Common Food Policy 

Slow Food advocates for sustainable food systems in Europe and believes that a shift in the policy making must occur; from a focus on agriculture to a food systems approach that encompasses the entire range of actors and activities involved in the production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products.

That is why Slow Food has been calling for a shift towards an EU Common Food Policy. A Common Food Policy should address not only food production, farming, and trade, but also food and environmental quality, health, resource and land management, ecology, social and cultural values, and help reshape the entire agricultural and food market chain.  

Slow Food believes that the European food system should be environmentally, economically, and socio-culturally sustainable. It should preserve biodiversity and natural resources, while generating long term income for farmers and farm workers and guarantee their access to Fundamental Rights and well-being. All these aspects of sustainability cannot be considered separately any longer. They are strongly interrelated and need to be analyzed and regulated through an integrated and holistic approach. 

Since 2019, Slow Food Europe has been part of the EU Food Policy Coalition, which advocates for a transition to sustainable food systems at the European level through coherent and integrated policies. The EU Green Deal and the Farm to Fork Strategy announced by the European Commission in December 2019 are the EU’s first steps towards a common food policy, but there is still a long way to go. Slow Food and the coalition will continue their hard work and keep pushing for these new strategies to lead towards a transition to truly sustainable food systems. 

Resources on this topic

• Position Paper: A Slow Food Vision to Good, Clean and Fair Food Systems in the EU (2023)
  English | Italian | German
• Consultation Response: Slow Food’s Response to the EU consultation on the Inception Impact Assessment on the EU Sustainable Food System Framework (2021)
  English
• Food Environments & EU Food Policy: Discovering the Role of Food Environments for Sustainable Food Systems (2021)
  English | French | Italian | Spanish
• Policy Brief: What Do the New EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies Mean for Slow Food? (2021)

  English | French | German | Italian

• Consultation Response: Slow Food’s Response to the EU consultation on the Farm to Fork Strategy (2020)
  English 
• Slow Food Contribution to the Debate on the Sustainability of the Food System (2013):
  Italian | English
• Joint Policy Brief: Transitioning Towards Sustainable Food Systems in Europe (Slow Food, EPHA, FoE, IFOAM EU) (2018):

  English

• Policy Brief: From Food Security to Food Sufficiency: Challenging the Narrative
  English | French | Spanish | German | Italian

• Food policy blueprint scoping study: A transition towards sustainable food systems in Europe (2018)
  English