseeds and meal intended for animal feed;

I. whereas enhancing the resilience of the EU’s food systems to sustain food security requires a multi-dimensional, holistic and integrated approach in order to lower the pressure on natural resources; whereas this includes action aimed at reducing pollution and chemical inputs, closing nutrient cycles, fostering biodiversity, promoting the sustainable use of fresh and marine waters and soil health, reversing pollinator decline, as well as adapting effectively to climate change in such a way as to maintain vital ecosystem services;

J. whereas one major objective of the EU Green Deal, the Biodiversity Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy and its related policies is to transform the EU’s food system towards long-term resilience, healthy and short supply chain production ensuring food security[7];

K. whereas the problem of food waste continues, with approximately 20 % of all food produced is lost or wasted at different stages of the food chain in the EU; whereas at the same time, some 36.2 million people cannot afford a quality meal every second day[8]; whereas food waste causes 6 % of the EU’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;

L. whereas about 60-70 % of the EU’s agricultural soils are currently either losing organic carbon, receiving more nutrients than they need (which also affects water resources and natural habitats), eroding or compacting, suffering secondary salinisation, or some combination thereof[9];

M. whereas healthy soils are a prerequisite to ensure food security and long-term agricultural sustainability, but several threats to soil have been identified in the EU, such as climate change, sealing, compaction, erosion, floods and landslides, droughts, hydrogeological instability, the loss of soil organic matter, fires, storms, salinisation, contamination, the loss of soil biodiversity, acidification and desertification;

N. whereas the EU’s Soil Strategy for 2030 brings with it a clear necessity to ensure that soil conservation, sustainable use and restoration become the norm;

O. whereas more than 75 % of global food crop types, including fruits and vegetables, rely on animal pollination;

P. whereas most Europeans’ diets are not in line with the recommendations for healthy eating, including increased consumption of sustainably and regionally produced plants and plant-based foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes; whereas in spite of a slight decreasing trend, per capita meat consumption in many EU countries remains 2 to 4 times higher than the recommended intake[10]; whereas there is a need to address the overconsumption of meat and ultra-processed products, as well as products high in sugars, salt and fats[11];

Q. whereas well-designed agricultural and food policies can reduce the cost of sustainable and nutritious foods, and sustainably increase the availability and affordability of healthy diets, thus leaving no one behind[12];

R. whereas food choices are influenced by food environments, including food marketing and advertising, product placement and promotions, and labelling;

S. whereas the land used for livestock and animal feedstock production occupies nearly 80 % of global agricultural land, while producing less than 20 % of the world’s supply of calories; whereas the number of farm animals is growing in the EU and animal products represent 22 % of food exported by the EU; whereas 60 % of crop surfaces in the EU are dedicated to producing feed, and close to 30 million tonnes of soybeans and soybeans products are imported into the EU every year, leading to an extractive, high-carbon footprint and a fragile model linked to deforestation;

T. whereas there is a need to reconsider the EU’s land use for food security, as around 65 % of agricultural land is used for animal production, 55 % of cereals in the EU are used for feed and about 4 % for the production of biofuels[13];

U. whereas moving away from intensive livestock farming practices towards sustainable extensive agriculture will deliver a significant reduction in methane emissions from the agricultural sector and reduce the negative consequences for the environment, biodiversity, animal welfare and public health; whereas effectively reducing the number of farmed animals kept in the EU is an essential step in this process;

V. whereas not only consumer food prices, but also household incomes, are a crucial driver of food security; whereas, when faced with unprecedented high food prices, lower-income households, which spend a large share of their budget on food, may be pushed to choose more unhealthy and less diverse foods, making them particularly vulnerable to the risk of non-communicable diseases linked to poor diets;

W. whereas food imported from third countries is often subject to lower environmental, animal welfare and health standards compared to the EU;

X. whereas the dependence of the EU food production chain on imported feed continues to have numerous negative direct and indirect impacts on the environment and climate change both inside and outside the EU’s borders; whereas this vulnerability, together with rising input costs such as the cost of fertilisers and fossil fuel is increasing the cost of food production;

Y. whereas more than 161 million people in 42 countries suffered acute food shortages in September 2021, almost every third person in the world has no access to appropriate foods and some 3 billion people find the costs of a healthy diet unattainably high; whereas a danger exists that these figures will continue to rise and, as a result, sustainable development by 2030 will be even less attainable;

Z. whereas the EU’s food security must not undermine third countries’ food security and food sovereignty; whereas there is an urgent need for a more fair and equal distribution of food and a sharp reduction in avoidable food waste;

AA. whereas the abandonment of family farms within the EU has been on the rise in recent years, the number of young farmers is declining and generational renewal in the agricultural sector is under threat;

1. Supports the just and urgent transition to agro-ecological practices and organic farming, as well as agroforestry, that enable the EU to tackle its dependence on imports of fertilisers and fossil fuels in particular; reiterates its full support for the European Green Deal and the ambitions, targets and goals of its subsequent communications, specifically the farm to fork, biodiversity, chemicals, zero-pollution and soil strategies; welcomes their published and announced legislative proposals, including those related to the reduction in the use of pesticides and artificial fertilisers and their associated risks, which will be crucial to safeguarding the long-term sustainability of food production by, for example, protecting pollinators;

2. Highlights that the two major medium- to long-term threats to farming and food production are climate change and ecosystem collapse; notes that the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report forecasts acute future problems for agriculture, the ecosystem stability, water availability and food security;

3. Underlines that sustainable farming which preserves natural resources is a prerequisite for long-term food security in the EU and globally; encourages the transformation of the food production sector via the use of techniques, behaviours and practices that restore the soils and enhance ecosystem services such as regenerative approaches as means to increase fertility, soil health, water availability, yields and, ultimately, nutrition and food safety; highlights the positive effects of extensive farming and diverse landscapes and habitats on the prevention of pest damage, the restoration of biodiversity, the stability of crop production and the stimulation of agricultural productivity in the long run and expresses strong support for urban farming, including the use of fruit trees;

4. Stresses the need for the EU to reduce its dependence on imports from outside the EU, moving towards local food production, to support the shift to sustainable healthy plant-rich diets and to rebalance the proportion of EU land used for the production of animal feed with that for producing food for human consumption;

5. Points out that the transition to less intensive forms of agriculture and the shortening of supply chains will bring about savings in input costs, whether for mineral fertilisers or fossil fuels, where the EU is still largely dependent on imports from authoritarian regimes, and will create synergies and co-benefits such as reduced GHG emissions;

