In June, both AREV and the French Winegrowers Cooperative have had their congress to discuss the next steps to take for the future of the wine industry. In the meantime, the Spanish FEV have put out a manifesto to protect rural vineyards, and OIV’s Pau Roca signalled that despite the fall in consumption of wine to the pandemic, now is the perfect time to invest in wine exports. The month concluded by the signature of the FTA between the EU and New Zealand, which is said to eliminate tariffs for wine, and at the same time protect the full list of European wines.
In July, Europe’s latest heat waves have triggered fires and caused damages to winemakers. After the dry spring, and once again record high summer temperatures, winemakers are facing wildfires across wine-growing regions in Europe, including in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The damages and loss of production are still being assessed, but it will certainly lead to shrinking the potential harvest and fewer resources for the next year. Nonetheless, due to the extreme drought, some producers have been granted permission to irrigate their vines, and others have started to already collect their ripe grapes.
Developments in the debate of lab-grown meat is happening around Brussels, with the first event on the topic hosted by MEPs in the EU Parliament: while the producers, NGOs, and, it seems, the Commission to some extent support this technology, farmers and consumers are sceptic about the benefits that this product could bring to the vision of the future of food. In the meantime, the UK identified alternative proteins as a strategic field where to invest for its long-term food strategy.
In answer to an Italian MEP, the Commission states that alternative milk products cannot be marketed as ‘milk’, but should be called in a way not to confuse consumers. On the same line, the South African authorities banned meaty names for vegetarian and vegan products.
On food labelling, the Italian competition authority expressed itself on the NutriScore, accusing the label to confuse consumers.
While the debate on New Genomic Techniques in the EU continues, with European institutions and member states taking clearer positions on the topic – Italian MEPs pledge for the support of the revision of the legislation so to ease the application of new genomic methods for plant breeding; the Italian low Chamber stared formal discussions about the ‘genome editing’ bill; Austria is more than ever convinced to oppose any opening to NGTs -, Japan passed a bill about stricter GM labelling.
The new Czech Presidency of the Council clearly adopted a different approach on the Farm to Fork strategy compared to previous presidencies: in light of the war in Ukraine and its consequences on the world’s food security, it intends to slow down the process of reform. At the same time, however, Health Commissioner Kyriakides presented to MS and strongly advocated for the advancement of regulations on pesticides use, getting closer to the implementation of one target of the strategy (reduction of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030): in her presentation, she said that Integrated Pest management methods will be favored, and that pesticides should only be used as the very last resource. A report of the US agricultural department analyzed the effects that the F2F could have on the European milk sector, concluding that, if fully implemented, the milk sector will have to prepare to suffer.
Today, the Environment Committee of the European Parliament adopted the report of Mr Hansen on imported deforestation. Farm Europe welcomes the work and additions made by the Environment Committee and their colleagues from the AGRI Committee to the initial proposal from the European Commission.
Nevertheless, the ENVI Committee could have been more ambitious when it comes to securing effective controls and sector specific rules. Relying on due diligence with very light public authorities controls presents the risks associated with administrative and “paper-only” procedures.
Securing geolocalisation, traceability and the call for the setting up of a rapid alert system based on Earth Observation Tools is an important step forward which can be a game-changer for deforestation across the world. This tool should be made available to all economic actors, in particular SMEs willing to secure deforestation free supply chains, in a cooperative way with countries of origin.
As a next step, Farm Europe recommends the following improvements:
– a cut-off date of 2015 instead of 2019 voted by the committee. Establishing a date of 2019 presents the risk of green-washing an important stock of recently deforested areas, conduced ahead of the discussions on deforestation within the European Union. Data exist since 2015 and must be used.
– a clearer definition for the traceability of the beef products. The text from the ComENVI should be improved to clearly cover all steps of production as this sector plays a key role in the deforestation activities in South America. Potential gaps in the regulation should be closed in order to guarantee its the credibility.
Fighting against deforestation is the cornerstone in the setting up of sustainable value chains at global level. The European Union via its imports is the driver of 10% of the deforestation across the world. In the context of the Green Deal, this legislation is essential to guarantee the credibility of the regulations of the biomass covering food, feed and energy sectors.
Cultured meat is developing strategy to gain attention from business, consumers, and regulators. In the UK, the parliament was asked to adopt a more open legislative approach towards this technology, in Japan a company of the sector developed a method to reduce costs in feeding cells, whereas in the US a company is building the largest production center of synthetic meat in the world, while its competitor has been accused of false and misleading claims on the quality of their proteins. In Denmark, a cooperation between university and restaurant is aiming at creating alternative seafood.
In the European Parliament, MEP Ulrike Muller (Renew Europe, coordinator in Comagri) will host in July an event promoting synthetic meat.
On nutrition, a MEP brought back to the attention a WHO report on children living in overweight and obesity, stressing that education should be the main driver for the improvement of health and dietary habits.
