What’s the Deal ?

The Problem

Trade rules that harm consumers, farmers, and the planet

The global food trade is a complex, highly interconnected system, dominated by industrial giants, and driven by policies that put efficiency and profit before equity.

Today, food moves across borders at an unprecedented scale, yet many communities—especially in the Global South—face hunger and land loss, while ecosystems are degraded and farm workers exposed to toxic pesticides banned elsewhere, all to grow export crops instead of feeding their own communities.

At the same time, small-scale farmers across the globe—particularly those practicing agroecology—struggle to compete with the low prices of industrially produced foods. These “cheap” products come with hidden environmental and social costs: biodiversity destruction, land grabbing, heavy pesticide use, labor exploitation, and the erosion of local food cultures. This undercuts sustainable local production and pushes farmers out of business.

For consumers, there’s little transparency on how food travels and is grown —whether it’s safe, fair, or environmentally friendly, making it hard to choose better options. Trade rules prioritize industrial agriculture, leading to more pesticides in our food, more antibiotics in meat, and less control over what we eat.

Rather than feeding people, global food trade fuels poverty and deepens inequality, all while enriching big corporations, destroying agrobiodiversity, and worsening the climate crisis.

Why the EU’s Role in Food Trade Matters

The European Union (EU) plays a big role in the global food trade. It buys and sells massive amounts of food across the world and helps shape the rules for how food trade works, especially through its role at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Because of that power, the choices the EU makes influence what happens not just in Europe, but in many other countries too. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to what policies the EU supports—and to hold it accountable when those policies don’t match the values it promotes, like fairness and protecting the environment.

Right now, the EU has some standards in place to protect farmers, workers, and the environment inside Europe. But those rules often do not apply to food that is imported. This creates a double standard: food can be produced in ways that harm people and the planet—as long as it happens outside of Europe. The damage is just pushed elsewhere, but the effects, like pollution or climate change, affect us all.

Our Vision

Food should nourish people, not business profits.

That’s why we call for a fundamental shift in how food is produced, traded, and consumed:

1. Trade policies must align with agroecology and justice. We need policies that help farmers transition to sustainable practices, protect rural communities, and ensure that food production respects people and the planet.
2. We ask to relocalize food systems, strengthening short supply chains so food is grown and sold closer to home. This means ensuring fair prices for farmers, reducing dependence on long, wasteful and business-dominated trade routes, and making fresh, healthy food more accessible to all.