Tribune. The new common agricultural policy (CAP) set up by the European Union offers an innovative approach, the “green deal” (the Green Deal), and its agricultural and food variation, “from farm to plate” (From farm to fork), which affirm the environmental dimension of the CAP by setting ambitious targets for the reduction of synthetic inputs by 2030.
However, the health crisis due to Covid-19 has called into question many certainties and many paradigms concerning our food supply. Thus, we no longer speak of agricultural sovereignty, but of food sovereignty. However, the food question remains the big forgotten one of the CAP! It therefore seems necessary and legitimate to transform the current common agricultural policy into a common agricultural and food policy (PAAC).
A situation annuity
Created in 1962, the CAP has helped ensure food security for nearly half a billion human beings; it must now evolve to face new challenges. The current CAP is less and less understood by a majority of Europeans, consumers and voters.
Its main support mechanism, the per hectare premium, represents a situation rent without any incentive for systemic improvement. It is clear that European consumers would understand a common agricultural policy much better if it included a real food dimension.
The crisis due to Covid-19 has stigmatized French and European dependence on imports of essential health products. This health dependency raises questions about other types of dependence, leading to consider food sovereignty among the priorities. The crisis has also contributed to increasing food insecurity.
A safe, healthy and sustainable diet can only be ensured by combining the agricultural complementarities of the different European regions and the networking of agrifood industries with these regions. The PAAC will have to include in a single policy all the actors of the food systems of the European Union.
Virtuous circuits
To ensure a food dimension to this European policy, it will be necessary to act simultaneously at different levels:
The balanced sharing of the value created in the food chain, from producer to consumer, must be the first objective of an effective VIP. This is the ambition, in France, of the law for the balance of commercial relations in the agricultural and food sector (EGalim), the results of which remain limited for lack of sufficient incentive mechanisms.
Particular attention must be paid to the importance of food for the health of populations. Certain health scourges (obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer) are linked to unbalanced diets, and their regulation will require strengthening the knowledge chain (R&D, training, information) and economic and fiscal incentives.
The undeniable success of local circuits, which create income, jobs and social ties, should not obscure the importance of “long, virtuous circuits”, because the vast majority of food consumed by Europeans always goes through a phase. industrial and commercial sector which must be well integrated into the VIP.
Food sovereignty will only be acquired if the rules for marketing agricultural products are the same for everyone: it is necessary to impose ” mirror measures ”in all international agricultural trade agreements.
The fight against food insecurity must be an objective of the PAAC, for example with the French project of food vouchers for the most deprived, which should be implemented at European level.
The PAAC must also devote resources to educate – in schools, universities and associations – Europeans to a healthier diet, a good understanding of the nature of food systems and the fight against food waste.
With this new food ambition, the governance of the PAAC must be a partnership between private and public actors, and more decentralized at the level of the territories and in particular the regions – the success of territorial food projects in France is a good example of this.
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