One in four EU children at risk of food insecurity; citizens campaign for the right to food

Brussels – The right to food must become a principle of the European Union, because around 20 per cent of the European population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and one in four children is at risk of food insecurity. This is the basis for the Good food for all European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). Through sixteen specific demands, covering the entire food supply chain, the organisers are calling for this fundamental right to be guaranteed to all through dignified and sustainable access to food. Food “is never just food, but carries with it various implications such as health, access and affordability,” said MEP Annalisa Corrado (S&D) today, 24 June, during the presentation of the initiative. 

“At least one-fifth of the European population has no access to adequate food. Industrial food systems aggravate food insecurity, climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, labour exploitation and animal suffering,” according to the ECI website. 

On the institutional front, therefore, there are calls for the creation of an EU Food Council and the adoption of regulations and directives that protect small-scale farmers, guarantee decent wages for workers in the sector, and counter the market power of large corporations. Considerable attention is also devoted to sustainability: from organic farming and peasant agroecology to reducing the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilisers, to more sustainable water and fisheries management. The initiative also calls for concrete measures to promote animal welfare and to reduce the industrial production of animal-derived products. 

On the social front, there are calls for a directive to address the concentration of agricultural land and promote access for women and younger generations, and for all children in state schools to have access to healthy, nutritious, and sustainable meals.

The initiative also affects financial markets by proposing a ban on all forms of speculation in agricultural commodities and addressing seed issues through measures that protect biodiversity and the autonomy of small-scale farmers’ seed systems. Finally, from an international perspective, it calls for all EU trade agreements to be made conditional upon the protection of the right to food, and for a ban on the export to third countries of pesticides and fertilisers already prohibited in Europe.

In 2019, at the start of the previous parliamentary term, “expectations were high, and there were hopes of bringing agriculture, the environment, health, and labour together under one umbrella,” said Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. However, that momentum gradually faded and, although “the Green Deal has not been formally abandoned,” in practice “it has largely been sidelined on the European Commission’s agenda.”

Faced with the looming food crisis, De Schutter warns against simplistic solutions. “We must resist the temptation to see increased production and the resulting fall in prices as the solution,” he said, “and instead focus on far more resilient and sustainable food systems, based on local diversity rather than uniformity.” The figures on food poverty are already dramatic, with “93 million people in Europe at risk of poverty or social exclusion, around 20 per cent of the European population,” and “19 million children, one in four in the EU, at risk of food insecurity.” 

Juan José Echanove, of the FAO’s Right to Food Unit, provided some figures. “More than 11 per cent of the population on the European continent experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022,” he said, “which means that even in that year, more than 100 million people were struggling to access food.” This is a problem that also affects the wealthiest countries, given that “more than 8 per cent of the population in the European Union cannot afford a meat-based meal or a vegetarian equivalent every other day.” 

Food affordability, said De Schutter, can only be addressed in a more sustainable way by “strengthening social protection, raising wages, and safeguarding the purchasing power of low-income households.” He points out that today “there are 16 million working poor in Europe” and that “the 2022 Minimum Wage Directive does not go far enough.” Food “is not a commodity,” he concluded. “Food production should not be governed by an economic logic dictated by the markets, but by an ecological logic.”

This view was also expressed by Cristina Guarda, a Green MEP, who called for a clear paradigm shift, pointing out, just like De Schutter, that “food cannot be regarded merely as a product” and that the concept of food sovereignty must mean that “communities take ownership of it,” not that “we continue to ask the Global South to grow food for us.” 

From a legal perspective, Echanove highlighted a structural shortcoming in Europe, because “no European country explicitly protects the right to food as a constitutional right.” He did, however, cite a positive sign: “In October 2024, the Strasbourg Assembly passed a resolution, adopted unanimously by all political groups, calling on all Member States to explore the constitutional recognition of the right to food. This is the first time ever that a European body has issued such a call.”

 According to Echanove, the debate is “a conversation about dignity.” But for this to be more than just a debate and to become a concrete obligation for the European Commission, one million signatures must be collected in at least seven Member States, the threshold that the European Citizens’ Initiatives must reach to prompt Brussels to take an official stance.