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At the end of September 2021, the United States announced its interest in launching a Coalition on Sustainable Productivity Growth for Food Security and Resource Conservation. This is a direct response from the US to European plans in the form of the Green Deal and in particular the Farm to Fork strategy. Brazil expressed its interest in joining the Coalition at the end of September, and at the end of October Australia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Honduras, Liberia, the Philippines, and Northern Macedonia also joined the Coalition. The Coalition also has several supporters from the industry, including CropLife America, CropLife International, Syngenta, Bayer, the Russian National Union of Dairy Producers, and the National Turkish Federation.
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The Slovenian Presidency presented the first draft of the Council Conclusions on the Forest Strategy for 2030, in which it criticized the imbalance of environmental, social, and economic measures for sustainable forest management. Member States call for the strengthening of socio-economic objectives and the setting of clear steps for the Commission's future cooperation with Member States. At the same time, the Council questions the added value of the proposal to introduce mandatory national strategic plans for forest protection and management and calls on the Commission to assess the proportionality and subsidiarity of the proposed measures before drawing up a legislative framework for forest observation, reporting and data collection. The added value of existing voluntary certification systems for sustainable forest management should, according to the proposal, be the basic building block for the possible introduction of new certification systems. According to the interim proposal, the Commission should then report annually on the implementation of the forestry strategy and review it in 2025. The Council is expected to adopt the conclusions by the end of the year, probably in November. Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, confirmed last week that the CAP budget will continue to be the main source of funding for forestry objectives.

On 26/10/2021, the European Commission adopted reports on climate progress. According to the Commission's findings, EU emissions fell by 31% in 2020 compared to 1990. In addition, 76% of ETS (EU Emissions Trading Scheme) revenues were allocated to environmental transformation. Between 2019 and 2020 alone, EU-27 GHG emissions fell by almost 10%. Emissions from non-ETS sectors (e.g., emissions from industry, transport, construction, agriculture, and waste) decreased by 6%. However, the European Commission states that “transport and agriculture emissions are not likely to fall substantially without additional measures, as they have remained largely unchanged since 2005, except for the fall in transport emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, net removals from land use, land use change and forestry have been on a worrying downward trend over the last decade, driven by the situation in forest ecosystems, including an increasing share of forests reaching maturity, increase in natural disturbances, an increase in wood demand, and a decrease of afforestation rates”.
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Last week, French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie called for a revision of the methodology used for Nutri-Score nutrition labelling, to avoid penalizing traditional French foods such as high-fat or high-salt cheeses. Denormandie said that the Nutri-Score methodology is quantitative and leads to a classification that may not necessarily be in line with eating habits. Therefore, especially for cheeses, according to the French minister, there is a risk that they will receive a "bad" designation, i.e., "red", on a coloured traffic light scale. The methodology used to award the Nutri-Score label therefore needs to be revised. However, Denormandie confirmed the importance of the Nutri-Score, saying that consumers demand clear information about the nutritional value of food, and this must be reflected.

On 26/10/2021, the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) adopted a motion for a resolution of the Committee on on-farm animal welfare. The resolution was approved by a vote of 36 in favour, 5 against, and 7 abstentions The proposal was not supported by MEPs who have long sought to reduce livestock production in the EU or restrict or ban the transport of live animals in the EU - Anja Hazekamp (GUE / NGL, NL) or Martin Häusling (Greens, DE). The rapporteur for the motion for a resolution was French MEP Jérémy Decerle (Renew), who is himself a farmer active in the livestock sector. The resolution was therefore relatively positively perceived by European agricultural organizations. The motion for a resolution call for EU animal welfare rules to be uniformly implemented in all Member States in the future and to be based on scientific data and impact assessments. The Committee also supported the introduction of voluntary animal welfare labelling in the EU. However, among the proposals approved were those that agricultural representatives tended not to support or criticize, such as an urgent call on the Commission to link the new rules on welfare, trade, and promotion to the objectives of the European Green Deal, Farm to Fork, and the European Biodiversity strategy. The Committee therefore calls for the revised animal welfare legislation to be fully in line with the priorities of the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy. The resolution must now be approved by the plenary of the European Parliament, probably during the December part-session.
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