Use public procurement to make healthy and sustainable food accessible and affordable to all Europeans
Guest short article by Giorgia Dalla Libera Marchiori, Acquire Far better Foodstuff Marketing campaign Coordinator. This posting was first of all printed on Social Europe, remember to discover it in this article.
Use general public procurement to make wholesome and sustainable food stuff far more quickly accessible and cost-effective to all Europeans, a main MEP collectively with regional governments and campaigners explained to EU leaders.
Sarah Wiener, Member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Progress Committee (AGRI), joins help for a new coalition of municipalities, environmental, social and well being non-gain organisations contacting on EU and countrywide leaders to introduce targets and steps encouraging educational institutions, hospitals and community making canteens to supply healthier foodstuff menus. The Obtain Superior Foodstuff initiative arrives as the European Fee prepares a new legislative framework – the Sustainable Meals Procedure initiative – which claims to set bare minimum standards for the sustainable and healthy community procurement of food items across the EU.
Public dollars will have to be utilized to obtain wholesome and sustainable food items, which can aid decrease both greenhouse gas emissions and overall health-related expenses, whilst boasting regional communities’ prosperity and wellbeing. Required targets for superior foods would also aid public procurement turn out to be a driver of transform in the way we deliver and take in food items. They would steer Europe in direction of a far more resilient and equitable foodstuff method as Europeans deal with the interconnected threats of raising food stuff charges and poverty as nicely as climate and environmental breakdown, campaigners stated.
The coalition would like EU establishments and member states to recognise, champion and finance community meals procurement as a “game-changer” for more healthy and extra sustainable diets centered on organic and natural and wholesome fruits and veggies as perfectly as a lot more plant-dependent proteins and much less but much better meat, as advocated in the EU’s roadmap for superior foods identified as the Farm to Fork Tactic.
Member of the European Parliament Sarah Wiener, who was shadow rapporteur of the European Parliament report on the Farm to Fork Technique and is a nicely recognised Austrian chef and organic and natural farmer, explained:
Public procurement has the possibility to incentivise additional organic and natural, sustainable and regional creation, foremost to more healthy meal plans and a fairer distribution of food items in modern society. It is consequently higher time that the EU sets targets to boost organic, sustainable and regional foods in general public canteens, in hospitals and in educational institutions!
At the neighborhood level, an expanding selection of municipalities are building important steps in this direction, anticipating the policies becoming regarded as by the European Fee. The town of Ghent (Belgium), for illustration, has put in area an award-winning meals technique combining targets for food squander reduction, climate action and assist for smaller farmers.
Tamara Bruning, head of catering companies at the town of Ghent, explained:
The metropolis of Ghent has dedicated to constructing a a lot more sustainable and nutritious meals procedure through superior general public procurement. Bettering our canteen and catering companies can support our metropolis access climate neutrality by 2050, whilst also upholding the ideas of wellbeing, fairness and inclusion for our citizens and potential generations.
As a community federal government, we regularly try to uncover new alternatives to today’s social, overall health and environmental problems, and are satisfied to share our knowledge and experience with other European cities.
One more illustration is the metropolis of Mouans-Sartoux (France) which has a very long historical past of procuring food stuff which is healthier for the two men and women and the planet. As Gilles Parole, deputy mayor of the city of Mouans-Sartoux, spelled out:
Mouans-Sartoux’s university canteens have been serving 100% organic and mostly community foods for 10 many years now. Facing disruptions to foodstuff provide chains and burdensome tendering methods, the city created the to start with municipal farm in France in 2011 which provides around 90% of the vegetables consumed by children. Many thanks to this knowledge, we know that community bids can supply local authorities with “purchase power” to make area meals devices far more sustainable. We now need to have the European institutions to do their component and incorporate food-related rules in the EU’s public procurement directive.
Past Brussels, the United Nations Meals & Agriculture Organisation and the Environment Well being Organisation have also identified as for a a lot more responsible use of community food items procurement that performs for people, personnel and the ecosystem. The recent crises Europeans are dealing with, from the COVID pandemic to the war in Ukraine, highlight the will need to speed up improve in the direction of a more resilient and sustainable foods technique that gives nutritious meals to all.