6. Reiterates that the Green Deal is as a catalyst for an inclusive and non-discriminatory societal transition with climate neutrality, protection of the environment, sustainable resource use and the health and quality of life of citizens within planetary boundaries as key objectives and believes that the Green Deal will contribute to greater food security; recalls that any short-term or interim solutions always run the risk of swapping one dependence for another in the long term; underlines that reducing the environmental and climate footprint of the EU’s food system, including in accordance with the Global Methane Pledge, strengthening the food system’s resilience, ensuring food security in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss, leading a global transition towards competitive sustainability from farm to fork and tapping into new sustainable opportunities, is paramount in this global effort to achieve food security and resilience in food systems;

7. Underlines that regenerative approaches such as agroecology, agroforestry, organic farming and precision and carbon farming offer the potential to address climate, biodiversity, environmental, economic and social challenges; highlights the capacity of these practices to limit soil degradation and increase carbon sequestration, if the permanence of carbon storage is addressed; stresses that while ensuring the sustainable production of goods and provision of ecosystem services, these practices have the capacity to cut the costs of food production by reducing the use of pesticides, fertilisers, antimicrobials and the consumption of gas; highlights further the capabilities of these practices to prompt healthier, quality food production, to provide a premium for farmers, as well as the stability and diversification of income and long-term sustainable, resilient and future-proof production oriented towards small and medium-sized farms;

8. Highlights the potential of vertical farming for food production which is independent of the weather and seasons, and which could attain higher yields with less water and pesticide use; calls for greater recognition of this practice in EU policy, as well as for initiatives to increase investments in R&D for vertical farming;

9. Stresses that food security also includes the aspects of food safety and nutrition, and should be seen in a short-, medium- and long-term perspective;

10. Welcomes the Commission’s comprehensive analysis of the drivers of food security; underlines its conclusions pointing at the urgency of transitioning to a sustainable food system capable of ensuring food security in both the short and the long term;

11. Stresses the need for adoption of integrated and systems-oriented solutions to alleviate trade-offs between mitigation and adaptation measures that will reinforce long-term resilience;

12. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal of 22 June 2022 for a new regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 (COM(2022)0305), including EU-wide targets to reduce the use of, and risk from, chemical pesticides by 2030 and, in particular, the use of the most hazardous pesticides, in line with the EU’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies; highlights that this proposal should draw up a long-term (post-2030) vision and reduce the chemical pesticide dependency of European agriculture; notes that reducing the EU’s pesticide dependency is a driver of food security and self-sufficiency;

13. Calls on the Commission to uphold its commitment and table a legislative proposal to prohibit the export of all pesticides and other hazardous chemicals banned at EU level, to put an end to double standards and to ensure a level playing field for the industry and the harmonisation of different Member States’ national legislation;

14. Underlines the dependence of agricultural production on pollinators; regrets, therefore, that guidance documents to assess the risk of plant protection products and of biocides to pollinators are still lacking; calls on the Commission and the Member States to pay due attention to the successful European citizens’ initiative ‘Save Bees and Farmers!’ calling for the phasing out of synthetic pesticides in EU agriculture by 80 % by 2030, starting with the most hazardous, and with the aim of becoming free of synthetic pesticides by 2035 and restoring natural ecosystems in agricultural areas[14];

15. Agrees that in order to achieve the goals of pesticide reduction and to reduce dependence on imports, organic alternatives need to be made available on the market in the short term; underlines that in the medium and long term, the progressive reduction in pesticide use will eliminate negative effects on the health of people, animals and ecosystems and will improve the stability dimension of food security, while preventing further environmental degradation;

16. Calls for an ambitious Soil Health Law aimed at the restoration of soil and its microbiota, providing for the accumulation of the organic carbon lost, among other factors, as a result of an excess of nutrients, as well as of erosion and salinisation, in order to enhance plants’ natural defence system from abiotic and biotic stresses; underlines that any delays to the Soil Health Law envisaged for the second quarter of 2023 at the latest would be detrimental, as the lack of a comprehensive EU legislative framework for soil protection is leading to the irreversible loss of soil in Europe; stresses the need to achieve good soil health;

17. Calls on the Commission to propose, as soon as possible, binding targets for reducing food waste throughout the food chain by at least 50 % by 2030, based on a common methodology and calls for measures to help achieve them, including a large-scale campaign to raise awareness among consumers, the harmonisation of date labelling, more consumer education and the prohibition of the destruction of unsold food; underlines the positive effects that short food supply chains can have in reducing food waste;

18. Calls on the Commission to present an ambitious proposal for an EU sustainable food system framework law establishing a clear and measurable path towards food system sustainability in the EU; highlights that this law should ensure coherence between all existing and future food-related policies, including the EU’s external policies, and shift consumption towards sustainable, more balanced and healthy diets, promoting favourable food environments, increasing the affordability and availability of sustainable and healthy food, while ensuring that the prices paid for sustainable production and the incomes earned by farmers are fair; calls on the Commission to use this draft law to strengthen responsibility and engagement in the entire food chain in the transition towards sustainability, to recognise animal welfare as a requirement for a sustainable food system and to encourage a shift towards animal husbandry which takes account of planetary boundaries and ensures animal health and welfare;

19. Calls for the strict application of the One Health principle to link human health, animal health and environmental issues in all policies that affect the availability and accessibility of food; stresses that food safety must never be jeopardised and emphasises the importance of steering policies in a just and socio-economically fair way towards promoting nutritional, affordable and long-term sustainably produced food in line with biodiversity conservation and agro-ecological solutions, and of proper and transparent labelling to facilitate healthy choices by the consumer;

20. Reiterates the 50 % reduction target for the usages of antimicrobials in agriculture and asks the Commission to evaluate how Member States have implemented the Veterinary Medicinal Products Package, particularly the ban on the preventive use of antibiotics in groups of animals, the ban on the preventive use of antimicrobials via medicated feed and the import ban on meat that has been treated with antimicrobials for growth promotion;

21. Recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of the interconnectivity of human, animal and planetary health, and expresses its deep concern over the spillover of zoonotic diseases from animals kept in close proximity to each other, as 70 % of emerging diseases and pandemics have an animal origin[15];

22. Highlights that the availability of plant proteins, if consumed directly, is more than sufficient to meet global protein needs; acknowledges the positive impact that more plant-based diets have on humans, animals, the planet and food security; stresses that the production and market uptake of plant-based proteins should be better supported, together with the production of plant proteins in Europe, in order to reinforce food security, recognising the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles, as well as of the sustainable transformation of our food systems;

