Activities of Martin HÄUSLING related to 2022/2183(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on ensuring food security and long-term resilience of the EU agriculture
Amendments (28)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas, according to the FAO, the concept of food security is not limited to the supply of food, but also encompasses the internationally recognised human right to food and stable affordable access to healthy and nutritious diets for all;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas despite a slight decreasing trend, per capita meat consumption in many EU countries remains 2 to 4 times higher than the recommended intake; whereas food contributes to around 45% of the environmental impacts of EU consumption; 1a; __________________ 1a European Commission, Drivers of food security, SWD(2023) 4 final.
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas well-designed agricultural and food policies can reduce the cost of sustainable and nutritious foods and increase the availability and affordability of healthy diets sustainably and leaving no one behind; whereas food choices are also significantly shaped by food environments, including food marketing and advertising, product placement and promotions, and labelling;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas consumer food prices, but also household income, are a crucial driver of food security; whereas, when faced with unprecedently high food prices, lower-income households, who spend a large share of their budget on food, may be pushed to choose more unhealthy and less diverse foods, making them particularly vulnerable to the risk of non-communicable diseases linked to poor diets;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
Af. whereas in the EU nearly 57 million tonnes of food waste (127 kg/inhabitant) are generated annually with an associated market value estimated at 130 billion euros; whereas at the same time, some 36.2 million people cannot afford a quality meal every day; whereas food waste causes 6% of EU´s total greenhouse gas emissions;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. SupportsWelcomes the Commission’s comprehensive analysis of the drivers of food security; underlines its conclusions pointing at the urgency of transitioning to a sustainable food system capable of ensuring food security in both the short- and long-term; supports, therefore, the just transition to agro- ecological and organic farming as well as agroforestry; reiterates its support for the ambitions, targets and goals of the farm to fork, biodiversity and zero-pollution strategies; welcomes their published and announced legislative proposals, including those related to the reduction in the use of pesticides and their associated risks and the setting of EU food waste reduction targets;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Welcomes their published and announced legislative proposals, including those related to the 50% target of reduction in the use and the associated risks of pesticides on health and environment, the setting of EU food waste reduction targets and the integrated nutrient management action plan dealing with an unsustainable fertiliser use and steering an effective reduction in fertilisers; calls on the European Commission to uphold its commitment and table a legislative proposal to prohibit the export of all pesticides and other hazardous chemicals banned at EU level, to put an end to double standards, and to ensure a level-playing field for the industry and harmonization between national legislations;
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls on the Commission to present an ambitious proposal for an EU Sustainable Food System Framework Law establishing a clear and measurable path towards food system sustainability in the EU; highlights that such a law should ensure coherence among all existing and future food-related policies, including the EU’s external policies and shift consumption towards sustainable and healthy diets, including support for a higher consumption of legumes, vegetable and fruits; promoting favourable food environments with increasing the affordability and the availability of sustainable and healthy food, while ensuring that prices paid for sustainable production and incomes earned by farmers are fair; calls on the Commission to use this draft law to strengthen the responsibility and engagement of large food businesses in the transition towards sustainability and to recognize animal welfare as a requirement for a sustainable food system and encouraging a shift towards animal husbandry which respects planetary boundaries, as well as animals’ physiological and behavioural needs;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights that the availability of plant proteins, if consumed directly, is more than sufficient to meet global protein needs; acknowledges the positive impact thatnotes the findings from the Commission’s analysis of food security drivers that shifting towards more plant- based diets have on humans, animals, the planet and food securitycan contribute to global food security while being associated with a range of health and environmental benefits; stresses the need for rebalancing the proportion of EU land used for production of animal feed with that for producing human food; stresses that reducing the number and density of farmed animals can effectively combat the climate and biodiversity crises, decrease the risk of zoonotic diseases and contribute to food security in the short and long terms;
Amendment 126 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the future EU framework law on Sustainable Food Systems promotes favourable food environments, where healthy and sustainable food options are the most available, affordable, advertised and attractive;
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Amendment 155 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Reiterates its position on new genomic breeding techniques1 ; regrets the biased nature of the current impact assessment and calls on the Commission to restart the process in an inclusive manner, notably to fully take into account the impact of changes in the legal framework on the non-GMO farming and food sectors, and the impact of the enforcement of patents and intellectual property rights on the breeding sector; underscores that any new legal framework should allow the possibility of co-existence between farmers, including through the implementation of a mandatory traceability all along the production chain; notes that EFSA opinions and statements on plants derived from NGTs were a matter of dispute with several experts demanding to put more weight on the risks caused by the unintended effects resulting from the processes of NGTs; __________________ 1 Resolution of 20 October 2021 on a farm to fork strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system. OJ C 184, 5.5.2022, p. 2.
