European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides says that the implementation of the Farm to Fork food strategy is ‘on pause,’ but that the ambition remains unchanged. She is responding to the AGRI agriculture committee of the European Parliament, which on Wednesday approved a report that abandons the expansion to 25% organic farming.
The pause for Farm to Fork is, according to Kyriakides, necessary to ensure that food security “is guaranteed for the European neighbourhood,” adding that Russia’s war in Ukraine has made the issue of food security a top priority. “We are pressing the pause button without changing the ambition level of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy,” Euractiv reports.
To address the consequences of the war, the EU executive has rolled out a series of measures for the short to medium term to minimize disruption. The most controversial of these is allowing a deviation that permits farmers to cultivate crops in ecological focus areas.
For some EU countries, such as Austria, reaching 25 percent organic farming is not a problem. On average, this percentage must roughly triple across the entire EU to meet the European Commission’s goal.
Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has already stated that when assessing national CAP plans, he will take into account the situation per country and will not necessarily adhere strictly to the 25% target.
Dutch Members of the European Parliament Bert-Jan Ruissen (SGP) and Annie Schreijer-Pierik (CDA) also emphasized that ‘demand’ for organic products should be the leading factor for the area under organic cultivation. They also believe there should be research into the effects of the plans on the share of organic farming. “It’s good that some realism is filtering in; the government should not take the entrepreneur’s seat,” said Bert-Jan Ruissen.
The majority of the European Parliament already approved the Green Deal, the food strategy, and the CAP agricultural policy last year, with some parts to the dissatisfaction of members of the agriculture committee. The AGRI committee therefore decided to commission its own report from Austrian MEP Simone Schmiedtbauer (EPP).
In her report, approved yesterday, she has not included an obligation of 25 percent. It will be voted on in the European Parliament’s plenary session in May.