Delving into public consultations: The sustainable food system framework initiative and the EU school scheme
July will be a hot month! In part because of deadlines to public consultations geared at transforming the European food system.
The sustainable food systems framework initiative
We have regularly reported in this newsletter on the European Commission’s incoming framework initiative on sustainable food systems (SFS). As part of the Farm to Fork strategy, what looks like a future legislation will try to act holistically on the whole food system in all 27 EU member states. The SFS is a key text in maintaining and meeting the aspirations of the Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy, the EU Biodiversity Strategy and the European Green Deal.
The SFS framework initiative will likely cover key areas of EU agri-food legislation. IFOAM Organics Europe believes that such a framework should ensure a coherent and good governance, fair wages for farmers, address food environments as a whole and act on key policy domains such as sustainable public procurement, GMOs and new breeding techniques (NBTs), pesticides use and sustainability labelling. On all these topics and others, IFOAM Organics Europe had the opportunity to react in October 2021 to the inception impact assessment, as the first step of this initiative’s co-construction.
The second stage, through this public consultation, is now underway – The deadline for responding to this public consultation is 21 July 2022.
Are you an NGO active in the food system? You can fill out this dedicated survey by 12 September 2022.
EU school scheme: An opportunity for organic
The second important issue is the revision of the EU school scheme, a legal instrument that supports the supply of fruits, vegetables, milk and certain dairy products to school children across the EU, alongside educational activities.
As for the SFS framework initiative, IFOAM Organics Europe had already provided its input to this policy-making process, with feedback provided in the context of the roadmap. In the latter, IFOAM Organics Europe asked for the EU school scheme to be in line with the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy and to support the 25% organic land target by 2030.
IFOAM Organics Europe reminded the European Commission that ambitious public procurement schemes already exist in Europe, and that the review of this scheme should increase its ambitions in terms of organic products distributed in schools. IFOAM Organics Europe will respond to the public consultation with its members, also through exchanges with our partners from the project SchoolFood4Change (SF4C). The deadline for responding this public consultation is 28 July 2022.
For more information on the sustainable food system framework, the EU school scheme and IFOAM Organics Europe’s work on this issue, please contact [email protected].