The EU must demonstrate political leadership by addressing the immediate COVID-<19-related food crisis now and overhauling an unjust and unsustainable food system, through EU policies and by leading global reforms.

In the immediate response to COVID-19, the EU must resist pressures to rob development funding, including from agriculture and food, to address the immediate health and economic emergency response. Doing so risks further destabilizing food security and communities’ resilience against shocks.

It must first secure access to food and income for those who have lost it because of the pandemic, through social protection programmes and innovative approaches that better link producers with consumers. This should include promoting the continued functioning of food markets in partner countries and ensure that producers and farmers are able to continue to plant, harvest and earn a decent income.

Now is also the time to strengthen the European Commission’s Farm-to-Fork proposal to harmonise EU agriculture policies and development objectives, by recognizing and addressing contradictions between the objectives of the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, the EU’s international trade policy and the Common Agriculture Policy. To avoid undermining local food systems or harming local food producers, the EU must reduce overproduction and prohibit export dumping.

The EU must maintain food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture as a priority in the next long-term EU budget for development, and should encourage partner countries to invest more in this sector through their national budgets. The priority should be on grants and public investment over blended finance and guarantees.

The EU can help save millions of lives from hunger and build a fair and sustainable food system, if it makes sure all its actions contribute to the social and ecological transformation of the food system.