New Policy Brief: Slow Food Demands Radical EU Agrifood Trade Overhaul for Better Food Systems

As global food prices remain volatile and supply chains face mounting disruptions, Slow Food releases a new policy brief urging the European Union to rethink how it trades food.

“What’s the Deal? Making EU Agrifood Trade Work for Better Food Systems” explores how the current global trade model — rooted in deregulated markets, export-led agriculture, and corporate consolidation — is undermining the transition to fairer, more resilient food systems both in Europe and across the globe.

As a major global trading power, the European Union plays a pivotal role in sustaining this damaging model. Its current agrifood trade policies are undermining the transition to diverse, equitable, and resilient food systems both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, the trade tensions of 2025, sparked by U.S. tariff threats, laid bare the fragility of the global food system – a system so precarious that a single government can entirely upend it, pushing untold millions into hunger and poverty. But moments of crisis also open the path to new possibilities.

“The precarious state of global food prices and supply chains is a direct consequence of a flawed trade system. The EU must seize this moment to transition toward agroecological, localized, and socially just food systems”, said Marta Messa, Slow Food Secretary General.

The policy brief opens with a look at why today’s food trade system is failing — tracing its foundations in colonial exploitation, deregulation, and the rise of corporate giants. It unpacks the root causes of the current crisis, from the industrialization of agriculture to the liberalization of food markets and the treatment of food as a mere commodity. In response, Slow Food lays out an alternative rooted in agroecology, food sovereignty, and the relocalization of food systems.

Three key areas for reform are identified:

• Enforcing “mirror measures” to ensure all imports meet EU environmental and social standards,
• Support the transition away from animal factory farming towards an agriculture that enhances animal welfare
• Shifting power through stronger corporate accountability and local food democracy,

The brief concludes with actionable policy proposals for a trade system that is fair, climate-compatible, and grounded in food cultures and community resilience.

Slow Food calls for a bold shift in EU trade policy — one that supports:

• Agroecology and fair farmer incomes through a reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
• Environmental and social production standards on imported food through “mirror measures”
• Shorter, fairer supply chains that empower local producers and food environments
• Corporate accountability, transparency, and stronger market regulation
• Food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity, rooted in food cultures and inclusive governance

“Europe must stop outsourcing the true costs of its consumption. We need a trade policy that nourishes people—not corporate bottom lines”, added Marta Messa.

The full policy brief is available here.

An executive summary is also available in Spanish, French, and German.

For interviews or further information, please contact:

Alessia Pautasso – [email protected] (+39) 342 8641029

Alice Poiron – [email protected] (+32) 4 73 77 07 39