First ClieNFarms Public Policy Workshop Report
On 8 July 2022, the first ClieNFarms public policy workshop took place online. The topic of the
the workshop was climate neutrality and food security in the context of the war in Ukraine.
First, the keynote speakers Alexander Müller (TMG Think Tank for Sustainability) and Nathalie
Bolduc (iddri) took the floor. Alexander Müller stressed that the short-term responses to tackle the
current food affordability crisis should not put the urgently needed transformation of the food
system at risk. Nathalie Bolduc highlighted that the Farm to Fork Strategy promotes a systemic
approach to food system sustainability. Its targets are ambitious but coherent with the need to
foster the resilience of our food system.
After the coordinator of ClieNFarms, Jacques-Eric Bergez (INRAE), had presented the project, a policy
debate with representatives from the EU Commission (DG AGRI), EEB, COPA-COGECA, and IFOAM
Organics Europe followed. The appropriate balance between short-term solutions to ensure food
security and longer-term measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change, maintain farm
productivity, and protect our ecosystems was debated. Another topic of concern was the role of animal production in the context of food security and climate change. A high amount of cereals is fed to animals and greenhouse gas emissions are related to livestock production. Moreover, the current animal production systems make the EU dependent on crop imports for animal feed. Carbon farming and the regulatory framework for the certification of carbon removals of the EU were part of the debate. A lot of uncertainties remain about how farmers will benefit from a carbon market and how it can ensure carbon sequestration in the long term.
The full report of the workshop can be found below.
The recording of the workshop is available here.