The European Days of Action for Good Food Good Farming – a summary of what happened throughout October

Civil society and farming organizations have organized 87 events and protests in 16 European countries to support the transition to good food and sustainable farming practices

For the third year in a row, Slow Food Europe joined the European Days of Action for Good Food Good Farming during all of October. For the occasion, Slow Food networks organized over 15 events across European countries to promote agrobiodiversity and discuss environment and climate friendly agriculture and food practices. Despite the Covid-19 restrictions, this year’s activity map includes a diverse and rich set of street protests, farm visits and online conferences organized by a wide range of organizations.

The Slow Food networks have organised several meaningful activities to remind EU decision makers of the importance of agrobiodiversity, short supply chains and local markets, animal welfare and sustainable husbandry, social inclusion and food education.
For instance:

• in Latvia (Straupe) two “Debates at the market” were organized, about the biological diversity of legumes and about the importance of saving the bees and the farmers.
• in Bulgaria (Bela Rechka) and Croatia events were dedicated to the harvest of autumn seasonal products such as olives and other goods.
• in France (Paris) Terroirs d’Avenir’s specialty shops opened their doors for a week to promote Slow Food’s Presidia and Ark of Taste cheeses from France and other European countries, to educate consumers on the importance of safeguarding species, practices and knowhows at risk of disappearing.
• in Germany the Slow Food network organized a conference on cultural biodiversity and on the occasion set up a photo action aimed at influencing the CAP vote.
• Romania, Turda, was the stage for events dedicated to a wide range of topics such as food waste, food education in schools and promotion of local varieties of fruits and vegetables.

Other Slow Food events took place in Austria (Slow Food Styria), Greece (Slow Food Aegina), Slovakia (Slow Food Tatry). All action implied debates, talks, exchange and education on the current developments of the common agricultural policies.

Despite the success of the Good Food Good Farming campaign, showing clearly how civil society is in favour of a sustainable and green CAP, the final vote for the Common Agricultural Policy last week has been a critical moment for the future of agriculture in the European Union. The proposal to integrate EU Green Deal targets in the CAP as well as the article defining clear emissions reduction targets for the agricultural sector, have been rejected by the majority of the European Parliament, showing low environmental ambition when it comes to set clear and binding objectives. Furthermore, the amendments approved with the agreement between S&D, PPE and Renew, erased any consistent relationship between European agricultural policy and the Green Deal, putting a tombstone on the start of a real ecological transition of the agricultural and livestock sectors in Europe.

“The European Parliament’s vote is a slap in the face of biodiversity, climate and agroecological farmers” says Marta Messa, Slow Food Europe director. “Now the final text will be negotiated between Parliament, Commission and Council of the European Union. We hope that these negotiations will result in the same level of ambition of the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity strategies. Should that not be the case, we call for the CAP proposal to be withdrawn. Lower ambitions would further compromise the wellbeing of our ecosystems and society, something we can no longer afford”.

For more informations:

Slow Food International Press Office
[email protected]
Paola Nano (+39 329 8321285) – Gioia Baggio (+39 349 9549799)

Slow Food is a worldwide network of local communities founded in 1989 in order to counteract the disappearance of local food traditions and the spread of fast food culture. Since then, Slow Food has grown to become a global movement that involves millions of people in more than 160 countries and works so that we can all have access to good, clean and fair food.