The European Commission and the Articulation of Sustainable Food: Policy Pathways, Dependencies and Discontinuities

The articulation of policies on sustainable food is taking new directions beyond the confines of the CAP and the establishment of food safety and nutrition polices. In recent years the development of sustainability policy in the European Commission has been framed in terms of the linking of Sustainable Consumption and Production and more recently under the declaration of a move to a more Resource Efficient Europe. Alongside this, discussions and actions around the Competitiveness of the European agri-food industry have been taking place. Within the resource efficiency policy goal the Commission is beginning to address the scientific and methodological basis for identifying and measuring sustainable food by attempting to work with the food industry in framing environmental life cycle assessment methodology and promoting the policy goal of a more resource efficient Europe. The policy pathways that are established and those that are emerging by the Commission on sustainable food are presented. The policy links and discontinuities, and the modes of governance are interrogated, in terms of the development of food governance through the European Union policy processes.