WWF vision paper October 2022

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

1. Set mandatory 2050 targets
2. Shift consumption
3. Lower prices of sustainable food
4. National action plans and sustainability rules for business
5. Improve food systems governance

Question 2

1. Set mandatory 2050 targets

Answer 2

• Establish a 2050 vision for sustainable food systems to provide a clear direction and ensure coherence among food related policies. This must include intermediate and final binding targets that apply to the entire food system, from production to consumption, as well as a comprehensive evaluation mechanism to monitor progress.

Question 3

2. Shift consumption

Answer 3

Support the adoption of healthy and sustainable diets
and the protein transition. This must entail using all policy tools to tackle key aspects of the food system, such as food characteristics (i.e. appearance, nutritional content), length of supply chains, public procurement, advertising and promotion, dietary guidelines, retail and other food services.

Question 4

3. Lower prices of sustainable food

Answer 4

Strive to make healthy and sustainable diets the cheapest option for consumers. By adopting policy measures that are
informed by the true cost of food, and which take into account environmental and social impacts while preventing unfair competition, this will also foster more sustainable production.

Question 5

4. National action plans and sustainability rules for business

Answer 5

Create new obligations for large food businesses - so they improve the sustainability of the food supply chain - and require national governments to complement EU action through national food plans. This will ensure that these actors are accountable with transparent and EU-standardised reporting requirements.

Question 6

5. Improve food systems governance

Answer 6

Renew the governance of EU food policies, including by creating a scientific advisory board and a platform for locally-led initiatives for sustainable food systems. Making it more inclusive and science-based will ensure fairness and adaptive management capacity during the transition.

Question 7

Define Sustainable Food System

Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPE) in 2020, and used by the European Commission, underlines the multiple dimensions and complexity of food systems:

Answer 7

“A sustainable food system for the EU is one that provides and promotes safe, nutritious and healthy food of low environmental impact for all current and future EU citizens in a manner that itself also protects and restores the natural environment and its ecosystem services, is robust and resilient, economically dynamic, just and fair, and socially acceptable and inclusive. It does so without compromising the availability of nutritious and healthy food for people living outside the EU, nor impairing their natural environment.”