Across Europe exists a diversity of landscapes and foods —cheeses that only taste that way because of the pasture they come from, grains that grow in one valley and nowhere else, vegetables that carry the memory of a region’s soil and seasons. These are more than just products—they are expressions of culture, knowledge, and ecology. But this connection of territories with products, with those who grow it, and with those who eat it is increasingly hurt by geopolitical and trade dynamics, with long-term costs that too often go unspoken.
Why are small farms closing while supermarket prices keep rising? Why does imported meat cost less than the one produced next door? These aren’t quirks— they are the results of policy choices based on promises that industrialization of agriculture has not kept.
From COVID-era shortages and the invasion of Ukraine, to droughts and floods or the 2025 tariff tensions with the U.S., one thing has become undeniable: our food system is too exposed, too fragile, and too dependent on distant global supply chains. And when those chains break, it is citizens who pay the price.
True food security lies not in quantity of production, it’s about people having real power over how their food is grown, distributed, and accessed.
Taking this fragility seriously means acknowledging a core truth: food cannot be treated purely as a commodity. Its value cannot be measured only in profit margins or trade volumes. Food is a public good. It shapes our health, landscapes, cultures, and communities. When treated as a tradable asset, its deeper roles are erased. Industrialised agriculture, designed for efficiency and yield, destroys biodiversity, displaces traditional knowledge, and externalizes social and environmental costs—from exploitative labour conditions to poisoned ecosystems abroad.
What Europe currently calls 'food security' is, in fact, a precarious food dependency. True food security isn’t measured by how far strawberries can travel in winter: the opening of market access and import/exports has not reduced the amount of Europeans that go to bed hungry. True food security lies not in quantity of production, it’s about people having real power over how their food is grown, distributed, and accessed. It means strong local networks, fair livelihoods for farmers, and food systems that regenerate land rather than exhaust it. In short, it’s about resilience built from the ground up, not stretched thin across continents.
We must also ask: what—and whom—does our current production model really feed? A disproportionate share of European agriculture serves export markets or animal factory businesses. The last 15 years have seen the disappearance of about 5.3 million farms. Meanwhile, nutrient-dense, regionally rooted foods and diets are replaced with nutrient-poor, ultra-processed substitutes and standardisation of taste. The environmental and social costs are quietly paid elsewhere: rainforests cleared for soy and cattle, farm workers exposed to toxic chemicals in export-driven monocultures, and local producers pushed out from their lands by a handful of corporations. This isn’t efficient. It’s short-sighted.
The current situation is not irreversible. With major policy proposals on the table—from CAP reform to new trade agreements—EU leaders have a responsibility to face some key questions:
- Will public subsidies continue to support agribusinesses that degrade ecosystems and food cultures, or will they shift toward supporting the agroecological transition?
- Will market rules be designed to give farmers fair prices and decent livelihoods, or continue rewarding the biggest and most powerful players that/who purchase food below production cost?
- Will legislations implement high production standards for imports, or allow double standards that export environmental and social harm elsewhere?
Climate shocks, geopolitical tensions, and economic instability have shown how exposed our food system really is. More trade deals won’t fix that.
In our new policy brief, we outline recommendations for a path forward. The EU must stop incentivizing industrial farming and global supply chains through its trade policies. This means removing advantages for high-volume, low-standard production, and ending the reliance on cheap imports produced with banned pesticides or poor labour conditions—practices Europe wouldn’t allow within its own borders. The implementation of “mirror measures” are a step in that direction.
Slow Food calls for a shift toward agroecology: diverse, knowledge-intensive farming that builds soil fertility and protects ecosystems, nurturing local economies and diverse diets. Agroecology meets real food needs, by being community-led and adapted. This means also tackling animal factory farming, based on treating animals as productive units instead of sentient beings, depending on massive amounts of soy (along with other feed crops), cultivated from deforested areas, GMO-crops resistant to high-usage of glyphosate.
The above will not be possible unless we rebalance power amongst food actors. Lifting up short supply chains, empowering agroecological farmers and food artisans, and restoring transparency across food systems must become a priority. The current market concentration limits the choice of farmers and the choice of eaters, and ultimately, the resilience of our global and local food systems.
Climate shocks, geopolitical tensions, and economic instability have shown how exposed our food system really is. More trade deals won’t fix that. If we want to make food affordable, sustainable, and fair—both now and for future generations—we need to stop treating it as just another product. Healthy, affordable, tasty food is a right, not a gamble. The next months open doors to rethink how food moves across borders, and who benefits from it. The future of Europe’s food security will be built in thriving local markets rooted in care, not extraction.
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