Forum for Ag reconfirms Call to Action in submission to Commissioner Hansen on vision for European agriculture

Wednesday, Feb 05, 2025

“The Forum hopes to contribute to the development and implementation of the Commissioner’s vision for addressing the challenges and realising the opportunities.”
Janez Potočnik, Chairman, Forum for the Future of Agriculture

In his letter to the new European Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, Janez Potočnik has extended his congratulations to the new Commissioner on his appointment, reconfirmed the Forum’s commitment to its Call to Action (CTA), first published in March 2023, and provided substantive input for the development of the vision on agriculture in Europe.

What are the key points of the letter?
The letter highlighted the key challenges and opportunities that will arise in the next five years in making the European food system more resilient, competitive, sustainable, climate smart and nature positive. It also makes clear that the Forum stands ready to collaborate with and support the commissioner in developing his new vision of agriculture.

What topics are raised?
Several areas of importance to the Forum were raised in the letter along with its perspective on each of them:

  1. Risks to Europe’s food system: Although Europe does not have a food security problem in the sense of some other regions, there are very serious risks to the agri-food system, such as access to healthy and affordable food, biodiversity loss, and a changing climate.
  2. Needs of farmers, and land and forest managers: Farmers and land and forest managers need access to finance to de-risk agriculture’s transition; access to the best advice and information; and innovation in practices and technologies. “They must be able to take advantage of new opportunities to create or capture value… in ways that are inclusive, equitable and attractive, in particular for young farmers, and which value both food and ecosystem services”.
  3. Common benchmarking system: Europe needs a common benchmarking system that can focus collective efforts on key priorities and outcomes, underpinned by robust monitoring, measurement, reporting, and independent verification of outcomes. Benchmarks should focus on significantly improved environmental outcomes for soil, water, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity. They also need to include income growth; viability and competitiveness of all sizes of farmers and their businesses, especially young farmers; and rural prosperity.
  4. Coherent policy framework: Policies must be coherent, avoid conflicting and incompatible objectives, and take a long-term perspective to enable desired outcomes. Too often we have seen different pieces of funding instruments, legislation and regulation in conflict with one another, creating confusion. The burden of interpreting, managing and responding to all this, falls on farmers and land managers, (and to be fair, the Member State authorities) leading to frustration, which can and does distract from achieving the overall objectives.

A systemic approach to financing the transition
In addition to the above, the letter clearly highlighted the need for and importance of a systemic approach to financing the transition which includes:

Recalibration and innovation in the use of public money – reforming and aligning the CAP to better address the complexities of the agri-food system and ensure it delivers for the environment and climate by providing the right incentives and avoiding perverse distortions. This should also mean moving ahead with the Agri-Food Just Transition and Nature Restoration Fund. It also involves the innovative use of fiscal measures, such as adjustments to taxation and better use or adaptation of corporate accounting rules, to better incentivise sustainable practices benefiting farmers, land managers, and foresters.

Unlocking private incentives – ensuring premiums for sustainably produced crops and livestock as well as the deployment of nature-based solutions, along with payments for ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, improvements in soil health, water quality management, and biodiversity conservation and restoration, forms a critical part of the finance blend. Indeed, there is growing evidence that actors within and beyond the agrifood value chain are turning more frequently to emerging nature markets to incentivise farmers and land managers to adopt practices aimed at achieving their climate, water replenishment or biodiversity restoration goals in the areas close to their developments/ activities.

Leveraging and de-risking finance – by some estimates, private financial institutions could potentially provide over €7 trillion in annual green financing by 2050, which the agri-food sector is well-positioned to access (Financing the net zero transition, McKinsey & Co article, January 2023). We must certainly make every effort to ensure that it is. Using accurate farm management data, from emerging technologies, aligned with benchmarking outcomes, can play a role in this by demonstrating to financial institutions that sustainability is profitable. In doing so, this data is monetizable because it enables farmers and land managers to use it to access the well of private finance capital and insurance at discounted rates, supporting their sustainability efforts.

What are the next steps suggested by the Forum?
In his letter, Mr Potočnik reaffirmed the Forum’s CTA containing seven specific commitments for change, originally published in March 2023, Commitments include scaling regenerative agriculture and nature restoration, positioning agriculture as a climate solution, aligning public and private incentives, and integrating sustainability into supply chains and global agri-food trade.

The Forum welcomes the reflection of many of the commitments in its CTA in the outcome of the Strategic Dialogue for the future of EU agriculture, he says. The Forum will build on the steps already taken, and investigate areas not fully addressed in the Strategic Dialogue. These include increasing resilience in the food system in tandem with delivering environmental outcomes, and addressing tension between a focus on low food prices and the need for a more holistic approach to consumer and environmental welfare, among others.

Janez highlighted the unique strengths of the Forum as the convenor of a diverse range of partners and stakeholders from across the agri-food system. “All our partners, who are leading change agents in their respective areas, recognize that the case for change is incontestable as well as the urgent need to progress rapidly.”

He stressed that the Forum offers its collaboration and support to the Commissioner, writing: “We hope that you will consider us and our partners as a trusted and valuable source of new thinking, ideas and solutions that can support your work and which you can also draw on to test the emerging elements and pathways for implementation of your own vision for the future of agriculture in Europe and beyond.”

Further information on the Forum’s Call to Action annual report and update can be found here.

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