23. Reiterates the need to reduce agricultural emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, in particular in the feed and livestock sectors, as well as the organic and mineral fertiliser sector, without further compromising animal welfare and while ensuring no deterioration in soil fertility, inter alia by addressing livestock densities in the EU and embedded land use emissions from imported feed and food; reiterates its calls for a coherent policy mix to enable a transition towards more sustainable practices such as pasture-based extensive livestock production as part of a mixed farming system which takes account of the carrying capacity of the local environment and supports biodiversity; calls, in this context, on the Commission to publish a study on the carrying capacity of European farm lands with regard to optimal herd sizes, with a view to making the transition towards a better-balanced approach between EU land used for production of animal feed with that for producing human food;

24. Highlights that fertiliser use constitutes an estimated 50 % of energy use in agriculture, when considering both direct and indirect use; stresses that rising energy prices have a knock-on effect on rising synthetic fertiliser prices, which means that advice on finding agronomic alternatives can be the most cost-effective policy option[16]; highlights the proven ability of organic agriculture to produce food without the use of synthetic fertilisers, reiterates the objective of at least 25 % of the EU’s agricultural land under organic farming by 2030;

25. Calls for the EU’s Integrated Nutrient Management Plan to address excessive nutrient loss and to close nutrient cycles in all their complexity by reducing external inputs and through the proper implementation and enforcement of current legislation, while achieving self-sufficiency and advancement in alternatives to chemical fertilisers;

26. Notes the costs to human health of excess ammonia from fertilisers and livestock waste, responsible for 430 000 premature deaths each year in the EU[17], as well as the costs associated with crop losses;

27. Recalls the importance of a high-quality animal welfare system, including in transport and slaughter; welcomes the planned revision of the EU’s animal welfare legislation, including updating existing animal welfare legislation and the need for the development, implementation and enforcement of strengthened and new, species-specific legislation, as there is an overall lack of effective implementation and enforcement of the current legislation; underlines the importance of taking into account the latest advances in animal welfare science and responding to public, political and market demands for higher animal welfare standards and for the updating of livestock housing systems and of production practices;

28. Is concerned that many of the health and environmental costs associated with food production and consumption have not been internalised; asks the Commission to assess options to incorporate the costs of the externalities of production into food products; encourages the Commission to explore ways to integrate True Cost Accounting considerations into food policymaking, and encourages the Member States to bolster food affordability and sustainable and healthy consumption patterns, inter alia by providing fiscal incentives, such as a reduction of VAT on fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables, and adjusted sugar taxes;

29. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the future EU framework law on sustainable food systems promotes favourable food environments and social considerations, where healthy and sustainable food options are the most available, affordable, advertised and attractive, and promotes short supply chains and the consumption of local and seasonal products;

30. Stresses, in parallel, the need for adequate social protection measures and safety nets to ensure access to healthy diets for all, with special attention to low-income households that are not able to access diverse, healthy, and nutritious food owing to the expected persistence of high food and energy prices;

31. Reiterates the need to address the overconsumption of meat, and ultra-processed products, as well as products high in sugars, salt and fats[18];

32. Emphasises that biofuel production for the EU market, despite its potential, may pose a risk not only for food security but also to human and land rights, and to forests, biodiversity, soil health and market stability in the EU and in third countries; highlights the high indirect land use change impact of crop-based biofuels owing, notably, to displacement effects, also linked to human rights abuses, land grabbing and global hunger in third countries; believes that this is why the EU needs to devote more attention to this issue; calls on the Commission and the Member States to rapidly put in place temporary suspension measures for the production and blending of crop-based biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels in order to secure additional food supplies, stabilise global food commodity markets and phase out crop-based biofuels, not including advanced biofuels, by 2030;

33. Denounces the focus on short-term policy measures, for example on fertilisers; underlines that subsidising fossil fuel use for the production of artificial fertilisers must be phased out swiftly;

34. Notes that the war in Ukraine has further exposed the fact that food production in the EU is dependent on inputs from outside the Union; emphasises, in this context, that in order to ensure food production in the long term, practices and resources that are readily available and produced within the EU should be utilised and developed, such as crop rotation, compost, sustainable organic fertilisers and organic plant protection products, within the limits of the Nitrates Directive;

35. Reiterates its position on new genomic breeding techniques, which highlights the precautionary principle and the need to ensure transparency and freedom of choice for farmers, processors and consumers, and stresses that the upcoming policy action should include risk assessments and a comprehensive overview and assessment of the options for traceability and labelling with a view to achieving proper regulatory oversight and providing consumers with relevant information, including for products from third countries, in order to ensure a level playing field;

36. Calls on the Commission to properly and better assess the effects of genetically modified organisms on health, biodiversity and social inclusion, and on farmers’ and consumers’ freedom of choice;

37. Calls for an comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic and environmental effects of patents on breeding processes and plant propagation material and parts thereof on the food system, including the potential for increased market concentration and monopolisation in the food chain, as well as on the affordability and availability of food;

38. Emphasises that barrier-free access for plant material is essential for the innovative capacity of the European plant breeding sector; calls for the EU and the Member States to carefully evaluate the effects on food security of patents on biological material and essential biological processes, and to safeguard the freedom to operate and the breeders’ exemption for varieties;

39. Recognises the importance of making crops more resilient to climate change and new pathogens, to increase and maintain yields in the short and long term, in particular in view of the droughts and water shortages that are afflicting an increasing number of EU Member States; stresses that this hinges on the restoration and conservation of biodiversity, soil health, the application of agro-ecological and organic methods, and underlines the importance of seed security and diversity; stresses that breeders and farmers need to have guaranteed access to quality seeds of plant varieties adapted to the pressures of climate change and low-input farming systems, including traditional and locally adapted varieties and heterogeneous material, and to the genetic resources needed for further breeding;

40. Underlines the importance of promoting EU-grown plant proteins to deliver regionally sourced food and feed stuffs with high nutritional value;

41. Calls on the Commission to promote and support innovation and research, training and advisory and the upscaling of innovative projects for socially, economically and environmentally sustainable solutions to food insecurity that also tackle the climate and biodiversity impact of the agricultural sector and further investments that can accelerate the green transition and secure sustainability and autonomy, both in the EU and in developing countries;

42. Stresses that innovative digital technologies should not create new path dependencies, and emphasises that they should not reinforce farm concentration but should be available and accessible for small-scale farmers;

43. Highlights how conflict, the climate and biodiversity crises and the pandemic have been turning points for world hunger, which had previously been on the decline, but now affects around 10 % of the world population; emphasises the need for continued efforts to resume and to maintain Ukrainian grain exports which should alleviate pressures in the Global South; calls on the Commission, in this context, to intensify its efforts in ‘food diplomacy’, also bearing in mind that the Union is one of the most important global producers of wheat today and that food supply shortages in the Global South may make these third countries more vulnerable to the influence of authoritarian regimes;

