Plagge told the committee: “The Strategic Dialogue’s recommendations are an opportunity for all farmers, as they make it clear that environmental sustainability must go hand in hand with fair incomes. The Strategic Dialogue offers clear pathways for all farmers to transition to sustainable systems in a way that improves livelihoods, provides a real simplification while preventing greenwashing.”

Plagge (pictured) highlighted organic food and farming as food production system that already demonstrates this: “The Strategic Dialogue explicitly recognises organic farming as prime example of food production system that reconciles nature protection and farmers’ income and as the only legally defined and regulated sustainable production system in the EU and should be upscaled. The European Commission and the Parliament must build on this unprecedented consensus among all agrifood stakeholders to shape a clear vision of the future for the agriculture sector.”

IFOAM Organics Europe says that the organic movement will continue to be a “partner building bridge to realise this shared vision for making EU agrifood more economically and environmentally sustainable”.