European Citizens’ Initiative
31 May 2024
Food is a Human Right for All!
Guaranteeing healthy, just and sustainable food systems
Today, at least one fifth of the EU population does not have access to adequate food. Industrial food systems aggravate food insecurity, inequality, climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and animal suffering.
To remedy this, the EU must protect the right to food and promote healthy, just, humane and sustainable food systems for present and future generations.
The EU needs to do the following:
Ensuring access to healthy and affordable food for all in dignity
Stop treating food as a commodity and control the power of big companies located upstream and downstream of agricultural production
Guaranteeing fair remuneration, access to land, seeds and other natural resources for small-scale food producers and living wages for workers in the food systems
Promoting peasant agroecology to transform food systems
We call on the EU to urgently implement legislative reforms to make the right to food a reality. The EU must realize the right to food as a human right and integrate it into all European laws and policies on food and agriculture impacting people in the EU and abroad.
Annex
We call on the European Commission (EC) to propose legislative reforms to make the right to food a reality. The right to food includes the right to adequate food and the right to be free from hunger. It is guaranteed when everyone has dignified access to adequate food that is available on a sustainable and continuous basis. This right can be realised through guaranteed access to productive resources, a living wage or income, or social protection.
We urge that:
1. The right to food be recognised in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and in the European Pillar of Social Rights.
2. The European institutions integrate the right to food and human rights principles (participation, accountability, non-discrimination, transparency, human dignity, empowerment, rule of law and solidarity - PANTHERS) into all laws and policies related to food and agriculture. These include a framework law on sustainable food systems, which should be based on the right to food.
3. The European institutions create a European Food Council, responsible for strengthening cooperation between the various stakeholders, with the full participation of those involved in agricultural production, peasant farming, agroecology, fisheries, animal farming, processing, crafts, distribution, catering, consumption, social and food aid, the social and solidarity economy, international solidarity, and the protection of human rights, the environment, the climate and animals.
4. The EC uses all its powers to support national social protection initiatives, including social security for food, and encourages cooperation between Member States in this area. Among other objectives, the aim is to ensure that food is no longer an adjustment variable in the budget of individuals and households.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 153
5. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) considerably increases the resources allocated to support small-scale producers, territorial food systems, organic farming and peasant agroecology. The EU must make greater commitments in terms of reducing the use of chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and antimicrobials for farm animals and aquaculture.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 38-44 and 191
6. The EU combats the concentration and monopolisation of agricultural land, both on its own territory and in third countries, implements the right to land, promotes agro-ecological land use, and facilitates gender equality and generational renewal. The EU must also encourage sustainable water management in agricultural production and strengthen the promotion of sustainable fisheries.
Legal basis: FTUE art. 191
7. The EU implements the right to seeds, by protecting and supporting peasant seed systems, and by promoting agrobiodiversity and the availability and use of peasants’ seeds and locally available seeds adapted to low-input organic production. The EU encourages the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for sustainable food systems.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 38-44 and 191-192
8. The EU recognises that agricultural products and foodstuffs are not ordinary commodities. This recognition should be accompanied by policies and measures to ensure fair incomes for producers, market stability and access to healthy, sustainable, chosen and affordable food for all. Food supply is currently controlled by a handful of oligopolies whose market power too often leads them to steer food supply towards products that are cheap but do not reflect the real costs, especially in environmental, health and social terms. Putting the supply of foodstuffs back at the service of realising the right to food therefore requires effective supervision of the market power of these companies located upstream and downstream of agricultural production, promoting local and regional markets and recognising that food is a service of general economic interest.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 101, 102, and art. 14 and 106
9. The European institutions protect the rights of small-scale farmers and fishers, peasants, and other workers in the food chain to be fairly remunerated for their work, while maintaining affordable prices for consumers. Speculation in agricultural commodities and foodstuffs must be banned.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 39 and 153
10. The European institutions promotes animal welfare and encourage a reduction in the production and consumption of industrial animal products, while providing adequate support for animal farmers in the transition.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 13
11. The European institutions promotes healthier and sustainable diets, with greater consumption of vegetables, fruits and legumes, paying particular attention to the impact of ultra-processed food to support the fight against obesity and diet- and lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 168
12. The European institutions support the production of independent scientific knowledge so that the principles of transparency, risk analysis and precaution can be effectively implemented to protect health and the environment in relation to food, including for old and new GMOs.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 168, 169, 191-192
13. The EC uses all its powers to ensure that all children have access to healthy, nutritious school meals that are affordable for every family, where appropriate by providing free meals. It is taking account of the challenges of sustainable food by developing a new framework for public procurement that includes mandatory minimum sustainability criteria and gives local authorities greater freedom in the choice of procurement procedure in order to encourage the development of local food systems.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 114
14. The EU increases transparency with regard to information on consumer food products, in particular geographical origin, production methods and the presence of potentially harmful substances, either on their own or in combination with others. It must harmonise simplified nutritional labelling to benefit public health and regulate advertising of foods whose consumption should be limited to protect health (particularly when aimed at children).
Legal basis: TFEU art. 168-169
15. The EU recognises the structural nature of food loss and waste and adopts appropriate regulatory and policy measures from farm to fork.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 191-192
16. The EU respects, protects and supports the realisation of the right to food of people in other States. This implies close cooperation between States based on food sovereignty, and the promotion of sustainable agro-trade policies that favour the right to food in the EU and in third countries. The EU must prohibit the export of European products at prices that destroy the agriculture of third countries, and of pesticides and chemical fertilisers banned in Europe. It must ensure that companies based in the EU do not violate the right to food in third countries, are not involved in land grabbing, and do not threaten peasant seed systems.
Legal basis: TFEU art. 208, 212