The European Commission presented its Vision for Agriculture and Food, an ambitious roadmap for the future of farming and food in Europe. This roadmap is aimed at an attractive, competitive, resilient, future-oriented and fair agri-food system for current and future generations of farmers and agri-food operators.
The vision outlines four priority areas.
Foster a competitive and resilient sector
The agri-food chain is under pressure from the impact of climate change to global competition and higher energy prices. Food security and sovereignty remain a priority in Europe. The Vision aims to develop resistance to geopolitical changes, by diversifying trade relations, creating new export opportunities, pursuing international partnerships; ensure products all have the same standards; and increase the resilience of the agri-food sector.
To tackle these challenges, the Vision proposes to:
- Establish new agri-food policy partnership dialogues
- Simplify the administrative burden on farmers and food businesses
- Develop a plan to address protein supply challenges
- Pursue a stronger alignment of production standards applied to imported products
- Review the animal welfare legislation
- Develop an ambitious Unity Safety Net for the EU agri-food sector
- Call for a European risk and crisis management approach
- Adopt a climate adaptation plan
- Launch a long-term strategy on livestock
Provide the conditions for a future-proof sector
Europe’s agricultural sector plays an important role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Vision for agriculture and food highlights the need to meet the 2040 climate targets. To address these challenges, the Vision proposes to:
- Offer a voluntary benchmarking for on-farm sustainability
- Propose a Water Resilience Strategy
- Accelerate access to biopesticides
- Reward through the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming
- Launch an EU digital strategy on agriculture
Build an attractive agri-food sector
The Vision calls for devising the right conditions to encourage future generations to produce food by promoting fair income, public support and transparency in the food chain. To benefit farmers, the agri-food chain, and ultimately citizens, the Vision proposes to:
- Review the unfair trading practices rules and common market organization (CMO) Regulation
- Propose a fairer, simpler and targeted common agricultural policy
- Enhance the EU Agri-food Chain Observatory
- Present a bioeconomy strategy
- Build an ambitious investment agenda
- Deliver a Generational Renewal Strategy
- Launch an EU Observatory on Farmland
Focus on food, fair living and working condition in rural areas
The Vision for agriculture and food aims to reconnect people with the food they eat, and the territories and support rural areas by maintaining EU cultural heritage. To achieve these goals, the Vision proposes to:
- Update the EU Rural Action Plan and strengthen the Rural Pact
- Establish a Women in Farming Platform
- Hold an annual food dialogue with food system's actors
- Strengthen of the role of public procurement
- Develop short supply chains
- Review the EU school scheme
- Enhance consumer awareness by the promotion policy
- Promote further the uptake of geographical indications
Simplifying further the EU policies and increasing the uptake of innovation and digitalization are prerequisites to all actions outlined in the Vision. Later in 2025, the Commission will propose a comprehensive simplification package for the current agricultural legislative framework, along with an EU digital strategy for agriculture to support the transition to digital-ready farming.
Industry reaction
FEFAC welcomes the European Commission’s commitment and attention to driving positive change in the world of agriculture, taking into account the agricultural sector’s challenges to remain viable as a business. FEFAC is particularly interested in the “reinforced focus on livestock to foster the long-term future of the sector” with an announced dedicated vision and workstream.
The Vision draws attention to the dependency on imports to Europe’s protein supply, making the food system vulnerable to global market fluctuations and sustainability risks. FEFAC welcomes the development of a comprehensive plan to address these challenges, integrating policy, research and on-the-ground efforts to create a more self-sufficient and sustainable EU protein system, while at the same time diversifying imports. Indeed, FEFAC recognizes this persisting, strategic challenge that accompanies the sourcing of feed protein and FEFAC therefore encourages the Commission to undertake serious action to boost European protein production.
“We appreciate and acknowledge the reference to technological advancements in feeding strategies as part of the toolbox of tailored measures to support the sector and regions in their efforts to reduce emissions in livestock production. As circularity and bioeconomy are referenced in the Vision as key attributes in agriculture, we would recommend also recognizing the contribution of using circular feed in livestock production,” said FEFAC president Pedro Cordero.
