10.F. Round table: Transforming food and agricultural systems and addressing food insecurity in Europe
Authors:   Organised by: European Public Health Alliance, EUPHA Food and nutrition section, EUPHA Health promotion section, Institute of Sociology, University of Education - Freiburg, Germany Chair person: Nikolai Pushkarev - Netherlands
Published: October 2020

This roundtable will follow up from the Workshop on Planetary Healthy Diets for All and explore practical solutions to tie increased sustainability of food systems to reductions in food insecurity in Europe.

There is a disconnect between the level of scientific evidence supporting the need for action on food and agricultural systems and the willingness to uptake it at the national and local level. Countries' reluctance to implement evidence-based policy options often results from the perception that the data and solutions do not reflect their national realities.

At the same time, there is a rising trend in food insecurity in Europe. Part of it is driven by the food system itself and part of it by social determinants that exacerbate the effects of elements such as food prices or the availability of affordable healthy foods. In terms of the current response to food insecurity in Europe, there is enough evidence that it is inadequate. The most notable example of inadequacy are food banks: they are unsustainable and perpetuate deficiencies of the foods system, such as waste. At the same time, food banks contribute to widening health inequities because they are stigmatizing, and the quality and reliability of the food they offer exacerbates health problems. They also mask failures of social protection and of food policy to protect those at the bottom. Yet, they are proliferating all around Europe.

The WHO European Regional Office for Europe will share practical steps that it is taking to assist policy makers at national level to bridge evidence and action. WHO will present a novel on-line, readily accessible tool that public health officials from Member States can use to guide policy decisions. This tool uses a food systems model considering food consumption, food production, environmental impacts and health impacts to identify practical solutions for countries to create food systems that both have a lower impact on the climate and promote healthier diets.

The roundtable will also highlight the transformative example of Copenhagen's public food procurement strategy, which, starting from a target on organic food in public canteens, has evolved into a comprehensive approach to achieve tasty, healthy, sustainable meals with social added value and without increasing procurement costs.

In sum, against the backdrop of both nutritional and environmental challenges to food systems in Europe, participants at the roundtable will share barriers and opportunities to the uptake of evidence-based solutions to transform food systems and tackle food insecurity at the national and local levels, including in the context of the ongoing reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the new 'Farm to Fork' Strategy for sustainable food. This discussion will allow participants to share their insights and enrich each other's understanding of the issues at stake and the tools and opportunities on offer to support, in an action-oriented way, a sustainable food systems transition that overcomes food insecurity.

Key messages

Global reference diets need application on a national and subnational level. Food insecurity, can be major barrier to the uptake of healthy diets and must be tackled as such. The new data platform and training materials will empower policymakers within countries to develop and introduce national level initiatives, such as sustainable and healthy public procurement.