The current agricultural system is broken. Faced with weather extremes, plummeting insect populations, and unfair prices for farmers, a transition to a fair, sustainable, and bee-friendly agriculture is urgently needed. Slow Food is part of the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Bees and Farmers“, which aims to collect 1 million signatures of EU citizens and ask the European Commission to introduce concrete legal proposals.
The initiative asks to:
- Phase-out synthetic pesticides by 2035: Phase out synthetic pesticides in EU agriculture by 80% by 2030, starting with the most hazardous, to become 100% free of synthetic pesticides by 2035.
- Restore biodiversity: Restore natural ecosystems in agricultural areas so that farming becomes a vector of biodiversity recovery.
- Support farmers in the transition: Reform agriculture by prioritizing small scale, diverse and sustainable farming. Supporting a rapid increase in agroecological and organic practices, and enabling independent farmer-based training and research into pesticide and GMO-free farming.