A federal strategy for agriculture to provide sustainable, safe and healthy food for all Europeans

18 December 2025
|By sg@jef.eu

Resolution submitted by: JEF Political Commission 2 – Internal European Affairs.
Adopted by the online Federal Committee (FC Home) on 25 October 2020.
Amended and re-adopted by the Federal Committee in Malta on 19 March 2023.
Amended and re-adopted by the European Congress in Strasbourg on 16 November 2025.

JEF Europe,

  • Recognising the historical significance of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the European project, as the historically most funded policy area that still makes up one of the biggest budgetary posts, and can have an oversized impact on the EU’s overall sustainability goals;

  • Recalling its resolution ‘Environment does not stop at the borders’, affirming the inherently cross-border nature of the environment and the interdependence of environmental challenges with economic and social systems in a globalised world;

  • Convinced that Europe needs a federal-level approach to food policy, that ensures an equitable, secure and sustainable food supply and a harmonised single market in food products;

  • Underlining that such an approach could become a green and sustainable model for food systems worldwide and contribute to greater and more ambitious cooperation among countries in key areas such as animal welfare, the use of pesticides and the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR);

  • Alarmed by the fact that European natural resources are being degraded at an unprecedented rate, leading to almost half of Europe’s native trees and more than 1,500 of its animal species being threatened with extinction;

  • Acknowledging that the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets were missed by 2020, and that the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (adopted 2022) now sets updated global targets for 2030, including protecting at least 30% of land and sea;

  • Underlining the fact that the agriculture sector is responsible for 12% of total European greenhouse gas emissions, while global food systems from production to consumption account for roughly one-quarter to one-third of total emissions;

  • Recognising that some practices relating to food production and consumption for European consumers have a huge impact globally, which should be factored into policy decisions;

  • Regretting the increasing use of intensive monoculture agriculture in European food production;

  • Deeply concerned by the unsustainable environmental, social, and ethical consequences of industrial farming, including intensive livestock production, monocultures, and the overuse of chemicals;

  • Concerned that fewer than 12% of farms in the EU are managed by farmers under the age of 40, reflecting the ageing of Europe’s agricultural sector and the growing barriers young people face in accessing land, credit, and viable income;

  • Alarmed that hectare-based payments under the CAP, sometimes received by non-farmers, contribute to land price inflation and thereby further exclude new entrants and young people from establishing themselves in agriculture;

  • Highlighting with alarm that high rates of imports of feed products such as soy used to feed European livestock, contributes to the deforestation of rainforests;

  • Alarmed by the overuse of pesticides and nutrient fertilisers such as phosphorus and nitrogen that deteriorate the ecosystems, including soil and ground water quality, at the local and regional level; and that endanger animals and insects living in these ecosystems;

  • Disapproving of the overuse of antibiotics in terrestrial and aquatic industrial livestock that contributies to antimicrobial resistance;

  • Noting with concern that unsafe food still causes over 23 million illnesses and around 5,000 deaths each year in Europe, with foodborne disease outbreaks on the rise despite existing EU regulations, revealing gaps in prevention, traceability, and enforcement across Member States;

  • Concerned by the increased trade in live animals and their transportation conditions, despite the ambitions agreed to by the international community in the CITES agreement;

  • Alarmed by the increasing rate of contagious diseases that spread between animals and humans (so‑called zoonoses);

  • Recognising the potential of vertical and urban farming in reducing land pressure, while stressing the need for a ‘zero net land take’ approach and cautioning against soil artificialisation;

  • Recalling the importance of the opening of the zero net‑land take by 2050 debate in the debates of the Soil Monitoring Law and regretting the rejection of the amendment by EU co‑legislators;

  • Underlining that both agricultural intensification and land abandonment can negatively affect pollinators, farmland birds and semi‑natural habitats, and recognising the role of pastoralism in maintaining biodiversity and preventing wildfires in sensitive areas;

  • Alarmed by the fact that almost 20 million birds died or have been culled in 2025 following the H5N1 (Bird flu), while the established practices of mass livestock farming and animal transport promote the spread of such diseases;

  • Noting that high consumption of meat and dairy contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and that certain livestock farming practices largely contribute to land use pressure;

  • Concerned about the high levels of red meat and dairy consumption in the European Union, which contribute to public health challenges such as cardiovascular diseases and diet-related illnesses;

  • Acknowledging that extensive livestock systems, particularly ruminant grazing, can contribute to the preservation of grasslands and biodiversity across Europe;

  • Recognising that food waste is a major source of environmental damage and resource inefficiency across the European food system;

  • Noting that public institutions (schools, hospitals, government canteens) play a key role in promoting sustainable, healthy, and fair food systems;

  • Welcoming the European Commission’s continued commitment to revise animal welfare and transport rules, while expressing concern over stalled Green Deal agrifood measures and the deregulatory trend signaled by Omnibus simplification packages;

  • Noting the uncertainties in the Multiannual Financial Framework negotiations and the implications for CAP, rural development, and Cohesion Policy funding.

