HEAL calls on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to commit to protecting people’s health from the triple crisis during her second term in a letter. HEAL urges her to safeguard and strengthen the EU climate and environmental acquis for better health, and accelerate on the zero pollution path, including for the foreseen reform of the EU chemicals law REACH.
People in the EU have made unprecedented calls for change throughout 2019, demanding climate action, environmental protection, improved animal welfare and social justice. Food systems are pushing us across ‘planetary boundaries’, driving diet-related diseases and failing to deliver decent livelihoods in the EU and beyond: they are therefore at the heart of the change that citizens are demanding.
EU policies, and in particular the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), have so far failed to drive a transition towards sustainable food systems. We therefore welcome the upcoming ‘Farm to Fork’ (F2F) Strategy, which represents a crucial opportunity to provide a coherent response to societal concerns about biodiversity, climate change, health, income of all workers in the food chain, social equity and animal welfare, amongst others.
We are concerned, however, that the European Green Deal does not reflect the urgent, systemic changes needed in our food system, nor contains concrete commitments to drive a fundamental transition.
Read our letter to European Commission Vice-President Timmermans.