This week in this special edition of the EURACTIV Agrifood podcast, we spoke to a range of stakeholders and policymakers to hear their reactions to the presentation of the highly anticipated Farm to Fork strategy which, after several delays, was finally presented on the 20 May.   ...

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has said he will support Poland’s proposal to increase the budget for EU’s farming subsidies by 10%, the excessive use of state aid to bail out struggling farmers during the COVID-19 crisis could be a cause for concern for the single market and fair competition in the member states, and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has revealed the Farm to Fork strategy will not provide a compulsory EU-wide nutritional food label scheme. ...

Backed by the organic food sector, EU lawmakers are pushing the European Commission to delay the coming into force of the reformed organic regulation; after being delayed twice, the European Commission is ready to unveil on 20 May its much-awaited food policy, the Farm to Fork Strategy; and EURACTIV takes a look at how the agritourism sector is struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. This week featuring Matteo Metta from ARC2020, who explains the findings from a recent analysis on the transparency and stakeholder inclusivity of the design process of national Common Agricultural Policy plans.  ...

The European Parliament’s agriculture committee has approved a negotiating mandate for upcoming talks with national ministers on a transitional period for EU farming subsidies, MEPs voice strong reservations about the market measures put forth by the Commission to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, and farmers are noticing an increase in the use of unfair trade practices (UTPs) in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. ...

Member states are increasingly considering protectionist measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the European Commission announced exceptional market measures, and stakeholders are calling for urgent action to protect agri-food workers ...

The current budget for the deployment of market measures is very limited says Commissioner Wojciechowski, the launch date of the highly-anticipated new EU food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F), is currently under review and MEPs called on reducing volume production in the dairy sector to avoid milk storage or destruction ...