44. Emphasises that food availability is not at risk in the EU today, as the EU is largely self-sufficient in key agricultural products and achieves a stable overall food export surplus[19]; notes with great concern, however, that owing to high inflation and, in particular, the rising food prices, food affordability represents a real problem for less affluent households; emphasises that, while the negative impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security has been significant, the existing systemic failures in the food system have been exposed, and sufficient short- and longer-term measures need to be adopted to address hunger and malnutrition in Europe and beyond;

45. Considers that the same agricultural production standards should apply to imported products as those applying to products produced in the EU, and calls for the inclusion of appropriate clauses to that effect in free trade agreements;

46. Stresses that sustainability refers to balancing economic development, environmental impacts and social equality, including gender justice; highlights the adverse gender impacts of rising food insecurity, as women tend to cut back on their food consumption in times of food shortage and women and girls account for 60 % of the undernourished; notes that 60 % of women living in Africa south of the Sahara work in the agricultural sector and are highly vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate for their food and water security;

47. Is concerned about the EU agriculture sector’s inherent social equality and gendered impact, as, among other factors, the trend of people facing moderate or severe food insecurity in the EU has been rising since 2015 and women, children and marginalised groups are the most affected; regrets the fact that social fairness and gender equality and its intersectional dimensions do not feature in a more proactive and binding way in the CAP and other related policies to strengthen the social sustainability and resilience of the EU’s agriculture and food systems; emphasises that higher wages, pensions and good social welfare systems help with easing the problem of the affordability of food;

48. Is alarmed that the current EU agriculture system requires large numbers of precarious, low-wage, flexible, seasonal and undeclared workers, often women, with the exploitation and abuse of workers being common, owing to the immense cost pressures on producers, undermining the EU’s own social and labour standards;

49. Calls for a strategy to regionalise the supply chain of the most important commodities, in light of the current geopolitical tensions, while also supporting food autonomy in third countries, and to ensure the supply of local and sustainable plant proteins; reiterates the strategic importance of local production and short supply chains;

50. Notes that the Farm to Fork Strategy aims to preserve the affordability of food, while generating fairer economic returns in the supply chain, so that, ultimately, the most sustainable food also becomes the most affordable, fostering the competitiveness of the EU supply sector, promoting fair trade and creating new business opportunities, while ensuring the integrity of the single market and occupational health and safety; highlights the need to assess the whole supply chain in terms of resilience and transparency in order to strengthen primary producers’ as well as consumers’ position in the value chain; calls on the Commission to effectively address the imbalance in upstream and downstream power in the food supply chains, including in the upcoming legal proposals;

51. Underscores the need for independent policymaking based on science, facts, data and values;

52. Considers it necessary to eliminate harmful practices under the CAP and the common fisheries policy and regrets that the EUR 100 billion of CAP funds attributed during 2014-2020 to climate action had little impact on agricultural GHG emissions, which have not changed significantly since 2010[20]; calls on the Commission to develop a roadmap to reduce methane emissions from the agricultural sector by 2030 in line with the Global Methane Pledge;

53. Notes the enormous cost of inaction[21] and the continued deterioration of the functional biodiversity needed to maintain yields and fertility and agricultural productivity; underlines, therefore, the need to improve the resilience of agro-ecosystems by increasing biological, genetic and structural diversity to maintain yields and spread the risk of crop failure; notes, for example, that drought costs the Union EUR 9 billion every year and this is forecast to increase as climate change and ecological collapse kick in; notes that the UN and FAO clearly warn that delaying the transition to sustainable, resilient food systems will cost society and farmers even more, the longer it is delayed;

54. Notes that Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/1317 of 27 July 2022[22] providing for derogations as regards the application of the standards for good agricultural and environmental conditions of land (GAEC standards) 7, on crop rotation in arable land, and 8, on minimum share of agricultural area devoted to non-productive areas or features, for claim year 2023 was issued without any accompanying impact assessments of the environmental consequences of this act, which is in breach of the better law-making principle; stresses the need to ensure that these derogations do not lead to long-term ecological damage;

55. Stresses the importance of maintaining the viability of farms, particularly small ones, and creating a strong position for farmers in food supply chains, which would help them to combat unfair trading practices;

56. Stresses that the EU’s agricultural policy should not favour the intensification of farming; encourages, therefore, securing sustainable livelihoods in particular for small and family farms, and particularly for women farmers, as well as farm labour; deplores the negative impact on the environment;

57. Emphasises the need for providing farmers with adequate support schemes to ensure a just transition and to finance adaptation and mitigation measures, as well as the regeneration of degraded farmlands, which will help farmers restore depleted soils and the ecosystem, improving food production and farmers’ livelihoods; calls on the Member States to promote financial support under the CAP’s eco-schemes to facilitate the transition and enable synergies between environmental performance and food production, and supports the introduction of public payments for ecosystem services of agro-ecological and agro-forestry practices;

58. Calls for targeted support schemes to educate and raise the awareness of farmers, along with specialised training programmes in alternative agricultural practices designed for farmers to speed up the transformation to more sustainable and resilient food production methods;

59. Stresses the need for the full use of school schemes in order to ensure deprived children have access to food; highlights, furthermore, the utility of public procurement programmes in fostering public support for purchasing from smallholders and local producers when sourcing nutritious food for distribution, to guard against food insecurity;

60. Emphasises that sufficient short- and longer-term measures need to be adopted to address hunger and malnutrition in Europe and beyond; highlights the need to develop appropriate tools to address future food crises in a sustainable way, compatible with our objectives on climate and biodiversity.

ANNEX: LIST OF ENTITIES OR PERSONS
FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The following list is drawn up on a purely voluntary basis under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur. The rapporteur has received input from the following entities in the preparation of the draft report:

Entity and/or person
Food Policy Coalition
Test Biotech

 