JEF Europe therefore,

  1. Calls for a common strategy on European food that ensures safe and sustainable food by means of an inclusive, transparent and agricultural support-scheme;

  2. Declares that European agriculture must shift towards proven sustainable practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, agroforestry, reduced tillage, integrated pest management, and improved soil health management, based on territorial sensitivity and balanced livestock–arable symbiosis to reduce artificial fertiliser use;

  3. Believes that the next reform of the CAP must fully integrate the environmental and social objectives of the European Green Deal while addressing current shortcomings in its implementation within the agri‑food sector and the risks of deregulation posed by the ongoing Omnibus simplification packages;

  4. Stresses that the CAP must remain a genuinely European-level policy, as national fragmentation would risk diluting its common objectives, distorting the level playing field of the Single Market, and undermining solidarity between Member States;

  5. Calls for a reform of the Natural Resources (NAT) Section of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) to enhance its representativity and capacity on food policy, while exploring options for a dedicated advisory platform on sustainable food systems within the EESC;

  6. Urges the introduction of financial incentives for sustainable practices (e.g. payment for ecosystem services) and the removal of subsidies and quotas for those practices that lead to loss of biodiversity, water depletion and land degradation, through transparent and equitable support for farmers;

  7. Calls upon the Commission and Member States to ensure effective transparency and youth stakeholder inclusion in the EU CAP negotiations and national processes for the preparation of strategic plans;

  8. Calls for the protection and meaningful participation of young farmers’ organisations and rural youth organisations in national‑level CAP consultations, and condemns instances of political interference, corruption or exclusion of young farmers and rural youth in Member States;

  9. Expects a higher proportion of direct support payments targeted at young farmers, complemented by financial support under rural development and measures facilitating access to land and land transfers;

  10. Calls for the establishment of fair agricultural income conditions and farm relief systems, guaranteeing decent working and living standards in rural areas, in particular for small and family farms, seasonal workers and women farmers;

  11. Stresses the importance of supporting alternative agricultural business models, such as short and direct supply chains and consumer co‑operatives, as well as reducing the density of livestock;

  12. Encourages the renewal of traditional agricooperative models by promoting youth participation in their governance, integrating cooperative management training in agricultural education curricula, and supporting democratic decision‑making structures within large agri‑cooperatives;

  13. Calls for the introduction of minimum sustainability standards for public food procurement, ensuring meals served are healthy, climate‑friendly, organic where possible, and sourced from local or small‑scale farmers;

  14. Expects that the sector invests in the opportunities presented by technology to create direct channels with consumers in order to shorten supply chains and promote regional production, for instance through social network platforms;

  15. Calls for a European-level fight against food inequality that ensures that the same quality of food is available and affordable to all Europeans;

  16. Demands a significant increase in funding and technical support for organic farming, alongside measures to stimulate market demand through public procurement, consumer incentives, and awareness campaigns, ensuring that the organic sector remains viable despite inflationary pressures and reduced price premiums;

  17. Calls on the EU Institutions to review the current subsidy structure in agriculture, and work toward one which supports farmers willing to stop or reducing livestock farming;

  18. Calls on the EU institutions to revive and strengthen the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive following its previous rejection, addressing national political resistance and ensuring effective and enforceable reduction measures;

  19. Reaffirms the need to act upon the demands of over one million Europeans expressed through the successful European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Bees and Farmers”, calling for the phase‑out of synthetic pesticides by 2035 and at least a 50% reduction in their use and risk by 2030;

  20. Calls for setting targets for the share of polyculture cultivation, conservation agroforestry and permanent cover crops, in order to achieve the goals set out in the protect European biodiversity strategy and the pollinators initiative;

  21. Calls for more ambitious binding EU‑level targets to reduce food waste, with measurable milestones, monitoring mechanisms, and accountability across all stages of the food supply chain;

  22. Encourages the food industry to minimise the use of plastic food packaging and participates in the introduction of EU‑wide deposit‑refund schemes for beverage and food packaging, inspired by the successful ‘Pfand’ models in several Member States, in coherence with JEF Europe’s resolution ‘An Accelerated Transition to the Circular Economy’;

  23. Advocates for a substantial reduction in meat and dairy consumption in Europe, through public education, incentives for plant‑based alternatives, and integration into public catering policies;

  24. Promotes the establishment of an EU‑wide label for products to indicate the level of animal welfare and the ecological footprint, while expanding the nutrient information on meat products, warning of the maximum recommended daily meat intake, while ensuring additional funding to help out smaller firms with the added boundaries of a higher level of scrutiny;

  25. Urges the European Commission to ensure that animal sentience considerations are integral to all CAP policy and legislative objectives, with Member States committing to phasing out the practice of caging animals as an important first step towards animal welfare reform;

  26. Expects that meat imports meet the EU’s animal welfare standards and ecological footprint, that export of live farmed animals outside Europe be banned, and that this should be a precondition for all trade in animal products and become part of WTO guidelines;

  27. Urges the EU to firmly defend its regulatory autonomy in all trade negotiations and to resist external political or commercial pressure, particularly from the United States, that seeks to weaken EU food safety, environmental, or animal welfare standards through more lenient import regulations;

  28. Pressures for rapid reduction of the usage of antibiotics in livestock farming, while combating the spread of diseases in the meat industry;

  29. Calls for stronger implementation of the EU One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance, including stricter monitoring of veterinary antibiotic sales and use;

  30. Calls for the development of vertical farming primarily in urban or reclaimed industrial areas, ensuring its complementarity with biodiversity and rural landscape preservation.