Figure 1: Main points of the farm-2-fork-strategy, Source 1: https://ec.europa.eu/food/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_de#documents

The F2F strategy has six main objectives:

1.  Ensure sustainable food production

2.  Ensure food security

3.  Promote sustainable food processing, wholesale, retail, hospitality service and foodservice practices

4.  Promote sustainable food consumption and facilitate the transition to a healthy, sustainable diet

5.  Reduce food loss and waste

6.  Combat food fraud in the food supply chain.

For the EU to achieve these general goals, the strategy also outlines some specific targets that must be met in each area. For example, by 2030, 25% of agricultural land must be farmed organically. It also calls for a 50% reduction in the use of chemicals and certain pesticides in agriculture and a 50% reduction in EU sales of antimicrobials used in livestock and agriculture (source 2).

In addition, the plan includes several actions that the European Commission (EC) will implement in the coming years to enable food system stakeholders to achieve these goals. For example, the EC has an action plan for the first major goal, ensuring sustainable food production. This is intended to create incentives for the agricultural sector to engage in practices such as carbon sequestration (capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere so that it does not contribute to warming) and agricultural practices that promote biodiversity. To support the transition to healthy and sustainable diets, the Commission will propose food labeling rules and frameworks so that consumers are able to identify healthful and sustainable foods briefly and then choose them more easily. To reduce food loss and waste, the EC will propose a revision of EU rules on date labeling (use-by date and best-before date) to improve the use and understanding of these indications.

Together, all measures aim to make the EU food system a global standard for sustainability. By mid- 2023, the strategy will be reviewed to determine whether the measures taken will be sufficient to achieve the objectives or whether additional measures are needed (source 4).

Challenges of the F2F strategy for nutrition in Europe. 

The F2F strategy is an ambitious roadmap for a more sustainable food system. However, there are still some challenges to overcome for this strategy to be a real game-changer. A key challenge in implementing the strategy is that the concept and broad principles of sustainable food systems have not been clearly defined by the committee. However, without a common understanding of this multidimensional concept, it is difficult to develop coherent goals, an appropriate systems approach, and clear concrete commitments-all of which are needed by all stakeholders. The European Commission is developing framework legislation on sustainable food systems to ensure implementation and intends to present it by the end of 2023 (source 2).

Another major challenge is that the F2F strategy sets some clear targets to be achieved by 2030 in some areas (e.g., on pesticide use and organic farming), but remains vague in others. In addition, some targets refer to specific parts of the food system without explicitly addressing potentially relevant impacts on other parts of the system (for example, the target of 25% of farmland to be organic will also impact post-harvest handling, logistics, and the business plans of many food system actors, in distribution and retail, etc.). Other criticisms include that the strategy does not address certain issues at all, such as genome editing and biotechnology. The involvement and participation of all stakeholders, including European food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers, is critical for the successful implementation of this strategy and for real sustainable change in the European food system. Several action steps are planned between now and 2024 – so there is still much to be done. Ensuring that the F2F strategy achieves its full potential will require strong commitment from EU member states, multi-level coordination between the EU and member governments, and greater collaboration between and within agencies.