BRUSSELS, 5 November 2021 – The European Commission must strongly resist any attempt by the US to use the newly created transatlantic collaboration platform on agriculture to undermine the implementation of a healthier and more sustainable European food system, Compassion in World Farming EU warned today.

A recipe for disaster

“Partnering with the US on agriculture to tackle sustainability and climate change is a recipe for disaster given the apparently immutable vested interest of the American agribusiness lobby in maintaining the status quo regardless of its devastating impacts on public health, the environment and animal welfare,” said Olga Kikou, Head of Compassion in World Farming EU.

Diverging interests

Coming just a few weeks after the European Parliament’s resounding vote in support of the Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system, the creation of the transatlantic collaboration platform looks suspiciously like a US attempt to influence the Commission and undermine the strategy’s implementation.

The strategy represents a huge opportunity for the EU to finally take decisive action to transform our unsustainable food system after years of merely paying lip service to the issue.

In light of the worsening climate and biodiversity crises and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commission’s arguments for moving to a healthier, more sustainable and more resilient food system that includes a greater role for plant-based foods and better animal welfare are even stronger today than when it adopted the strategy 18 months ago.

But this planned reform evidently challenges the status quo, in which the EU is a loyal buyer of US beef and dairy products.