Farm to Fork: Strengths and Weaknesses of a European Strategy for a Global Transition towards Fair, Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems

Abstract

European Union (EU) law on food products provides a consolidated and efficient framework for ensuring food that is safe, plentiful, nutritious and of high quality. However, on the one hand, food systems - including European ones - remain one of the main agents of climate change and of environmental degradation; and on the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for resilient food systems that ensure access to affordable and sufficient food on a global scale. The EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy aims to contribute to the global transition towards fair, healthy, and sustainable food systems and is also a component of the of the European Green Deal (EGD) and of the European agenda to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This chapter will examine the development of this strategy in its international dimension since it may have an extraterritorial character by requiring certain sustainable and healthy requirements for products of animal, forestry or plant origin from third countries if they want to enter the European market. This chapter therefore will deal specifically with the analysis of the scope and content, in legal terms, of the farm to fork strategy in its international dimension.