The EU is reviewing the bloc’s sustainable food strategy after a concerted push against the planned reforms by national governments, farmers and the agriculture industry.
Brussels agreed two years ago to reform its farm practices as part of a drive to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen a drop in grain and fertiliser exports from those countries and raised concerns over food security.
The bloc’s agriculture ministers meet on Monday to discuss both short-term measures to alleviate the risk of shortages and price rises and possible changes to its Farm to Fork sustainable food strategy.
“There is a desire to make sure that the objectives we have in our public policy are consistent with the need for food security . . . and sovereignty,” said an EU diplomat.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the sustainable food strategy was “based on a pre-Ukraine war world” and should be reviewed.
The plans would lead to a 13 per cent drop in food production, he said on Friday. Macron needs the votes of the country’s powerful farming lobby in elections next month but similar concerns are being raised in other member states such as Spain and Italy.
The conflict has sent the price of wheat, maize and other staple foods soaring.
The EU gets half its maize from Ukraine and a third of its fertilizer from Russia. Fertilizer prices increased 170 percent last year because of high gas prices.
The EU is likely to face price rises but not shortages, according to recent European Commission assessments.
The €58bn-a-year Common Agricultural Policy, which still consumes more than a third of the bloc’s annual budget, has enabled the EU to become a net