EU law should ensure independent food production within planetary boundaries
In the EU, we are dependent on calorie imports because our production of animal products is based on massive imports of plant proteins. But as long as we import more calories and more protein than we export, our food production is a hindrance when it comes to feeding a growing global population.
The debate submission has also been published on the Stock Exchange on 21 March 2023.
Russia's war has exposed the vulnerability of the EU's dependence on energy imports. It is less talked about that the EU is also dependent on calorie imports because the EU's production of animal products is based on massive imports of plant proteins. As long as Europe imports more calories and more protein than we export, Europe's food production is an obstacle when it comes to feeding a growing global population.
At the same time, the environment, climate and biodiversity are strongly influenced by the EU's agriculture. One example is the emission of nitrogen, which in the EU is three times too high in relation to the planetary limits – i.e. the load that the environment can maximally withstand. The emissions have serious consequences for the sea, and in the EU only 20% of the total marine environment is in an unproblematic state. The EU's coastal waters are generally not doing well, and in Denmark only 5 percent of our coastal waters are in good ecological condition.
Changing agriculture's import dependence and stopping agriculture's environmental damage requires changes in both consumers and producers. The EU Commission has legislation on the way that will push the food system in the right direction, namely the Legislative Framework for Sustainable Food Systems, where the ambition is to integrate sustainability into all food-related policies.
Support plant-based food production and consumption
Green Transition Denmark believes that the upcoming legislation must ensure a restructuring of the EU's agricultural support, so that the support goes to a greater extent for the efforts and cultivation methods on farms that operate within planetary boundaries, climate goals and safeguarding biodiversity. We need to get rid of fossil nitrogen fertilizers and mined phosphorus fertilizers, i.a. by means of better crop rotation, more ecology, interaction between biogas and pyrolysis technology as well as fertilizer produced on renewable energy.
Realignment of food production must go hand in hand with realignment of food consumption. Actions for this could be a tax on climate-damaging foods such as meat, and a reduced tax on fruit and vegetables.
Keep an eye out for upcoming EU legislation. There may be big changes on the way.