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted	1.3.2023
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	53 18 7
Members present for the final vote	Maria Arena, Bartosz Arłukowicz, Margrete Auken, Simona Baldassarre, Marek Paweł Balt, Traian Băsescu, Aurélia Beigneux, Hildegard Bentele, Sergio Berlato, Alexander Bernhuber, Michael Bloss, Delara Burkhardt, Sara Cerdas, Mohammed Chahim, Tudor Ciuhodaru, Maria Angela Danzì, Esther de Lange, Christian Doleschal, Bas Eickhout, Cyrus Engerer, Agnès Evren, Heléne Fritzon, Malte Gallée, Gianna Gancia, Andreas Glück, Catherine Griset, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Anja Hazekamp, Martin Hojsík, Jan Huitema, Yannick Jadot, Adam Jarubas, Ewa Kopacz, Joanna Kopcińska, Peter Liese, Sylvia Limmer, Javi López, César Luena, Liudas Mažylis, Marina Mesure, Tilly Metz, Dolors Montserrat, Alessandra Moretti, Ville Niinistö, Ljudmila Novak, Grace O’Sullivan, Jutta Paulus, Stanislav Polčák, Jessica Polfjärd, Erik Poulsen, Luisa Regimenti, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Christine Schneider, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, Maria Spyraki, Nicolae Ştefănuță, Nils Torvalds, Edina Tóth, Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, Achille Variati, Petar Vitanov, Alexandr Vondra, Mick Wallace, Pernille Weiss, Emma Wiesner, Michal Wiezik, Anna Zalewska
Substitutes present for the final vote	Beatrice Covassi, Romana Jerković, Stelios Kympouropoulos, Marisa Matias, Dan-Ştefan Motreanu, Idoia Villanueva Ruiz
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote	Marie Dauchy, Luke Ming Flanagan, Marina Kaljurand, Alice Kuhnke, Katarína Roth Neveďalová

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

53	+
NI	Maria Angela Danzì
PPE	Bartosz Arłukowicz, Traian Băsescu, Agnès Evren, Adam Jarubas, Ewa Kopacz, Stelios Kympouropoulos, Peter Liese, Liudas Mažylis, Dolors Montserrat, Dan-Ştefan Motreanu, Ljudmila Novak, Stanislav Polčák, Jessica Polfjärd, Luisa Regimenti, Maria Spyraki
Renew	Martin Hojsík, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Nicolae Ştefănuță, Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, Michal Wiezik
S&D	Maria Arena, Marek Paweł Balt, Delara Burkhardt, Sara Cerdas, Mohammed Chahim, Beatrice Covassi, Cyrus Engerer, Heléne Fritzon, Romana Jerković, Marina Kaljurand, Javi López, César Luena, Alessandra Moretti, Katarína Roth Neveďalová, Achille Variati, Petar Vitanov
The Left	Luke Ming Flanagan, Anja Hazekamp, Marisa Matias, Marina Mesure, Idoia Villanueva Ruiz, Mick Wallace
Verts/ALE	Margrete Auken, Michael Bloss, Bas Eickhout, Malte Gallée, Yannick Jadot, Alice Kuhnke, Tilly Metz, Ville Niinistö, Grace O’Sullivan, Jutta Paulus

 

18	-
ECR	Sergio Berlato, Joanna Kopcińska, Alexandr Vondra, Anna Zalewska
ID	Simona Baldassarre, Aurélia Beigneux, Marie Dauchy, Gianna Gancia, Catherine Griset, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Sylvia Limmer
NI	Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, Edina Tóth
PPE	Alexander Bernhuber
Renew	Jan Huitema, Erik Poulsen, Nils Torvalds, Emma Wiesner

 

7	0
PPE	Hildegard Bentele, Christian Doleschal, Esther de Lange, Christine Schneider, Pernille Weiss
Renew	Andreas Glück
S&D	Tudor Ciuhodaru

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 

 

OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT (1.3.2023)

for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

on the objective of ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture

(2022/2183(INI))

Rapporteur for opinion: Stéphane Bijoux

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

– having regard to Article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which states, in part, that the Union must take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries,

– having regard to the joint statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission of 30 June 2017 on ‘The new European consensus on development’[23],

– having regard to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/947 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 June 2021 establishing the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe, amending and repealing Decision No 466/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Regulation (EU) 2017/1601 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 480/2009[24],

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007[25],

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of 30 June 2021 establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulations (EC) No 401/2009 and (EU) 2018/1999 (‘European Climate Law’)[26],

– having regard to the reports entitled ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022’ and ‘Hunger Hotspots – FAO/WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity – October 2022 to January 2023 Outlook’ and the information note entitled ‘The importance of Ukraine and the Russian Federation for global agricultural markets and the risks associated with the current conflict’ of the Food and Agriculture FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP),

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Development on Policy Coherence for Development (2021/2164(INI)),

– having regard to the proposal for a regulation of 22 June 2022 on the sustainable use of plant protection products and amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 (COM(2022)0305),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 20 May 2020 entitled ‘A Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system’ (COM(2020)0381),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 entitled ‘The European Green Deal’ (COM(2019)0640),

– having regard to the UN Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, of 30 December 2021 entitled ‘Seeds, right to life and farmers’ rights’ (A/HRC/49/43),

– having regard to the UN Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, of 24 December 2020 entitled ‘Right to food’ (A/HRC/46/33),

– having regard to the UN resolution of 28 September 2018 on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (A/HRC/RES/39/12),

– having regard to the UN resolution of 2 October 2007 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/RES/61/295),

– having regard to the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2009),

– having regard to Article 27(3)(b) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as Amended by the 2005 Protocol Amending the TRIPS Agreement,

– having regard to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, an international legal instrument for ‘the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources’,

A. whereas, according to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security, a person is considered ‘food secure’ when they have the physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life; whereas, according to the FAO, there are four dimensions of food security: availability, accessibility, utilisation and stability;

B. whereas in 2021, according to the FAO, hunger affected 425 million people in Asia, 278 million in Africa and 56.5 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Africa being the region where the prevalence of undernourishment is highest while Africa’s food production system is dominated by smallholder farmers and farmer-led production; whereas food security is closely linked to access to water and sanitation and whereas, according to the United Nations, 2.2 billion people around the world still do not have access to drinking water;

C. whereas developing countries are susceptible to food insecurity particularly when they are dependent on food imports; whereas recent crises have shown that global supply chains can be seriously disrupted; whereas food import dependencies have also arisen from changing dietary patterns and in particular a shift towards a small number of staple crops, namely wheat, rice and maize;

D. whereas, according to the FAO, at the beginning of 2022 Ukraine and Russia accounted for nearly 30 % of global wheat and maize exports, while Russia was the world’s top exporter of fertilisers, and whereas more than 30 countries, mainly in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, depend on Ukraine and Russia for over 30 % of their wheat import needs; whereas Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is exacerbating this global food insecurity and could lead to a further 8 to 13 million people becoming food insecure, according to FAO simulations;

E. whereas this dependency on food imports also makes a number of countries, in particular in Africa, highly vulnerable to price shocks; whereas according to the FAO, the Food Price Index hit a record high in February 2022; whereas most food import-dependent countries were already highly indebted before the COVID-19 pandemic; whereas the G7 Agriculture Ministers’ statement of 11 March 2022 declared that G7 members were committed to ‘fight against any speculative behaviour that endangers food security or access to food for vulnerable countries or populations’;

