OAK BROOK, Ill. — The European Union’s (EU) Farm to Fork Strategy is a key aspect of its Green Deal and net-zero carbon goals, but how will it affect U.S. food producers? This was the focus of Farm Foundation’s Forum to Explore EU Farm to Fork Strategy and Its Implications for U.S. Agriculture, moderated by Bill Bryant, trade expert for Bryant Christie Inc. 

“Heightened food safety concern has merged with concerns over emerging technology in food production and with concerns over Co2 emissions associated with agricultural production, along with more awareness of the need for sustainable environmental practices when growing our food,” Bryant said. “All of these forces have come together to shape what we now consider the EU’s Farm to Fork initiative.”

The initiative’s intent is to reduce fertilizer and chemical use on crops, though some claim its purpose is to restrain agricultural technological innovation. Others see it as serving to drive technological innovation, Bryant noted. 

“Some believe its intent is to deindustrialize food production in the EU and around the world at a moment when we need to be increasing food production, and others believe it is just the opposite: to incentive healthier food production and healthy diets,” he said. “What the EU does within its own borders is its own business, but when it begins to impose those standards on its trade partners and begins requiring specific production practices or policy preferences, then there are going to be World Trade Organization concerns. They have already been raised.”

The EU Green Deal was presented in 2019 with the objective of improving the climate by the year 2050. The European Commission acknowledged the Green Deal as a sprawling, ambitious initiative encompassing many sectors of industry.

“Farm to Fork is one of the main pillars of the Green Deal,” explained Alan Hardacre, CropLife Europe director of public affairs. “It is premised on a set of targets including 25 percent of all EU agriculture being organic by 2030, reduction of the use of pesticides by 50 percent by 2030, reducing the use of fertilizers by 20 percent by 2030, reducing nutrient loss by at least 50 percent, reducing the use of antimicrobials in agriculture and aquaculture by 50 percent, creating sustainable food labeling and reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030, while ensuring there are at least $10 million Euros dedicated to research and innovation in these spaces.”

Full passage of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, and its adaptation by trade partners, will likely have a “major impact” on U.S. food production, Hardacre predicted. “It’s very difficult to tell what the impacts of the whole package will be until all of the items are completed, because there are so many linkages between them that it is very difficult to tell what the potential impacts may be,” he said.  

A likely scenario is that global impacts on crop production and food prices will occur, with severities dependent on the number of countries and trade partners adopting the EU Green Deal, according to Jayson Beckman of the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). Beckman predicted the ripple effects of worldwide Green Deal adoption will be felt throughout the food and agricultural value chain.

“Just last month the EU Agricultural Commissioner said these market impacts are to be expected. In particular, farmers can expect yields to decrease and farm income to decrease, but there are several benefits to adopting the Farm to Fork Strategy,” Beckman said. “These (benefits) have not been borne out, but we presume that will come whenever the European Commission releases their study. 

“Someone offered the suggestion that higher food prices are good because people will eat less and be healthier. But productivity and growth projections are gloomy, and we agree that productivity could change some of the market impacts. Trade restrictions are likely if the EU imposes these measures on other countries.”

The key element of the Farm to Fork Strategy is its environmental provisions and incentives, the USDA economist concluded. “Given that market impacts could be expected, the environmental portion of Farm to Fork could be the key to the strategy being accepted by farmers,” Beckman said.  

In addition to Bryant, Hardacre and Beckman, contributing to the April 27 online forum were Tassos Haniotis, directorate general for agriculture and rural development of the European Commission; Marta Messa, Slow Food Europe; and Maros Ivanic, USDA-ERS.   

The forum is archived for viewing at www.farmfoundation.org.