REPORT

Stress testing the EU's food system

Economic Security / REPORT
Philipp Lausberg , Chris Hegadorn , Martyna Wala , Piotr Magnuszewski

Date: 04/04/2024

The European food system is among the strongest in the world. Yet, it is vulnerable to supply disruptions with increasingly severe weather patterns and rising geopolitical tensions threatening the EU’s food security.

Recently, food security has moved up on the EU’s political agenda as greater self-sufficiency in food is seen as a crucial building block for a more resilient continent in general. But systemic resilience to shocks to European food systems is still fairly under-developed.

To address this problem, the Food Alert project, co-run by the EPC, has organised a closed-door crisis simulation workshop to stress test the EU food system. Food security is of strategic concern and a critical component of economic security, given the indispensability of food for our lives and the connection of food supply chains with other industrial eco-systems such as transportation and energy.

The following report introduces Food Alert’s innovative stress testing method and the outcomes of the workshop, which include ideas for policymakers in the following areas:

Crisis response: Short-term measures to alleviate acute food shortages.
Agriculture and food production: Making the European food sector more resilient and sustainable.
Trade and Finance: Towards more resilient supply chains.

Around 60 participants participated in the workshop including representatives from the EU institutions, national governments, industry and civil society including academia, consumer groups and NGOs.

This report was first published by Food Alert on 27 March 2024.

Read the full paper here.

Photo credits:
Bartosz Naprawa

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