F. whereas the 1994 Marrakech Agreement and in particular the WTO Agreement on Agriculture have contributed to the specialisation of agricultural regions in the production of specific commodity crops, thereby creating path dependencies in production systems; whereas this situation is not resilient to crises, since it leaves in particular food-importing countries vulnerable to price shocks;

G. whereas the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, whose targets are to reduce the use of farm inputs and, in particular, to decrease the overall use of chemical pesticides in the EU by 2030, address global climate and environmental challenges; whereas biodiversity and resilient ecosystems are essential to sustainable development; whereas agro-ecological principles are in line with biodiversity conservation, food autonomy and healthy nutrition;

H. whereas biodiversity of crops is important as this allows individual farmers to adapt their agricultural planning to climate conditions and make food systems naturally more resilient against climate change, pests and pathogens; whereas, at the same time, this nature-based approach contributes to enhancing biodiversity; whereas a number of innovative projects have been set up by some non-EU countries, such as the African ‘Great Green Wall’ initiative, which promotes agro-ecological projects; whereas EU support for sustainable food systems is one of the priorities of the multiannual indicative programmes adopted with around 70 partner countries under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) – Global Europe instrument for the 2021-2027 period;

1. Reaffirms the right to food as a fundamental human right and recalls Sustainable Development Goal 2 of eradicating hunger by 2030; stresses the need for the EU to champion the right to adequate food as a priority of food systems in order to achieve food security and improve nutrition;

2. Is deeply concerned by the fact that one in three people worldwide still do not have access to adequate, sufficient food and healthy nutrition and that 2.3 billion people in the world were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021; notes, further, that many of these people are employed in agriculture; deplores the fact that in 2022, according to the WFP, acute food insecurity affected a record 349 million people;

3. Regrets that hunger and food insecurity are increasing across the world and that many countries are significantly off track to achieve the zero hunger target by 2030; recalls that malnutrition represents a lifelong burden for individuals and societies as it prevents children from reaching their full potential and therefore curtails human and national economic development;

4. Stresses that the global food crisis the world is facing today is not a new crisis but an additional factor linked to global population growth, climate change and especially weather extremes, environmental degradation, conflicts and, in particular, Russia’s armed invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic uncertainty; highlights that this global food crisis is also exacerbated by the current food price spike and the remaining weaknesses of global food systems, chiefly related to persistent dependencies related to food imports, inequalities and lack of social safety nets in certain partner countries;

5. Urges the EU to acknowledge that climate change, biodiversity, food security and health are interlinked and have to be addressed together, taking into account the ‘One Health’ approach; recalls that food systems are contributing to up to one third of greenhouse gas emissions and account for up to 70 % of freshwater withdrawals;

6. Calls on the Commission to support local farmers in devising and implementing measures to forestall extreme climate events and natural disasters; calls on the Commission also to support the introduction of mechanisms, programmes and networks for measuring, monitoring, evaluating and sharing best practices between partner countries in the adaptation of agriculture to climate change and its impact on food security;

7. Draws attention to the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on food prices, the global supply of grains and the price of energy and fertilisers; emphasises that countries already facing difficulties are being hit hardest by those consequences, which are exacerbating global food insecurity; emphasises the importance of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and calls on Russia to stop using food security as a weapon of war, to respect the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain and to lift the naval blockades of Ukrainian ports; welcomes the introduction of solidarity lanes to allow for agricultural products blocked in Ukraine to be exported; commends the Union on its commitment to mobilise over EUR 1 billion for those lanes and to provide Ukraine with support to export its agri-food products, taking into account Ukraine’s key role in global grain supply; stresses the importance of building conflict-resilient food and agricultural systems and the need to ensure that food reaches the most vulnerable people and calls on the Commission to support such efforts;

8. Recalls that SDG 2 cannot be achieved without strengthening women’s rights and recognises the critical role played by women farmers in ensuring food security;

9. Notes that according to the FAO women make up 43 % of the global agricultural labour force and yet face significant discrimination when it comes to land and livestock ownership, equal pay, participation in decision-making entities and access to credit and financial services;

10. Stresses that it is children and women who are the most vulnerable to food insecurity; stresses that the gender gap in food insecurity globally has widened in recent years, mainly due to widespread gender inequality and discrimination in the countries concerned; points out that ensuring food security is one way of reducing inequalities between women and men;

11. Calls on the Commission and local and regional authorities in partner countries to ensure that women, including women’s organisations, are involved in defining programmes and implementing projects as well as in the decision-making processes to combat food insecurity; calls on the Commission also to support the advancement of women farmers and to promote women’s access to legal status including through birth registration and inheritance rights for property and access to land;

12. Highlights the fact that addressing food insecurity also requires partner countries to take action to reduce inequalities, including through taxation and social protection schemes, in order to ensure that all people can access affordable and healthy food; emphasises, further, that the creation of viable jobs in agriculture is central to ensuring the long-term viability of this sector globally;

13. Recalls that food security requires physical and affordable access to water and that access to high-quality water should start with production and end on consumers’ plates; calls, therefore, on the Commission to increase its support for water, hygiene and sanitation services to ensure access to water and sanitation in developing countries;

14. Is concerned by the continuing rise in food prices and the disruption of the global food market, aggravated by the invasion of Ukraine, in a context where both Russia and Ukraine are major food exporters; recalls that the World Food Price Index increased by more than 60 % between 2020 and 2022; stresses that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in rising prices and reduced availability of agricultural products, fertilisers and energy; highlights the fact that countries that were highly dependent on grain and oil imports from the Black Sea region were the first to suffer the effects of the crisis;

15. Underlines the high dependence of developing countries on food imports and the fact that this greatly exposes populations to global market volatilities;

16. Recalls that inequality and not unavailability is the main driver of food insecurity; notes that henceforth the solution to tackling hunger is not to increase production, but to address the structural problem of unequal distribution of food; warns against short-sighted responses to the crisis, including backsliding on food system reform commitments, for example by suspending environmental regulation and ramping up production to ‘feed the world’;

17. Stresses that the Commission should develop a genuine integrated strategy with its partner countries in order to encourage the development, strengthening and scaling up of local food production capacities and reduce the vulnerabilities associated with international dependencies, especially on fertilisers and grains, while strengthening local and regional markets through infrastructure programmes, such as market infrastructure, cooling systems and roads, but also online farmers’ markets, in order to enhance, in particular, smallholder farmers’ resilience, especially under the Global Gateway Initiative;

18. Deplores the financial speculation on agricultural and food commodities, which is exacerbating price volatility and inflating wholesale prices; notes with concern that financial speculation on food commodities particularly affects developing countries and the most vulnerable populations, especially in the context of war;

