Building the future of EU agrifood – Encouraging high-level statements at congress’ first day

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2024 – Following the Strategic Dialogue for the future of EU agriculture’s recommendations, many agrifood stakeholders, high-level policymakers, civil society and the organic movement continued discussing and building the sector’s future.

Opening by the Hungarian Minister of Agriculture

In his opening remarks, Dr. István Nagy, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, both highlighted organic’s contributions to making the world better every day and stressed its role as leading model of sustainable farming.

Following the Minister, organic sector representatives Jan Plagge, IFOAM Organics Europe’s President, and Dora Drexler, Managing Director at the Hungarian Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (ÖMKi), highlighted organic’s role as bridge-builder and innovator beyond technology.

High-level exchanges on the EU agrifood’s common future

Following the opening, high-level representatives of the EU institutions and national ministries exchanged on recent political developments about the new EU political mandate to address current social, environmental and  economic crises.

Farming organisations discuss the CAP’s potential

We continue building a common vision for the EU agrifood’s future, taking a deep-dive into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with representatives of the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, farmers and agri-cooperatives (COPA-COGECA) and young farmers (CEJA).

Since 1962, the CAP has played a crucial role in developing European farming. To date, 31% of the EU budget still goes to the CAP. EU and national policymakers’ decisions about which farming systems and practices to promote through the CAP directly shape the kind of food system we have in the EU.

As European organic movement, we believe that a CAP fit for the future is in line with the Strategic Dialogue’s opinion that a transition to sustainable agri-food systems is necessary and there are solutions that work for farmers, nature and society.

This is why we published the organic movement’s vision on a CAP fit for the future on 10 September. This vision urges that the CAP needs an ambitious reform to enable an agroecological transition of Europe’s agriculture, while:

1. Supporting all farmers who want to transform their farms sustainably using a whole-farm approach;
2. Adequately rewarding farmers engaged in sustainability systems, such as organic farmers, for the benefits they already deliver to the environment and society; and
3. Ensuring the sector’s competitiveness.