EPHA along with its biggest Cancer community members are sounding the alarm following today’s presentation of the European Commission’s Vision on the Future of Agriculture and Food, pointing out it appears to have dropped EU efforts to make our diets healthy as a way to prevent disease.
Mounting scientific evidence shows that unhealthy diets is linked to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular and other obesity-related serious diseases.
“This could be said to be the end of the Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy” said Dr Milka Sokolović, Director General of the European Public Health Alliance. “Even journalists covering the Commission’s presentation of the Vision today noted so, as it misses the health and consumption – the proverbial “Fork” elements of Agri-Food policy making. This is a huge mistake and we will be urging Commissioner Hansen to include the health dimension of food and diets in his initiatives to implement the vision,” she added.
EPHA and Members point out that other flagship EU initiatives like the EU Cancer Plan, for which a review was published earlier this month, include measures to make healthy foods more available. Yet the Vision, which sets out a roadmap for the future of the EU farming and agri-food sector until 2040, fails to follow suit.
“The Commission’s failure to prioritise access to healthy, sustainable diets and to advocate for replacing carcinogenic pesticides with safer alternatives is a missed opportunity for cancer prevention. This oversight undermines the legacy of the EU Beating Cancer Plan and compromises ongoing efforts to protect people’s health against one of the EU’s leading causes of illness,” said Wendy Yared, Executive Director of the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL).
Previous policies linking production and consumption dimensions of the agri-food sector did include a health dimension within the Farm to Fork strategy. Such elements are largely absent form this vision.
Failing to keep to promises to eat better is at this time of year is something many can empathise with. The second Friday in January marked quitters’ day – the day where people’s good intentions to exercise more and eat better from the start of the year often fall by the wayside. Now, a month later, the Commission appears to have quit its own efforts to improve diets via EU food policy.
Yet the relevant objective of Von der Leyen’s new Commission’s political guidelines include: “Build a competitive and resilient agriculture and food system and safeguard biodiversity to support our farmers and safeguard our healthy food”. While the Vision adopted serves most of this objective, the element of “healthy” is entirely neglected.
Moreover, the Vision was presented as implementing the recommendations of last year’s Strategic Review of Agriculture and Food. But the recommendations of the Strategic dialogue relating to promoting healthier foods, including an EU plant-based food Action Plan, have also vanished from the Vision. The Vision instead relies only on “monitoring the effects of certain advertising and marketing practices of food” rather than outlining substantive action for health-promotion.