Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe, attended the opening panel of the 11th International Beef Forum, which was held under the patronage of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. He began with a keynote speech addressing the need to overcome the lack of common sense in discussions surrounding the future of sustainable livestock farming, particularly beef, which has been heavily criticized and demonized.

In this sense he criticised the outcome of the EU Strategic Dialogue on the future of agriculture that calls to reduce animal-based products, increasing alternative proteins.

Scordamaglia stressed the need for a renewed approach from the European Commission, calling for a shift away from outdated ideologies. He urged the EU to step up as a true geopolitical player in tackling global food security challenges, a topic largely ignored by the previous EU leadership, particularly former Vice President Timmermans.

“As we see that China holds 51% of the world’s cereal stocks, the scale of the challenge becomes clear,” Scordamaglia stated. Considering the huge investments in innovation technological solutions announced by the new US Administration, the EU cannot anymore accept to be “a clay pot among two iron pots”

He warned that, rather than promoting production and competitiveness, Europe is focusing too heavily on becoming the “greenest garden” in the world—a strategy that could ultimately undermine its position as one of the world’s leading economies, especially by neglecting vital sectors such as the agri-food industry, one of Europe’s most significant export sectors.

As also reminded by the Secretary General of Farm Europe, Luc Vernet, we will need more production at European level, but for doing this we need a whole value chain approach and serious decisions when it comes to the budget: keeping the current path – taking into consideration inflation increase of last years – will bring to a net loss in CAP support of about 85 billion euros in the period 2020-2027 and 166 billion euros in 2034.