A study reveals that information on healthy diet is confused among the public, and that social media (notably Tik Tok) can spread misleading information on dietary patterns.
While the UK is adapting to implement the Precision Breeding bill that will allow for less strict regulation of genome editing, the European Committee on agriculture discussed with the Commission the state of the art of the revision of the EU legislation. The representative of DG SANTE said that the current legislation does not consider the latest scientific developments, and that its proposal will consider a tailored regulatory framework.
In Germany, the national parliament discussed at first reading a proposal to target further development of new genomic techniques, supported by the CDU/CSU. However, the Federal minister for environment publicly opposed a revision of the current law, arguing that transparency and security should be paramount.
After several months of delay compared to the original publication date, the Commission published its legislative proposal for a revision of the sustainable use of pesticides directive, in order to make the F2F target of reduction of these products legally binding, but having the member states to find ways of applying it. Despite some member states and producers’ organisations voiced their willingness to push the proposal back so to concentrate on the disruption of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict on the agri-food markets, Executive Vice President of the Commission Timmermans defended the proposal saying that it will foster sustainability and environmental protection, as well as long-term agricultural production.
EU Ministers had a last discussion under the FR presidency on on mirror clauses, supporting an analysis done by the Commission that concludes that this kind of measures can be compatible with WTO rules, and that, however, a case-by-case approach should be taken for single products.
Preparing for its six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, Czech representatives stated that the priorities of the farm to fork strategies should be put on hold, considering the conflict in Ukraine and its consequences on the food markets as the main catalyst of their actions.
On Strategic National Plans, the Organic sector complained to some member states that their plans do not foresee enough efforts to reach the targets set by the Green Deal, notably to have 25% of their agricultural land farmed with organic agricultural methods.
The event presented an opportunity for a fruitful exchange on the upcoming carbon farming initiative between the participants of the webinar with the members of the European Parliament, the European Commission (DG CLIMA & DG AGRI), and researchers (Arvalis & Wageningen University), and the farming community.
The Commission’s new initiative (Certification of carbon removals) is proposing EU rules on certifying carbon removals, meaning that it will develop the necessary rules to monitor, report, and verify the authenticity of these removals. At the same time, time is ticking, as the Commission has set the objective to reach climate neutrality by 2035 in the combined land use, forestry, and agriculture sector at the EU level. These developments represent a major impact on the way farmers operate across Europe, and an opportunity to define a common EU standard for the transparent identification of activities that remove carbon from the atmosphere in a sustainable way.
In his opening, MEP Martin Hlaváček has outlined that the system needs to be fair, where farmers would be benefitting from what they are contributing to society. In return, this could turn the CAP into a tool fully appreciated by all for its role in coping with our future challenges. But additional financial support beyond CAP budget will be needed.
Up next, the European Commission has outlined the upcoming steps for the regulatory framework for the certification of carbon removals, highlighting that the Commission is going to table a proposal by the end of this year, and set up an expert group to assist the Commission in developing the framework. In addition, the discussion touched upon the role the CAP might play to put in place enabling conditions for carbon removing certifications.
On the question of whether the Commission intends to ‘fill two needs with one deed’ – meaning that it aims to tackle both carbon sequestration and reducing GHG emissions at the same time with its proposal – DG CLIMA has reaffirmed that the initiative will focus specifically on carbon removals, and won’t certify emission reductions. A discussion is still on going on this specific issue within the European Commission.
Furthermore, the researchers from Arvalis & the Wageningen University have presented their already developed models, such as the French Low Carbon Label or the Soil Carbon Tool, to feed into the upcoming initiative. Jan Peter Lesschen from the Wageningen University defined the steps for the successful uptake of carbon farming, while Laure Nietschelm from Arvalis has reaffirmed that it is crucial to take into account a complete coverage of emission reductions, meaning both pillars of carbon sequestration and GHG reduction. After designing a method to calculate emissions reduction, the Label built a robust rewarding scheme based on operative, mature and easy to use scientific approaches.
French farmer Benjamin Lammert has shared some of his own experiences from his farm, showing, based on more than 20 years of data collection and samples, that improved yields and increased and enhanced productivity can lead to more carbon in soils. Farmers are climate sentinels, they experiment the effect of climate change on the ground in their daily practices.
In her closing statement, MEP Anne Sander has reiterated the need for a solid scientific basis and financial tools to accompany the farmers in being able to move forward with the initiative, underlining that the environmental transition must be done with the farmers on board, not without. We need a simple, transparent and truly European framework, combining carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reductions, evidence and data-based systems, accompanied by incentives and funding to boost investment.
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The advancement of gender equality is today a major goal in the Member States & the EU Institutions. Following this spirit, and in order to guarantee the principles of equality between women and men and equal pay for equal work, Farm Europe’s Gender Equality Strategy presents the main objectives and indicators for the 2022 – 2025 plan period for the commitment to provide an inclusive work environment based on the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees irrespective of gender.
