Food security
If we are to realise our full potential as responsible citizens towards our society and our environment, it is important that we care about our food: how it is produced, traded, consumed and wasted.
In addition, societal diseases such as obesity and diabetes are related to unhealthy nutritional habits. From a global perspective, the resilience, affordability and sustainability of food systems are currently at stake, especially due to extreme weather conditions, depletion of available resources such as water and fertile soil, changing food habits and a growing population.
We intend to encourage consumers, producers and retailers to play an active role in catalysing solutions by making more sustainable and fair choices. To this end, Volt wants to implement a common EU food policy that will empower our society to act, pairing governments with citizens, academics and businesses alike so that our society can thrive without harming the environment.
Today, each Directorate-General of the European Commission has its own objectives in a siloed approach with different policy frameworks, preventing fruitful collaboration and hindering the development of multiple interlinked policies. By creating a FOOD Directorate, we can stimulate and coordinate food policy actions across the EU and address the growing lack of access to healthy meals across the EU [1].
To achieve this, Volt will:
Implement food waste bans in the distribution sector (supermarkets and food wholesalers) as in France [2], Denmark [3], the Netherlands [4] and Italy [5] and seek to apply consistent European legislation against food waste. [6]
Strengthen cooperation with local and international NGOs fighting food waste by encouraging neighbourhood collection and redistribution [10], [7], awareness campaigns on how to eat healthily at a lower cost.
Reduce food deserts by promoting access to fresh and seasonal produce with mobile fresh produce markets [8] and introducing solidarity buying groups that further promote local development and social inclusion [9].
At Volt, we want to reduce the environmental impact of the food system by:
Creating sustainable supply chains and strengthening existing EU clauses (such as the 2008 EU regulation on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing [11]) and encouraging local sourcing and short supply chains via public procurement contracts for school canteens, hospitals, nursing homes and other public organisations.
Engage in further research into urban waste disposal systems to enable nutrient recycling for agriculture [12], reduce meat consumption [13] and help reduce methane emissions in industrial meat and dairy farming; [14].
Improving legislation on the sale and production of insect-derived food products, especially insect-based flour/powder as a sustainable source of protein;
Updating the conditions for the production and sale of "clean meat", also known as lab-grown, in vitro or cultured meat [15].
Volt also advocates for stronger food labelling
By harmonising food labelling requirements across the EU, we can create transparency and prevent the production and sale of so-called traffic light labelling systems that do not take into account the 'good fats' (e.g. Omega-3 fatty acid), the quantity of food in relation to quality, and the impact of artificial foods and colours.
Volt supports further research into specific food labels such as NutriScore [16] and the SENS algorithm [17], which provide consumers with an overall assessment of a product and help them make informed choices. [19]
Volt supports further research into specific food labels such as NutriScore [16] and the SENS algorithm [17], which provide consumers with an overall assessment of a product and help them make informed choices. [19]
Introducing mandatory EU labelling for vegan, vegetarian and environmental foods [20] and making food industry actors responsible for disclosing unsustainable practices [21], promoting informed consumer choice as a driver for sustainability under Article 7 of EU Regulation 1169/2011, enabling consumers to make informed food choices [22].
More plant-based food, please.
In our European election programme, The Moonshot, Volt further supports plant-based foods by seeking to promote European policies that support a dietary shift to a planetary health diet that is rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal foods, providing improved health and environmental benefits.
These policies reflect Volt's commitment to promoting sustainable and ethical food systems that protect the environment, support farmers and ensure animal welfare.
Sources
[1] Eurostat, 2016, Living conditions in Europe - material deprivation and economic strain, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Living_conditions_in_Europe_-_material_deprivation_and_economic_strain#Material_deprivation
[2] The Guardian, French law forbids food waste by supermarkets, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets
[3] Independent, Denmark opens first food waste supermarket selling surplus products, available at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-food-waste-supermarket-we-food-copenhagen-surplus-produce-a6890621.html
[4] ESM, The Netherlands launches programme to cut food waste in half, available at https://www.esmmagazine.com/netherlands-food-waste-programme/57601
[5] BBC, Italy adopts new law to slash food waste, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36965671
[6] The Guardian, Italy tackles food waste with law encouraging firms to donate food www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/03/italy-food-waste-law-donate-food
[7] Keru Non-Profit Open Community Fridge, Helsinki, Finland http://kerukaappi.fi/ and Stop FoodWaste in Denmark
[8] Best practice: Fresh Moves Mobile Market of the Urban Growers Collective, Chicago, USA available at https://urbangrowerscollective.org/fresh-moves-mobile-market/
[9] Sustainable food, culture and integration in Solidarity Purchase Groups Movement: the case study of Barikamà in Rome, D. Bernaschi, The Cambridge Conference on Global Food Security, 23-24 juin 2016
[10] Best practice: Streets Kitchen, Solidarity Not Charity, UK, available at https://www.streetskitchen.org/
[11] European Council, Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1408984470270&uri=CELEX:02008R1005-20110309
[12] Harvest to harvest: Recovering nutrients with New Sanitation systems for reuse in Urban Agriculture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344916302488
[13] European Commission, Millions of European school children benefit from healthy food thanks to EU programme, available at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-1823_en.htm
[14] Dietary manipulation: a sustainable way to mitigate methane emissions from ruminants, available at https://janimscitechnol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40781-018-0175-7
[15] Clean meat, The American Oil Chemists’ Society, available at https://www.aocs.org/stay-informed/inform-magazine/featured-articles/clean-meat-february-2018
[16] Test-Achats Belgium, NutriScore, available at
https://www.test-achats.be/sante/alimentation-et-nutrition/alimentation-saine/dossier/nutri-score
[17] European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The SENS algorithm—a new nutrient profiling system for food labelling in Europe, available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-017-0017-6
[18] Appetite, Do nutrition labels influence healthier food choices? Analysis of label viewing behaviour and subsequent food purchases in a labelling intervention trial, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666317309923
[19] Food Policy, Environmental impact food labels combining carbon, nitrogen, and water footprints, available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030691921630015X
[20] Sustainweb, What is sustainable food?, available at https://www.sustainweb.org/sustainablefood/what_is_sustainable_food/
[21] Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, available at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32011R1169
[22] Best practice: Strasbourg, France. FranceTV Info, Les petits-déjeuners gratuits à l’école se développent, available at https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/enfant-ado/les-petits-dejeuners-gratuits-a-l-ecole-se-developpent_2936911.html
