Global Food Forum: No time to delay investing in the future of agriculture

Today, Farm Europe will open the 9th edition of the Global Food Forum, bringing together nearly 200 farmers and their partners across the value chain, in the presence of Ms Annie Genevard, Mr Francesco Lollobrigida, and Mr Stefan Krajewski—respectively the French, Italian, and Polish Ministers of Agriculture—before welcoming Members of the European Parliament: Mr Carlo Fidanza, Ms Cristina Maestre, Ms Carmen Crespo, Mr Stefano Bonaccini, Mr Benoît Cassart, Mr Herbert Dorfmann, and Mr Dario Nardella. The Forum will also welcome Mr Christophe Hansen, Commissioner for Agriculture, on March 3.

Farm Europe will launch a call to EU decision-makers: agriculture lies at the heart of the European Union’s strategic autonomy, investing in its future cannot be optional. This will be an opportunity for participants to work together on shaping a European investment strategy to prepare the future of EU agriculture.

Securing income support is essential—but not sufficient. The EU must therefore ensure that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its budget are dedicated to a truly common agricultural sovereignty, not to 27 national agricultural strategies that would compete against each other in the internal market and undermine the Union’s ability to exert influence globally. The CAP must remain a strong policy, not be reduced to an ineffective patchwork of programmes.

Beyond the ring-fenced budget proposed by the European Commission (€300 billion), the missing €120 billion must be found and secured—both within the CAP and beyond—in order to prepare the future of EU agriculture.

Therefore, while allowing Member States to adapt the CAP toolbox to local conditions, EU leaders should agree on a limited but strategic number of priorities at European Union level, to collectively address the challenges facing all EU farmers, build the agriculture of tomorrow—ready to meet the challenges of:

• strategic confrontation, through resilient food systems capable of coping with geopolitical, climate, and economic crises;
• adaptation of agricultural systems, through investment to secure access to water, optimize production routes through digital technologies, mobilize the potential of genetic innovation, invest in livestock infrastructure, and strengthen risk-management tools;
• agricultural growth, to meet the challenges of decarbonisation and the strategic autonomy of bioeconomy sectors developing new markets. Circular and biogenic agricultural carbon is one of the strategic molecules needed to enable carbon-neutral transport, chemicals, plastics, and other bioproducts.

Unprecedented support for agricultural investment—on farms and at local level—is the foundation for meeting these challenges. It will enable higher productivity and, in turn, strengthen resilience, the EU’s geopolitical role and presence on global markets, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, and sustainable growth in production. This should go hand in hand with an autonomous performance framework for the CAP, ensuring a clear common approach while taking into account the specificities of the EU agricultural sector.

BACKGROUND

Water
Agriculture faces the challenge of adapting to climate change. All EU territories are now confronted with climate shocks—water scarcity or excess, shifting seasons, and an increase in extreme events—which have become the norm. This new reality requires farmers to be more flexible and responsive, to implement systemic changes, and to make major investments to anticipate and manage new cycles. A comprehensive adaptation strategy at European Union level should be launched, mobilising investment measures within and beyond the CAP.

Digitalisation
The digital revolution is reshaping every level of action in agriculture and within the CAP. It is an opportunity to lay the foundations for an agriculture that is doubly performant—economically and environmentally—regardless of farm size. It is also an opportunity to build a CAP grounded in a robust framework of performance indicators. To ensure all farmers have equal access and opportunities, the EU should launch an investment plan for digital agricultural infrastructure across all territories and ensure the interoperability of tools, in order to foster innovation and unlock the full potential of digital technologies.

Fertilisers and the agricultural decarbonisation strategy
Fertilisers are a key point of contact between the Green Deal and agriculture through their inclusion in the ETS, which in practice brings arable production into the mechanism. While the European Commission has integrated downstream products into the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage, it is unable to do so for arable crops. Arable producers are placed in an untenable situation—facing a loss of competitiveness without a mechanism to finance the agricultural transition. The European Union must therefore revisit its decarbonisation strategy for fertilisers. Rather than discouraging fertiliser production in the EU, the European Commission should support the emergence of a viable economic model for farmers using low-carbon fertilisers, enabling them to generate carbon credits from reduced agricultural emissions and sell them on regulated markets, without bringing agriculture into the ETS. The EU can incentivise the valorisation of carbon-farming credits, preserving food sovereignty while accelerating decarbonisation and improving access to high-quality carbon credits for ETS-regulated companies.

Livestock
The livestock sector is facing an unprecedented erosion of production, alongside rising imports. It sits at the heart of a societal paradox: calls for emissions reductions, while simultaneously blocking the construction of new, more efficient infrastructure. The EU must therefore remove the economic and regulatory barriers that are holding back investment, through a plan enabling large-scale modernisation of the sector, the deployment of a genuine decarbonisation strategy, genetic improvement and promotion, and support for quality initiatives that meet consumer expectations. The decline in production and decapitalisation are not inevitable; the trend must be reversed. The sector should be recognised for its contribution to healthy, balanced nutrition and for its environmental benefits in pasture management, and supported in reducing emissions through investments in genetics, nutrition, buildings, and the use of effluents for biogas and biofertiliser production.

Bioeconomy
Agriculture and its value chains are a key lever for decarbonisation and for achieving the ambition of a carbon-neutral economy, thanks to their ability to underpin neutral biogenic carbon cycles through photosynthesis. Overall, EU agricultural production must increase by 25% to meet this challenge. To enable the emergence of bioeconomy sectors, the European Union should build on existing value chains to strengthen investment capacity and promote synergies across food and feed, bioenergy, biochemistry, bioplastics, and biomaterials. This should be supported through clear mandates similar to those established for biofuels—mandates that should be increased to at least 10%—thereby accelerating the deployment of other bio-based products.

Risk & crisis management
European solidarity is the most effective way to manage agricultural risks and crises—and it is five times less costly than each country acting alone. If Member States acted individually, it would take no less than €10 billion to cover a risk that requires only €2 billion at European level. The crisis reserve reinforced by the European Commission is therefore a step in the right direction. It should be complemented by clearer trigger mechanisms—tailored to different types of risks—and by a clear allocation of responsibilities between the farm, the Member State, and the European Union, in order to build a predictable and effective system that safeguards investment and ensures continuity of production.