Agriculture and the Green Deal

The link between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet puts sustainable food systems at the heart of the European Green Deal, the EU’s sustainable and inclusive growth strategy. It is designed to boost the economy, improve people's health and quality of life, and care for nature.

The European agriculture and food system, supported by the Common Agricultural Policy, is already a global standard in terms of safety, security of supply, nutrition and quality. Now, it must also become the global standard for sustainability. A shift to a sustainable food system, while ensuring food affordability and availability, brings environmental, health and social benefits, as well as offering fairer economic gains.

That is why in July 2023 the Commission adopted a package of measures for a sustainable use of key natural resources, which will also strengthen the resilience of European food systems and farming. The package includes a new soil law, which will help us have healthy soils in the EU by 2050, a regulation on plants produced by genome techniques, and measures to reduce food and textile waste. Its adoption completes the previous proposals under the ‘natural resources' pillar of the European Green Deal.

The EU’s goals are to

• ensure food security in the face of geopolitical uncertainties, climate change and biodiversity loss
• reduce the environmental and climate footprint of the EU food system
• strengthen the EU food system’s resilience
• lead a global transition towards competitive sustainability from farm to fork