Amendment 181 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls for a strategy to regionalise the supply chain of the most important commodities and to ensure the supply of local and sustainable plant proteins primarily for human consumption;
Amendment 186 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Highlights that 88 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU each year, with associated costs estimated to be EUR 143 billion; stresses that addressing food waste would have an immediate positive impact on food security Reiterates that food losses and food waste must be reduced from farm to fork; welcomes, therefore, the upcoming revision of the Waste Framework Directive, including the setting of EU food waste reduction targets; calls for an enforceable EU-wide food waste reduction target of 50 % by 2030, based on a common methodology; underlines the positive effects that short food supply chains can have for reducing food waste;1a __________________ 1a https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/doc ument/TA-9-2020-0005_EN.html
Amendment 204 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Emphasises that while the negative impact of the war in Ukraine on global food security has been significant, this crisis has built up on the existing systemic failures in the food system, and that sufficient short- and longer-term measures need to be adopted to address hunger and malnutrition in Europe and beyond; highlights the need to develop appropriate tools to address future food crisis in a sustainable way, compatible with our objectives on climate and biodiversity, rather than resorting to disruptive short-term solutions and increased international trade;
Amendment 208 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Amendment 211 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9c. Highlights that the two major middle- to long-term threats to farming and food production are climate change and the ecosystem collapse; notes that the latest IPCC report forecasts acute future problems for agriculture, the ecosystem stability, water availability and food security; notes also that agriculture relies upon healthy ecosystems, notably functional soil ecosystems, and a sufficient population of pollinators and predators of pests; highlights that more than 75 % of global food crop types, including fruits and vegetables rely on animal pollination;
Amendment 213 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 d (new)
Paragraph 9 d (new)
9d. Calls therefore on the Commission and the member states to focus their efforts in making EU farming and food production more resilient and in decreasing drastically the negative impacts of this sector on climate and the ecosystems, notably by strengthening its autonomy and increasing the diversity of food crops, decreasing its reliance on fossil-based inputs and by moving to more sustainable diets; calls on the Commission to support further investments that can accelerate the green transition and secure sustainability and autonomy, both in the EU and in developing countries;
Amendment 214 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 e (new)
Paragraph 9 e (new)
9e. Notes that the number of farm animals is growing in the EU and that animal products represent 22 % of food exported by the EU; highlights that 60% of crop surfaces in the EU are dedicated to producing feed, and that close to 30 millions of tons of soybeans and soybeans products are imported in the EU every year, leading to an extractive, high carbon footprint and fragile model, linked to deforestation; calls on adapting the size of the EU herd to the planetary boundaries and what the EU land can support, allowing at the same time to reach the objectives of the methane pledge and the Paris agreement; highlights that such a transition must be supported by a systemic strategy at EU and national level in order to avoid unbearable disruptions, as well as at farm level ; notes that a comparable profitability with reduced herds can be achieved for herbivore animals farming by switching to pasture based grazing, allowing to cut of input costs;
Amendment 215 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 f (new)
Paragraph 9 f (new)
Amendment 216 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 g (new)
Paragraph 9 g (new)
Amendment 217 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 h (new)
Paragraph 9 h (new)
9h. Recognises that market speculation, manipulation and the trading of food commodities can artificially inflate wholesale prices and lead to market volatility; calls, in that regard, for an immediate and temporary ban on speculative practices such as short selling, sovereign debt and credit default swaps, ‘futures’ stock options and the high- frequency trading of food commodities that can result in market manipulation, predatory pricing and profiteering; calls on the Commission and European Securities and Markets Authority to work with national regulators to bring forward an urgent proposal to temporarily ban short selling and safeguard food commodities on stock markets, including by revising the currently very permissive EU position limit regime, and to take into account volatility when setting those position limits; notes that the ongoing review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFiD) is a unique opportunity to tackle food speculation by introducing strict limits to the capacity of a trader to speculate on food commodities and fixing the current the loopholes in the regulatory framework;
Amendment 218 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 i (new)
Paragraph 9 i (new)
9i. Stresses the need for full use of school schemes in order to ensure deprived children have access to food; highlights, furthermore, the utility of public procurement programmes in fostering public support for purchasing from smallholders and local producers when sourcing nutritious food for distribution, to guard against food insecurity;
Amendment 219 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 j (new)
Paragraph 9 j (new)
9j. Highlights the high indirect land use change impact of crop-based biofuels because, notably, of deplacement effects, also linked to human rights abuse, land grabbing and global hunger in third countries; calls on the Commission and the Member States to rapidly put in place temporary suspension measures for the production and blending of crop-based biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels in order to secure additional food supplies, stabilise global food commodity markets and phase out crop-based biofuels, not including advanced biofuels, by 2030;
Amendment 220 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 k (new)
Paragraph 9 k (new)
9k. Underlines the importance of seed security and diversity, notably of promoting EU-grown plant proteins to deliver locally sourced food and feed stuffs with high nutritional value while granting farmers access to quality seeds for plant varieties adapted to the pressures of climate change and low input farming systems, including traditional and locally- adapted varieties and heterogeneous material.
Amendment 221 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 l (new)
Paragraph 9 l (new)
9l. Points out that gene-edited plants and animals are patented and should therefore be avoided as they would further contribute to market concentration in seed, plant and animal production and the increase of input costs, in addition to them not providing any advantages over agro-ecological systems, which have proven benefits in terms of biodiversity and the climate when it comes to alleviating food insecurity; calls on the EU and its Member states to prevent patents on biological material used in or produced from means of conventional breeding and to safeguard the freedom to operate and the breeders’ exemption for all conventionally bred varieties;
Amendment 222 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 m (new)
Paragraph 9 m (new)
9m. Calls for closing nutrient cycling loops, shorter food production and supply chains, reducing external inputs and balancing outputs better with the carrying capacities of farmed areas, inter alia to make farming more resilient and autonomous both on-farm and EU level;