Statement of solidarity with Ukraine

The European organic movement expresses its solidarity with all people in Ukraine, with all those, including in Russia, who have to face the war machine and its propaganda, and who suffer the consequences of misinformation, deceit and violence. From the bottom of our hearts, we are thankful to all those, including many farmers, who are currently helping refugees in the eastern regions of the EU. 

Inevitably, war will disrupt some supply chains and affect food prices. But this crisis, like the pandemic before it, and others to come, should strengthen the EU’s determination to make our food system more resilient, in line with planetary boundaries and to bring our economic model back in balance with nature. The EU should seek to work towards an agroecological and social model which is more resilient, fairer, healthier, more knowledge-intensive and based on shorter supply chains – rather than the agro-industrial model which is highly dependent on global imports and exports, fossil-fuels, and non-circular inputs. 

The EU Farm to Fork Strategy sets the right mid- and long term objectives to ensure food security in an uncertain and volatile world. Shorter and better structured supply chains can reduce speculation and price volatility. Relocalisation and re-complexification of our food production system, coupled to changes in diet and decreasing intensity in animal husbandry, can reduce dependency of imports of grains and legumes for feed, as highlighted by scenarios of a transition to agroecology (see IDDRI’s Ten Years for Agroecology). 

The organic movement regrets and rejects calls to suspend environmental legislation and to forget about climate change and biodiversity loss because of the situation. We stand in solidarity with those suffering due to the war in Europe.