19. Calls, in this context, on the Commission and the Member States, also in collaboration with the relevant international organisations, to urgently put forward proposals to better regulate food prices at European and global level with the aim of stopping financial speculation on agricultural and food commodities; notes that the ongoing review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive is an opportunity to tackle food financial speculation;

20. Calls on the Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority to evaluate the role and extent of speculation in the determination of commodities prices; underlines that transparent statistics on grain stocks from both public and private stakeholders are essential; calls on the Commission, the Member States and food business operators to intensify their efforts to strengthen transparency rules on global agricultural prices and stocks, particularly by strengthening and extending the Agricultural Market Information System;

21. Points out that developing countries are the most vulnerable to rising global food and agricultural prices, which threaten the affordability of food; calls on the Commission and the Member States to work on the FAO proposal aimed at establishing a food import financing facility to help low-income countries that are the most dependent on food imports to access global food markets; stresses, further, the need to work on trade rules, including in the remit of the WTO, with the objective of helping low-income countries in building stronger local food systems;

22. Stresses that food dependency aggravates the indebtedness of developing countries, thereby jeopardising achievements made in food security; calls on the Commission and the Member States to evaluate all the means available to avoid any defaults in the balance of payments of food importer countries, including debt relief under the auspices of international initiatives, direct funding and restructuring of their debt; reiterates the importance of grant-based financing especially for least developed countries;

23. Recalls the principle of policy coherence for development (PCD) enshrined in Article 208 TFEU, according to which ‘the Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries’, and the importance of ensuring coherence between all EU policies in order to guarantee the effectiveness of development cooperation for the benefit of developing countries and to increase the effectiveness of the EU’s commitment to global food security; insists that ensuring PCD in the field of food security is important for contributing to safeguarding basic human rights and preventing humanitarian crises;

24. Calls on the Commission to adopt a more systematic approach to defining and assessing the impact of EU policies in relation to the PCD objectives as set in the European Consensus on Development; calls for the EU to minimise possible contradictions and build synergies with development cooperation policy and to assess on a regular basis the compliance of EU policies, such as the common agricultural policy and trade policy, with PCD, in particular by using the SDG 2 monitoring indicators;

25. Recalls that biodiversity and its associated ecosystem services are essential for providing sustainable food production and for harnessing food security in developing countries; urges the EU and its Member States to remain fully committed to their international engagements on climate and biodiversity; stresses that EU trade and investment policies towards and development cooperation with developing countries should follow the ambitions of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy, in particular in favouring the preservation of biodiversity and forests; calls in this respect for the prompt implementation of the regulation aimed at prohibiting the importation into the Union’s market of products associated with deforestation;

26. Stresses that biofuel production should not jeopardise food security, particularly in developing countries; calls for the EU and its Member States to ensure that food production is prioritised over crop-based biofuel production, especially in a context of food price inflation;

27. Stresses the importance of ensuring that free trade agreements contribute to the objectives and standards enshrined in the trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters to guarantee high environmental, social and health standards in line with the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy and the legislative package ‘Fit for 55’, in particular the proposal for a new regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products and the targets included therein to reduce the use of hazardous pesticides; stresses, also, the importance of supporting developing countries in achieving higher standards, in particular through technical support provided under the NDICI-Global Europe instrument;

28. Condemns the EU’s double standards on pesticides, which enable the export from the EU of hazardous substances which are themselves banned in the EU; calls on the Commission to ensure reciprocity in international trade agreements, particularly in relation to agriculture and agricultural products, and to lead by example by ensuring that hazardous pesticides banned in the EU are not exported to partner countries, preventing residues of banned pesticides from being tolerated in food on the EU market and strengthening the enforcement mechanism of the TSD chapters;

29. Welcomes the commitment by the EU and its Member States to allocate nearly EUR 8 billion in humanitarian and development aid for global food security over the period 2021-2024, including a further EUR 600 million to help the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries deal with the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; calls on the Commission to report to the European Parliament, every year until 2024, on the goals, measures and results of that commitment;

30. Stresses the need for European aid to reach the most vulnerable populations as quickly as possible and to adapt to the context of multidimensional crises, and the importance of a reinforced humanitarian approach; underlines the fact that, in 2022, the Commission allocated over EUR 900 million to humanitarian food assistance, which was 60 % more than in 2021 and nearly 80 % more than in 2020;

31. Calls for the European Union and its Member States to increase development cooperation, humanitarian aid and food assistance and scale up essential nutrition services in the most vulnerable countries and regions, particularly the 19 ‘hunger hotspots’ identified by the FAO and the WFP which continue to suffer from a lack of humanitarian financing;

32. Calls for the EU to ensure continuity between humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peace actions in order to tackle the deep-rooted causes of food insecurity and address the weaknesses of food systems in developing countries, in line with the nexus approach;

33. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and European development financing institutions to create synergies between the NDICI-Global Europe instrument and the new Global Gateway strategy, using the Team Europe approach, in order to coordinate investments in food security in partner countries;

34. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to increase climate funding for developing countries and enhance cooperation with other multilateral development banks to facilitate climate adaptation; points out that adaptation to climate change is essential to ensure resilient and sustainable food systems in partner countries;

35. Calls on the Commission to ensure that a significant proportion of the 30 % envelope of the NDICI-Global Europe funds assigned to combating climate change is allocated to projects which improve resilience and adaptation of agriculture to climate change, including through hillside stabilisation, land reclamation, reforestation, irrigation, watershed management and support for education efforts around this issue; insists that those investments should be in line with Agenda 2030, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity and take into account the FAO and Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) and the FAO and CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems;

36. Urges the Commission, in the mid-term review process of the NDICI-Global Europe instrument, to closely examine the amounts and projects associated with food security in partner countries and to fully assess the effectiveness of the measures supported; points out that the mid-term review report should be published by the end of 2023;

37. Welcomes the launch of several multilateral food security initiatives; calls, however, on the Commission and the Member States to play a leading role in coordinating the various initiatives to ensure an effective international commitment to global food security; calls for the EU and its Member States to support the establishment of an international food crisis preparedness and response mechanism, under the aegis of the FAO and the WFP, with the aim of identifying risks and vulnerabilities, particularly in critical food infrastructure and supply chains, and improving coordination of responses in the event of a crisis; supports, furthermore, the development of strategic food reserves, given the role that stocks can play in buffering the impacts of food crises; calls for the role of the Global Network Against Food Crises to be strengthened;

38. Recalls the need to increase food security in developing countries and enhance their capacity to meet the nutritional requirements of their populations; calls, in that sense, for the EU to also support local, regional and country initiatives in developing countries in order to promote food sovereignty; calls for the EU and its Member States, in particular through Team Europe, to help to build solutions with local actors, particularly local and regional authorities and non-governmental organisations, and to support initiatives tailored to local and regional realities in order to accompany partner countries towards food security and sovereignty, through the development of local and regional agricultural production capacities and the transition to ecologically sustainable and resilient agri-food and fisheries systems; calls for the EU to encourage solution-sharing between countries, particularly in small island developing states in the Indian Ocean, Caribbean and Pacific where climate change is a key factor in food insecurity;

39. Stresses the importance of supporting local projects that encourage the transition to low-carbon agriculture and sustainable fisheries, simultaneously benefiting food security, environmental protection and the fight against climate change in partner countries; underlines that sustainable agriculture based on agro-ecological farming practices as defined in UN Report A/HRC/46/33 contributes to food security and biodiversity; encourages the EU to prioritise its external assistance to agriculture investments in agro-ecology, agroforestry and crop diversification;

40. Recognises the crucial role played by small and medium-scale farmers in ensuring food security as highlighted in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas; draws attention to the long-standing underinvestment in small-scale farming, including from donors; recalls that investments in the smallholder sector yield the best returns in terms of poverty reduction, growth and enhancing the incomes of smallholder farmers, especially women smallholders;

41. Calls, therefore, for the EU, the Member States and the European development banks to cooperate with small-scale farmers in developing countries in order to support them in shifting to sustainable farming practices, in particular by promoting knowledge transfer and best practices through local farming organisations and cooperatives, boosting access to education and training and improving their access to credit, insurance, food market information and finance for research and innovation; stresses also the need to support small-scale farmers through programmes focused on climate-resilient agriculture respecting biodiversity and aiming to identify crops that are better adapted to local weather conditions, such as shifting to more traditional crops, in order to promote the transition to agricultural infrastructure, inputs and irrigation systems that are less energy-intensive and consume less water and to support the financing of storage solutions in order to protect farmers from harvest as well as post-harvest loss and to reduce food waste;

42. Points out, in the light of UN Report A/HRC/49/43 by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, that the right to food is inherently tied to farmers’ seed systems and their indivisible right to freely save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds; calls therefore on Team Europe to support programmes that take the needs of farmers’ seed systems or informal seed systems into account and to support seed banks or seed libraries that allow farmers and gardeners to collect, conserve and share native seeds, landraces and farmers’ varieties;

43. Stresses the importance of the protection and promotion of local communities’ right to food security; deplores, in this context, the fact that land grabbing is rife in many countries, which undermines food sovereignty; calls for the EU to strongly support the prevention of land grabbing and stresses the importance of launching an inclusive process with the aim of guaranteeing the effective participation of civil society organisations and local communities in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies and actions related to land grabbing; calls for the to be observed in all projects that promote the protection of land rights, including in trade, and also for measures to ensure that projects do not endanger the land rights of small-scale farmers.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted	1.3.2023
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	20 1 1
Members present for the final vote	Barry Andrews, Hildegard Bentele, Stéphane Bijoux, Dominique Bilde, Udo Bullmann, Catherine Chabaud, György Hölvényi, Beata Kempa, Karsten Lucke, Erik Marquardt, Michèle Rivasi, Eleni Stavrou, Tomas Tobé, Bernhard Zimniok
Substitutes present for the final vote	Marlene Mortler, Maria Noichl, Patrizia Toia, Carlos Zorrinho
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote	Alexander Bernhuber, Elisabetta De Blasis, Katrin Langensiepen, Aušra Maldeikienė

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

20	+
ECR	Beata Kempa
ID	Dominique Bilde
PPE	Hildegard Bentele, Alexander Bernhuber, György Hölvényi, Aušra Maldeikienė, Marlene Mortler, Eleni Stavrou, Tomas Tobé
Renew	Barry Andrews, Stéphane Bijoux, Catherine Chabaud
S&D	Udo Bullmann, Karsten Lucke, Maria Noichl, Patrizia Toia, Carlos Zorrinho
Verts/ALE	Katrin Langensiepen, Erik Marquardt, Michèle Rivasi

 

1	-
ID	Bernhard Zimniok

 

1	0
ID	Elisabetta De Blasis

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 

 

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Date adopted	25.4.2023
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	39 8 0
Members present for the final vote	Mazaly Aguilar, Clara Aguilera, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, Álvaro Amaro, Attila Ara-Kovács, Carmen Avram, Adrian-Dragoş Benea, Benoît Biteau, Daniel Buda, Isabel Carvalhais, Asger Christensen, Ivan David, Paolo De Castro, Jérémy Decerle, Salvatore De Meo, Herbert Dorfmann, Paola Ghidoni, Martin Häusling, Martin Hlaváček, Krzysztof Jurgiel, Jarosław Kalinowski, Elsi Katainen, Norbert Lins, Elena Lizzi, Chris MacManus, Colm Markey, Marlene Mortler, Maria Noichl, Juozas Olekas, Daniela Rondinelli, Bronis Ropė, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Anne Sander, Simone Schmiedtbauer, Veronika Vrecionová, Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez
Substitutes present for the final vote	Franc Bogovič, Rosanna Conte, Claude Gruffat, Anja Hazekamp, Pär Holmgren, Petros Kokkalis, Benoît Lutgen, Irène Tolleret, Emma Wiesner
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote	Catherine Griset, Achille Variati

 

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

39	+
ECR	Mazaly Aguilar, Krzysztof Jurgiel, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Veronika Vrecionová
ID	Rosanna Conte, Ivan David, Paola Ghidoni, Catherine Griset, Elena Lizzi
PPE	Álvaro Amaro, Franc Bogovič, Daniel Buda, Salvatore De Meo, Herbert Dorfmann, Jarosław Kalinowski, Norbert Lins, Benoît Lutgen, Colm Markey, Marlene Mortler, Anne Sander, Simone Schmiedtbauer, Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez
Renew	Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, Asger Christensen, Jérémy Decerle, Martin Hlaváček, Elsi Katainen, Irène Tolleret, Emma Wiesner
S&D	Clara Aguilera, Attila Ara-Kovács, Carmen Avram, Adrian-Dragoş Benea, Isabel Carvalhais, Paolo De Castro, Juozas Olekas, Daniela Rondinelli, Achille Variati
The Left	Chris MacManus

 

8	-
S&D	Maria Noichl
The Left	Anja Hazekamp, Petros Kokkalis
Verts/ALE	Benoît Biteau, Claude Gruffat, Martin Häusling, Pär Holmgren, Bronis Ropė

 

0	0

 

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention

 

 

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• [24] OJ L 209, 14.6.2021. p. 1.
• [25] OJ L 150, 14.6.2018, p. 1.
• [26] OJ L 243, 9.7.2021, p. 1.