Coventry researchers team up with European academics in a bid to alter Farm to Fork strategy

A group of Coventry University researchers concerned about the future of our food systems want consumers and producers to join the debate as they urge the European Commission to alter the new Farm to Fork strategy.

The Farm to Fork Strategy proposes the development of a legislative framework for sustainable food systems by 2023 and is at the heart of a European Green Deal that aims to make food systems fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly.

The need to investigate European food systems has been highlighted during the global COVID-19 pandemic and though the decision by policymakers to address it has been welcomed by five researchers from Coventry’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), they have also voiced their concerns that it is not enough.

Priscilla Claeys, Jessica Milgroom, Nina Moeller, Chiara Tornaghi and Barbara Van Dyck have teamed up with 18 other European scholars to write an analysis piece that lists ways in which the legislation and a framework they feel is outdated, can be improved and Professor Claeys says the aim of the collective is to start a public debate about the F2F strategy and encourage policymakers to seek their help to implement more ambitious strategies for food system transition at European and national level.

The piece analyses ways in which the F2F strategy could be improved in the areas of research and innovation, international cooperation and multilateral fora, governance, trade, consumption, the role of cities, animals, livestock and fisheries, workers, access to natural resources, agroecology and production.
Dr Ana Moragues Faus, from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona in Spain, recently spoke in support of the collective at a webinar for the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies.