Europe Needs a Food not Feed Policy

Abstract

Current European agricultural policies serve to prop up industrial animal agriculture, which doesn’t produce food but wastes it. A sustainable food policy would focus on producing healthy food for people, and not feed for animals, whilst protecting the environment. When considering sustainability in value chains, a key fact commonly overlooked is that nearly two thirds of EU cereals are fed to farm animals, with enormous associated loss of ~70%: for every 100 food calories of edible crops fed to livestock just 30 calories are produced in the form of meat and milk. If this human-edible grain were fed to people, it could feed an extra 3 billion. Such losses are not restricted to grain: around a quarter of the world’s landed fish catch never reaches a human mouth, much of it is diverted to feed industrially reared fish, pigs or poultry. Animals’ inefficiency in converting human-edible crops into meat and milk brings other inefficiencies in its train:  It is a wasteful use not just of the crops but also of the land, water and energy used to grow them.  Because of its dependence on feeding cereals to animals, industrial livestock production generally uses more arable land and surfaceand ground-water than other forms of animal farming.  It also usually leads to greater water pollution.  The need for crops to feed industrially produced animals has led to the intensification of crop production with the use of monocultures, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. These have eroded soil quality. A European food not feed policy would not only promote human health but would also prevent further expansion of global cropland at the expense of forests and grassland, further loss of wildlife and substantial greenhouse gas emissions as well as reducing numerous forms of pollution. Simple policy measures to divert food currently used to feed animals to instead directly feed billions of people include: moving livestock back onto grass; feeding them forage, by-products and food wastes; reducing meat consumption; and reducing food wastage. Public debate should be encouraged regarding internalising health and environmental costs into foods at the point of sale so as to further promote sustainable and healthy choices. A move away from an agricultural policy founded on producing feed for animals to one that produces food for people would represent a major step towards a healthy, humane and sustainable food policy in Europe. Introduction This Seminar poses the question: “Does Europe need a Food Policy?” It asks: “whether agricultural policy should develop into a food policy?” The answer must be a resonant “Yes”. We need a food policy in order to address the high levels of diet-related ill health, environmental damage, greenhouse gas emissions and poor animal welfare that arise from Europe’s current models of food production and consumption. At present, inasmuch as there is any policy, it is fragmented, operating in silos. A cohesive, integrated food policy is needed that seeks to fulfil a range of objectives regarding health, resource-efficiency, the environment, climate change, farmers’ livelihoods and animal welfare.