Giving Compass' Take:

• The European Union is taking steps towards a common policy platform for a sustainable food system. Scientists, EU institutions, farmers, food entrepreneurs, activists, and policymakers are creating a roadmap for the necessary shifts to make this possible.

• How might this roadmap provide a model for the U.S. to improve our own food and agriculture sectors? What will be the biggest challenges the EU has to face?

• Learn how food instability is a real threat to our world and needs to be addressed. 

The European Union urgently needs a common food policy to build sustainable food systems, says a recent report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). This shared policy would provide a common direction for food and farming systems in the Union, which suffer at all levels under the current model of production and agriculture.

“The Common Food Policy is about establishing an umbrella, bringing together agriculture, environment, health, employment, trade, etc. All the policies that, together, shape our food environment,” says Olivier De Schutter, IPES-Food co-chair, and lead author, to Food Tank.

The EU continues to employ policies that often clash with and undermine reaching its sustainability goals as it confronts biodiversity and land loss, climate change impacts, obesity epidemics, and disappearing farms, highlights the report. Shifting the focus from ‘agriculture’ to ‘food’ could help EU officials rethink those incompatible policies to complement and support each other, aligning to a common plan for the block’s food systems.

Read the full article on building sustainable food systems in Europe by Alexandra Popescu at Food Tank