Viewpoint: Higher food prices, increased food insecurity, trade impacts? The EU’s Farm to Fork strategy has devastating potential outcomes

Credit: Borgen Project
Credit: Borgen Project

A recent study by the USDA Economic Research Service shows potential negative impacts to the global market if the European Union and/or other countries adopt the EU’s Farm2Fork strategy.

ERS Senior Economist Jayson Beckman tells Brownfield their study focused on the EU’s plans to reduce pesticide use by 50%, fertilizer by 20% and agricultural land use by 10%.  He says the restriction of ag inputs could have a domino effect.

“So, you see production falling because they can’t use as much fertilizer and pesticides. If production goes down prices are going to go up. Higher prices lead to higher food costs and trade is impacted because you have less product available to export and so globally prices would go up.”

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“The number of food insecure people could increase an additional 22 million people if the EU is the only region who adopts the strategy, but it could go up to 185 million people if everyone in the world adopted the strategies.”

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