About: Food Archives

The Commission must develop a strategy towards a sustainable EU food and farming system, including the introduction of a target to reduce the consumption of animal products by 30 percent by 2030, writes Joanna Swabe.

SPECIAL REPORT / Farmers in the Global South can protect their business by insuring their crops against climate hazards. But this system is held back by a lack of reliable climate data. EURACTIV France reports. 

The European Union imports 500,000 tonnes of beef every year, largely from countries where cloning is authorised. But lawmakers want to stop clones from ending up on European plates. EURACTIV France reports. 

France’s Minister for Ecology, Ségolène Royale, has obtained a series of commitments from French supermarket chains to limit food waste. She also hopes to change the EU’s expiry date system for certain foods. EURACTIV France reports. 

The House of Lords, along with 16 member states, sent a letter to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday (22 July) demanding that the EU crack down on food waste. 

MEPs have taken a harder line than the one proposed by the Commission on cloned animals, refusing to authorise food products from clones and their descendants. EURACTIV France reports. 

More than half of the UK’s food will come from overseas within a generation, as a rising population and stalling farm productivity combine to erode what remains of the UK’s self-sufficiency, according to farming leaders.

A coalition representing Europe’s agriculture and food industries has called on the EU to boost innovation and jobs within the sector, which has come under pressure following Russia's ban on EU food imports.

In recent months, there have been several attacks on the Precautionary Principle and how the principle has been used in the EU. For example, the scientific advisor to the President of the European Commission, Ann Glover, has accused Commissioners of having “crazy ideas” about the safety of nanotechnologies, genetically modified organisms, shale gas, endocrine disrupters, etc. (See EU twisting facts to fit political agenda, chief scientist says and EU science advisor: 'Lots of policies are not based on evidence'.) Similarly, it has been argued that policymakers often misuse the precautionary principle.

Massive fraud is reported after Moscow introduced counter-sanctions, prohibiting the importation of food from Western countries that undertook measures to punish Russia for the annexation of Crimea, and for destabilising eastern Ukraine. For example, shellfish are labelled as hailing from Belarus, even though the country is landlocked.

Governments need to study the connections between health and environmental concerns, which could save them money and improve societal well-being over the longer term, according to the European Environment Agency.

The governments of the Netherlands and Sweden have asked for an EU debate on ‘best before’ labels, citing the role they play in food wastage.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament's Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) have rejected on Wednesday (12 February) a proposed regulation which included a definition of "engineered nanomaterials" in food.

The European Commission says that there is no reason for “crisis-intervention” after a French researcher claimed he had proof that pesticides were much more toxic than their guidelines suggest.

The Netherlands, France and Switzerland are the three countries enjoying the planet’s cheapest, healthiest and most plentiful diets according to a new Oxfam ‘Good Enough to Eat’ index, while three African countries have the worst.

The European Union has voted through rules to limit the ability of banks and hedge funds to bet on food prices.

SPECIAL REPORT / Health campaigners are calling for the European Commission to take action to alter people’s eating habits and curb rising obesity, but officials are wary that such a move may expose them to “nanny state” complaints, sources say.

The newly-elected Norwegian government has promised to reduce the tax that the previous government had put on goods imported from the EU, such as cheese and meat. The tax is breaches the rules of the EU's single market, of which the Scandinavian country is a part.

European ministers will decide whether to approve the cultivation of variety of genetically modified maize, after the European Commission was legally obliged to pass on the 12-year-old request.