EU Food and Farming Forum

On May 29-30, 2018, over 250 people came together for the EU Food and Farming Forum (EU3F) to discuss the need for a Common Food Policy for the EU – a policy comprehensive enough to bring together the different sectoral policies that affect food production, processing, distribution, and consumption, refocusing all actions on the transition to sustainability. 

This was participatory democracy in action. Over the course of two days, participants deliberated a total of 117 proposals for change. These proposals were inspired by five policy labs IPES-Food convened in Brussels, four local labs held in Freiburg, Milan, Montpellier and Turin, and collaborative work with over 30 research and civil society organisations convened over three years. 

Participants from a wide range of perspectives reviewed these proposals in successive rounds of discussions. Some proposals were set aside because they were unable to garner sufficient support. Others were reformulated or broadly endorsed, and many new suggestions arose. Around 50 ‘priority’ proposals emerged from the deliberation, providing the basis of a Common Food Policy blueprint – a series of time-bound and interrelated actions that should be taken to move towards sustainable food systems in Europe. The broader consensus emerging from EU3F, the diverse ideas and principles to guide food systems reform, have been captured in IPES-Food’s final report (February 2019): ‘Towards A Common Food Policy for the EU’. 

• Read more about the impact of EU3F in the thank you letter to participants (EN/FR)
• Read the EU3F Framing Paper (EN, FR)
• Read the full 2-day Programme (EN)
• Read the Q&A: Why a Common Food Policy? (EN) 

Discover the working groups: