NICE, FRANCE. 12 June 2025 – While the European Commission is currently promoting the development of the aquaculture industry across the European Union, claiming it is “key to feeding the world”[1], new data shows otherwise. Huge swathes of the Mediterranean have been quietly taken over by industrial-scale seabass and seabream farms boosted by European Union and government funding – driving environmental destruction and depriving global communities of food and livelihoods.

This Mediterranean ‘takeover’ by seabass and seabream farms is revealed today [12^th June, 2025] at the United Nations Ocean Conference in a new report Ocean Takeover from environmental charity Foodrise (formerly Feedback EU), Greek alliance Aktaia and Spain’s Associació Cultural Ecológista de Calp (ACEC).

The new research reveals the sheer scale of the ‘feed footprint’ of seabass and seabream farming with huge numbers of wild fish turned into fish oil to feed farmed seabass and seabream. The researchers found 300,000 tonnes of fish could be left in the ocean or over a quarter (28%) more people could be fed a weekly portion of 200g fish if it wasn’t used to feed farmed seabass and seabream. In practice, this means that an additional 18 million people could be fed every year if seabass and seabream farming stopped.

Seabass and seabream farming has a negative impact on global food security – contrary to what the industry consistently claims. The extraction of wild fish from countries in West Africa, including Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia to produce fish meal and fish oil (FMFO) for industrial aquaculture, is contributing to the worsening food security crisis – in 2023 food insecurity in the region hit a 10-year high.[2]

The latest data (2021) from EUMOFA underlines the scale of the problem, with 98% of European seabass eaten coming from farms while just 2% is from fisheries.

While Türkiye is the world’s biggest producer of farmed seabass and seabream (44%),[3] Greece is the biggest producer of farmed seabass and seabream in the European Union – with its industry growing 141% since the turn of the century. This growth in Greece is fuelled partly by the extraction of vast amounts of wild fish from West and Southern Africa – enough to feed nearly one million people a year, according to the new research. At the same time, serious environmental damage caused by the fish farms has already been observed, with a strong decline in Posidionia seagrass found exclusively along the coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea – a loss that is likely to be irreversible.

Despite this, the report reveals substantial support from national governments and the European Union, which collectively have channelled millions of euros into promoting the growth of intensive fish farming to the detriment of critical Mediterranean ecosystems and coastal communities, as well as the detriment of people across the globe.

For example, Under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) 2021–2027, Greece will receive €91 million to support “sustainable aquaculture and processing”.[4] Between 2017 and 2022, the EU funded the €7 million PerformFISH project, claiming to boost the efficiency, profitability, and sustainability of Mediterranean fish farming, with direct backing from industry groups in countries like Greece and Spain – while in reality it fuels a destructive industry, with negative consequences for the communities living with its impacts but seeing little to no benefit.

Natasha Hurley, Campaigns Director at Foodrise, said: “It’s high time we all knew where the seabass and seabream on our plates comes from – and the huge environmental cost of each bite. Our new research clearly shows the shocking takeover of the Mediterranean by profit-hungry corporations is driving environmental destruction and global food insecurity. What’s even more galling is that this is happening courtesy of funding from national governments and the European Union.

“Industrial aquaculture is increasingly touted as a solution to ecosystem collapse and food insecurity as our oceans’ wild fish populations come increasingly under threat, but this is a deeply misleading narrative fuelled by vested corporate interests. Today’s findings powerfully demonstrate that intensive fish farming is a false solution and why we need to see an urgent end to the rapid expansion of seabass and seabream farms in the Med.”

Mor Mbengue, President of the Cayar artisanal fisheries committee (Cayar, Senegal) said:  “Before, the sea made us live. We caught enough to feed our families, and the women of the village processed the fish to sell to the inhabitants of the cities, far from the Senegalese coast, thus providing 70% of their animal protein needs. Since the arrival of fishmeal factories, which target coastal pelagic species and fish for juveniles, everything has collapsed. The fish have disappeared, the air has become unbreathable, the water is polluted. Women have lost their jobs, young people no longer have a future here. Many take to the sea, no longer to fish, but to flee. The most revolting thing is that all this fish plundered here does not even feed human beings: it goes to Europe and Asia to fatten farmed fish or pigs. We sacrifice our lives to feed animals on the other side of the world. It’s an injustice that we can no longer bear.”

Fay Orfanidou, from Aktaia – The Greek Alliance for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Aquaculture, said: ”We are aghast at the pillaging of wild fish populations off the coasts of Africa, Latin America and Asia to produce feed for the fish farms which are blighting our lives here in Greece and throughout the Mediterranean.

“This is not food security. It’s theft: taking fish from the hungry to feed a polluting export industry. We are the voice of the coastal communities, and we will not be silenced. Our seas are not for sale. Our fight is for the future of Greece – and we will not give up.”

ENDS

[1] European Union, “About EU Aquaculture – European Union,” accessed April 4, 2025, https://eu-aquaculture.campaign.europa. eu/about-eu-aquaculture_en.

[2] Alexandra Heal et al., “The Hidden Cost of Your Supermarket Salmon,” The Financial Times, January 31, 2024, https://ig.ft.com/supermarket-salmon.

[3] Hellenic Aquaculture Producers Organization, “2024 Annual Report: Aquaculture in Greece,” 2024, https://fishfromgreece.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/HAPO_AR24_WEB_v5.pdf.

[4] European Commission, “Greece Will Receive €364 Million from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund 2021-2027,” December 1, 2022, https://oceans-and-fisheries.ec.europa.eu/news/greece-will-receive-eu364-million-european-maritime-fisheries-and-aquaculture-fund-2021-2027-2022-12-01_en.

Our exciting move from Foodrise to Foodrise has been a long time coming. It means we finally have a name that reflects who we are and what we stand for. We are a small but mighty team of audacious activists – taking often unlikely action in pursuit of exposing systemic issues within our food system right the way from farm to fork.  

‘Food’ is our focus, and ‘rise’ reflects how we create change.  Through bold action, community collaboration and systemic shifts. Foodrise reflects the wide scope of our world-changing work and move – almost a decade ago – from a single-issue charity focusing on the scourge of food waste to one tackling issues right across the food system.  

We work at the grass roots and grass tips. Taking on the corporate control of our food system which normalises over-production and exposing its colonial legacy and need for reparations. While showing a better way is possible through our community projects in Merseyside, Sussex, Buckinghamshire, and in The Hague in the Netherlands. 

We now – as Foodrise – have a name that is fit for purpose for our broad, audacious and ambitious work in the UK, EU and globally.  

Our history   

We held our first ever ‘Feeding the 5000’ event in London’s Trafalgar Square back in 2009. Thousands were introduced to the shocking levels of waste in our food system – while enjoying a delicious meal . A global movement was born leading to similar events all around Europe and resulting in long-lasting policy change on food waste.  

Then we officially registered as a charity and became Foodrise in 2013, founded by Tristram Stuart and Nikki Charalampopoulou to shine a light on food waste. Our founders’ impact was significant as they exposed the social scandal and environmental tragedy of food waste, and positioned it as an environment issue.  

Following Carina Millstone’s appointment as Executive Director in 2017, and with Frank Mechielsen at the helm in the Netherlands since 2021, we have grown into so much more than a voice against food waste. 

Transforming the food system 

We are confronting the structural drivers of injustice in our food system — from exposing the financiers of the global livestock industry to advancing community-led alternatives across Liverpool and Knowsley. All with an unwavering commitment to equity, justice and anti-oppression.   

From legal challenges and hard-hitting research to supporting movements on the ground, our work now spans the UK, Europe, and globally. Including the founding of Foodrise EU in 2022 to broaden our impact in the European Union, and strengthen involvement with EU food policy development, civil society coalitions and create alternative local food environments in the Netherlands. 

We are Foodrise  

But we still needed a name that reflects the breadth of our expanded, turbo-charged mission. At this critical moment — as climate breakdown accelerates, nature collapses, and millions face hunger and poor health — Foodrise captures our readiness to rise to challenge and our vision for the future that works for people and for planet.  

We are a moment of crisis and opportunity. We are seeing the impact of climate change being felt – the geopolitical implications on food security, records numbers of children living in poverty. The worst harvest in 40 years. The wettest 18 months on record followed by the hottest ever spring. The decline of nature. 

Our shift to Foodrise is a pivotal moment — one that positions us to amplify our voice, grow our impact, and build momentum in the fight for a just food system. We want more and more people to know who we are and what we do.  

We’re rising up with fresh energy and a deeper commitment to transform the food system. For climate, nature and justice. Thank you for rising with us.

Frank Mechielsen, Director at Foodrise in the EU  

Carina Millstone, Executive Director at Foodrise in the UK

One year ago, seven organisations in six different countries started to collaborate on a project to amplify the voices of citizens and advocate for better food environments and challenging supermarkets to provide and make accessible healthy, just, sustainable, and affordable food for all.

Together with ALTAA and CAN-F from France, CECU from Spain, Foodrise in the UK, Green REV Institute in Poland and Terra! from Italy, Foodrise EU have formed the Food Voices Coalition. The Healthy Food Healthy Planet consortium funds the project and stands  out by placing great importance on the learning aspect within a project. This approach allowed us space to test and experiment with new approaches, to reflect on our experiences and to question our own assumptions.

A year is a short time to harvest results, especially if you also must learn how to cooperate as a coalition, with different types of non-governmental organisations working at different levels with different mandates and languages. Therefore, we proudly present our many results so far.

Mobilise food voices: working with communities

The activities with communities have been very diverse, ranging from research to high involvement in Food Policy Councils, from starting a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice to protect communities, to engaging in dialogues with marginalised groups (deprived areas, youth, housewives) and from sub granting community gardens to advocacy to maintain public local markets.

In Spain, CECU (Confederation of Consumers and Users ) is one of the nine plaintiffs, along with Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and others,  taking the Galician authorities to the European Court of Justice to stop the decades-long pollution from intensive livestock farming in the As Conchas reservoir that makes the life in the communities “unviable”. CECU has co-organised the second Annual Meeting of “Nos Plantamos”, a food sovereignty movement to build a collective agenda that promotes and supports agroecological models of agriculture, livestock and consumption. Furthermore, CECU has collaborated with the “NoWasteLawCollective” to jointly advocate for improvements in the legislative process for the new Spanish law on food waste and has worked with  organisations from various sectors to influence the National Food Strategy (by developing proposals, public positions and demands to policy makers.

Terra! in Italy plays a key role in the Rome Food Policy Council (FPC). They have been instrumental in bringing this concept to life  and their efforts have been recognised as their director has been elected as the first president of the FPC. They have prepared the Council’s tables in particular on food poverty and on food waste in consultation with civil society organisations, farmers’ organisations, representatives of actors in the food chain and policy makers. The FPC has submitted a proposal for the introduction of a “Green Menu” and this is now legally approved by the Metropolitan Government. As a result, all public schools in the territory of Rome, from kindergarten to high school, will have a plant-based menu one day in the month. Terra! has worked on a methodological approach for an innovative study with a community in Rome to undertake action-research aiming to change the perspective and narrative on food poverty.

The Green REV Institute in Poland has worked with scouts, and schools to organise educational workshops and with rural housewives’ clubs to establish community gardens by providing  small grants. They have organised Safe Food Days in five cities, including debates with residents, film screenings and local producer markets.

In the United Kingdom, Foodrise UK has been working at the micro level with local communities in the second poorest area of the UK, encouraging them to use their voices and to contribute to reports on food surplus redistribution.

Foodrise EU conducted research in a deprived area of The Hague in the Netherlands to investigate how the residents in a food swamp would like to improve their food environment. This led to the concept of democratic supermarkets, a place with a positive social, economic and environmental impact on the neighbourhood. A meeting with the residents was organised to provide feedback on the findings and to elaborate further on the concept of a democratic supermarket. A video was made and shared through our website and on YouTube to stimulate discussion. As a result, a researcher from the University of Twente approached us to collaborate in a study.

ALTAA ( Alliance pour les Transitions Agricoles et Alimentaires)  in France developed a supermarket escape game for children to learn about healthy food (see video).

CAN-F (Climate Action Network France) set up two series of five workshops that have been implemented by Secours Catholique and Act Against Hunger France in 2 different locations, about the problems and expectations that people facing food poverty deal with when shopping in supermarkets. This work fed the co-construction of policy recommendations by CAN France and its partners (including Secours Catholique, Act Against Hunger France, consumer groups and health associations) and contributed to CAN-F’s report on supermarkets. A short movie (17 minutes) was finally produced and will be released in May.

Strengthening sub-national coalitions, influencing local and regional policy makers.

CECU has contributed to a joint manifesto forwarded to the local and regional governments in the Valencia area to reclaim the public function of local markets that are under threat of disappearing.

Green REV undertook several advocacy efforts with the office of the Prime Minister and had a meeting at the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment. They forwarded three demands regarding the right to consumer information, especially the labelling on climate impact. Green REV involved local communities, young people and local councillors in the Food Safety Days.

Two Local Students Conventions for Sustainable Food (in Paris and in Lyon), initiated by the Students’ network for a sustainable and cohesive society, has included a “supermarket” section. The project started in November 2024, gathered 60 students from both cities and included four webinars, three days of training, two weekends of activities and training, and (forthcoming) one day of feedback on policy recommendations for local governments. Concerning mass retail specifically, the students have realised store visits and data collection in supermarkets, took part into debate and co-construction of recommendations, and produced report quotes and short videos for joint campaigning with CAN France in May 2025.

ALTAA has published an online toolbox with 35 action levers and over 200 good practice initiatives to help sub-national actors in their actions to change food environments towards healthier and more plant-based diets. This toolbox includes action on retail which will be enriched by the conclusions and learnings of the Food Voices Coalition project.

Foodrise UK has been working on the Liverpool Food Plan and contributed to the Northern Food and Farming group on procurement.

Foodrise EU actively participated in the Plant the Future event with organising a round table uniting different actors (resident, municipality, supermarket owner, scientist, local food network, short chain supplier) to discuss the experiences of food voices in Moerwijk. Foodrise EU also supported the presence of residents in the city council committee meeting debating a supermarket in this area. The establishment of a supermarket in that deprived area is now included in the food strategy of The Hague.

Influencing retailers and alternative models

CECU contributed to the creation of a union around consumer rights with agricultural organizations, environmental organisations, social and solidarity economy and ethical banking actors with the main objective to articulate local food systems that are an alternative to supermarkets and that meet the needs of the most vulnerable producers and consumers.

Green REV conducted a study entitled “Why do young people choose unhealthy food?” and will publish a report in August 2025. They approached the Prime Minister with the request to regulate the promotion of unhealthy food in supermarkets and prepared materials for members of parliament regarding facilitations for small farmers and direct sales.

Within the FVC project, CAN France has been able to develop its second ‘Meat and Climate scorecard’ while conducting a study firstly on the barriers and levers to the just and ecological food transition in the mass retail sector, and secondly on the best practices of retailers in Europe in this transition. CAN France co-constructed its policy recommendations with consumer groups, health associations, students and charity organisations. These different strands of work will be gathered in a global report to be published in May.

ALTAA is a network of 90 allies and a wider circle of 600 public and private organisations. It has embarked on a collective action program to explore shifts in the offer and practices of supermarkets at sub-national level, to accelerate change in food environments and ensure that everyone has access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food. It conducted research to framing the issue with experts and retailers at the national and local level. Four pilot projects have started to experiment with working with retailers at the local level. An audit tool is being developed with the aim of stopping organic products being dereferenced, and to create events/tastings of organic products in supermarkets (Interbio Occitanie). Collective workshops involving supermarkets to gain a better understanding of the issues, obstacles and interests of the various stakeholders and to facilitate collective mobilisation in favour of the transition in the region (Grenobles Alpes Métropole). The Conseil départemental de la Seine-Saint-Denis has set up a cash-first monetary transfer system with a bonus for sustainable products that can be used in supermarket shops, and to provide support for users. The fourth pilot (Club Drômois de l’Alimentation) is set up to offer technical support to increase sales of local and sustainable products in supermarkets, to organise events to create sustainable relationships between distributors and producers/processors, and to facilitate networking.

Foodrise UK conducted an ethnographic study while running the Queen of Greens, a mobile greengrocer service. This study is awaiting publication but it demonstrates that this service is an alternative retail model. The model has been included in a UK Research and Innovation grant for a study in collaboration with the University of Liverpool that seeks to address dietary inequalities for people living in social housing.

Foodrise EU joint a campaign on retailers with the Transition Coalition Food and other allies. We participate in a working group to promote plant-based protein and a joint website will be launched soon. We also participate in the VoedselAnders network, a national network that brings together alternative food initiatives.

The way forward

We are still busy implementing our activities and at the same time already in the middle of a process to capture our learnings, to analyse and to communicate these in a document that we call the “Menu of Food Voices”. We will share some preliminary findings during the Annual Forum of HFHP in June 2025, in Poland. Finally, we also plan for a public campaign in the summer months.

The Hague, 7 April 2025

Frank Mechielsen will step down as Director of Foodrise in the EU in the summer of 2025 to make way for new leadership during a year of significant repositioning for the organisation. He will be succeeded by a new director, with the recruitment process starting today.

Mechielsen said:
“The past few years have been an incredible rollercoaster, working with an ambitious team to put Foodrise on the European map. I’m proud of the impact we’ve made through campaigns on meat and farmed fish, biomethane, and local food policy — all aimed at challenging and changing policies in both Brussels and The Hague. In collaboration with Foodrise in the UK and partners across the Netherlands and Europe, we’ve shown that the food transition can only be truly sustainable and just if all voices are heard. With changing times globally and an important organisational repositioning ahead, this feels like the right moment to pass the baton.”

Gemma Verhoeven, Chair of Foodrise EU, added:
“On behalf of the entire board, we are deeply grateful to Frank for his tireless dedication, professionalism, creativity, and passion in building Foodrise EU. We are impressed by the achievements of Frank and the team. The foundations have been laid, and we look forward to entering a new phase with a new director.”

Yesterday, the European Commission launched a campaign to promote the consumption of EU aquaculture products. However, our research and campaigns have shown the devastating consequences of the aquaculture sector, particularly the farmed salmon industry.

That is why, together with CFFA-CAPE, Compassion in World Farming, Eurogroup for Animals, Seas at Risk, and the European Institute for Animal Law and Policy, we signed a joint statement urging the Commission to promote only those practices that meet the highest standards of animal welfare, environmental protection, and social sustainability.

Read the full statement here

This week, our EU Advocacy Officer Maximilian Herzog was invited to speak at the conference ‘People first: Centring the Just Transition in EU Policy’, hosted in the European Parliament by the Left group. 

In his intervention, he made clear that without a radical change of our food systems, there simply won’t be a successful Green Deal and a truly just transition! 1/3 of all global emissions are attributed to the way that we produce and consume food. Food shapes our culture, our communities, our health, our happiness. And at the same time the reality is that our food system produces injustices at European, local, as well as global level.

That’s why we need to empower people and especially women, young people, and marginalized groups; and also put animal rights at the heart of the transition:

• Be it at food banks all over Europe as people simply cannot afford healthy meals and to go into the supermarket

• Be it in the suburb of The Hague, Moerwijk, where Foodrise EU is assisting a community in their journey towards access to healthy and affordable food

• Be it at the coast of Western Africa and Senegal, where we work with partners and communities that see their basic nutrition, small fish, being depleted for fish meal and fish oil production – which then is used as feed for salmon production in the Global North.

• Be it our partners in the community of Gort, Ireland, that fight against a biogas plant the size of their entire village, without serious offers to make their voices heard.
• Be it the animals that are being used not only to produce meat and dairy in cruel conditions, but should now also produce energy in the form of biogas and biomethane from manure. 

The question must always be: are we only treating the symptoms of injustice, while promoting false solutions? Or are we truly changing the food system, ultimately strengthening the trust in European institutions?

Thank you to Anja Hazekamp, Per Clausen, and Lynn Boylan as well as the staff of the Left group (especially Ciara Barry) who made this conference possible.

Thank you also to our co-panelists Nienke Blauw (a Dutch activist campaigning against PFAS pollution), Dr Aparajita Banerjee  (UCD Just Transition Centre) and Corinna Ziergold (IndustriAll) for your important and inspiring work at European, national, and local level!

Watch the intervention below or find the full recording of the session here.

Read the full report here

Lees de Nederlandse samenvatting hier

The research exposes the vast financial networks driving the destructive salmon farming industry across Europe. And what turns out? Over the last 10 years, banks in the Netherlands have collectively provided the largest non-Scandinavian source of credit to Norway’s aquaculture sector, with Rabobank providing $1.8 billion and ABN Amro $1.3 billion since 2015. Together these banks form the top two biggest creditors to Mowi, the largest salmon company in the world with various controversies behind its name.

Even sustainable bank Triodos has invested $16 million in Bakkafrost, invested $16 million in Bakkafrost, a growing player in North Sea salmon. The messaging of sustainability doesn’t match Bakkafrost’s track record with high mortality rates among the salmon and sea lice infections.

From Ireland to Senegal, local fishing communities are experiencing a devastating fundamental disruption to marine ecologies and local economies. The disruption and undermining of traditional fishing practises amounts to nutritional colonialism, with Norwegian companies leading a Blue Empire, partially bankrolled by Dutch banks.

Banks and investors must recognise this destructive practise and stop financing salmon farming now!

Photo credit: Bob Brown Foundation

Heated debates, protests, and no real action in sight: that is how the debate around the future of EU Agriculture went on for years, leaving everyone frustrated. At the same time, 5.3 million farms had to close down in the last 15 years, leading to personal hardship and huge gaps in European landscapes and rural communities.  

After a promising Strategic Dialogue which brought together 29 stakeholders from all directions and backgrounds, hope for real change was in the air. Then, on February 19th, the European Commission presented its “Vision for Agriculture and Food”, outlining its perspective on the future of the sector while announcing specific legislative action in the coming years. What is our take on it? 

The good. 

As outlined in the Vision, practices where farmers are systematically forced to sell below costs will no longer be tolerated. To facilitate this, the ‘Unfair Trading Practises’ Directive will be revised. Mental health in the agriculture sector should not be a taboo but part of the social support system for farmers and workers. Community-led initiatives, including food councils – recognized as a key driver of change – will be supported, and the EU Commission is committed to bringing these voices to the EU level. As a part of the Food Voices Coalition, we certainly appreciate this. Public procurement will be strengthened with regards to local and sustainable food. Food waste and loss reductions, underlined by the first-ever binding reduction targets agreed recently at EU level, are recognised as crucial, to the benefit of “EU citizens, farmers and all other actors across the food supply chain” (Vision, p. 24). In a world of severe geopolitical tensions, Europe must take its food sovereignty into its own hands and cut its dependency on harmful imports of proteins/feed for our animals, and (also still Russian) fertilisers. Above all, the agri-food sector needs to (finally) function within planetary boundaries. This is where it gets tricky… 

The bad. 

For years there has been a heated discussion around the inefficient and unsustainable payout of the largest chunk of CAP payments. These are largely based on the size of farms and often go towards big agri businesses and landowners. With 1000 farms closing down every single day, the failure of EU payment schemes has therefore been evident all the way – without causing much of a change and empathy from conservative policymakers.  

In the Strategic Dialogue in 2024, one clear outcome was the call for a strong move away from basic hectare-based payments towards targeted income support and effective environmental payments. Yet in the Vision, this is only partially recognised. Yes, “future CAP support will therefore be more directed towards farmers that actively engage in food production, towards the economic vitality of farms and the preservation of our environment”(Vision, p. 7). Yes, farmers who need it the most should be supported, in particular young and new farmers. But, using more powerful instruments such as the degressivity and the capping of subsidies based on farm sizes will be only “considered” (Vision, p. 8) – a very worrying sign. More concerning still, this new approach towards subsidies “should consider prioritising production of agricultural products which are essential for the EU’s strategic autonomy and resilience”  (Vision, p. 7) – leaving the door open to continued ‘strategic’ support of industrial meat production, especially with regards to meat imports from Mercosur countries. 

We would have really hoped for a clear commitment of the EU Commission to reduce the extent of animal farming in Europe – because only this way, can we reach our environmental and climate targets (within crucial planetary boundaries). However, even within the Strategic Dialogue participants could not agree to clearly point out the need to reduce livestock numbers, given the unfortunate and irresponsible controversy around this topic. While we still hoped for strong ambition from the EU Commission in this regard, it comes as no surprise that the Vision puts its focus on an upcoming “Livestock strategy”, as well as a new “work stream” focusing on this transition. Interestingly, this will “seek ways to address its climate/environment footprint, including ways to valorise the link between livestock production and maintenance of environment- and climate-valuable grasslands through more extensive livestock systems beneficial to the preservation of biodiversity and landscapes” (Vision, p. 16).  

But how does this fit together with the current biomethane upscale that will especially benefit factory farms? The Vision not only fails to provide an answer on that. Even worse, its stresses the role that “technological advancements” will play in this. But we will not solve our animal problem with tech-fixes such as biogas and feed additives. The EU Commission should not allow itself to be blinded – especially not in the upcoming revision of the Nitrates Directive – by gloomy announcements of the industry, which ultimately just wants to save its polluting business model!

Similarly, the EU Commission puts a big focus on the development of the bioeconomy and circularity, which should open up new revenue streams for farmers and the possibility to use farm residues. The role of biogas in this is highlighted. Clearly, in anticipation of a “Bioeconomy Strategy” awaited for the end of 2025, this risks further fuelling the current biomethane rush that we are seeing – especially as the EU Commission is not explaining in more detail what role biogas and biomethane could (and should not!) play in the future EU food system.  

The ugly. 

The biggest disappointment of the Vision clearly is the loud silence around sustainable and healthy diets. One of the biggest achievements of the Strategic Dialogue was to support a “sustainable balance between animal and plant-based protein intake at the European population level, (..) by balancing towards plant-based options and helping consumers to embrace the transition” (Strategic Dialogue, p. 54), now any reference to this is missing. Not developing a vision for the consumer side and healthy diets as part of the food system clearly is a missed opportunity and disappointing – especially after more than 130 organisations called for a Plant-Based Action Plan recently. Consuming healthily, especially more plant-based protein, is part of mitigating the climate crisis and would stimulate the demand side for organic products and for regenerative agriculture – a win-win situation for farmers and consumers! 

Fishy business. 

Lastly, there is also some fishy business in the Vision. Next to an upcoming Oceans Pact, the EU Commission will prepare a “vision for the fisheries and aquaculture sector with a 2040 perspective to ensure its long-term competitiveness and sustainability, work to ensure job creation and address pressing issues affecting the fishing community” (Vision, p. 3). Well, we are curious to see whether the EU Commission has read our latest Blue Empire report! Industrial fish farming certainly has many murky practises… 

The end? 

Unfortunately, the Agriculture Vision is too often ‘business as usual’ with few corrective actions that live up to the big challenges ahead. 

Blind trust is put into new technological fixes, perpetuating farmers’ dependencies on banks and big companies for those investments. As it stands, strengthening agriculture’s foundation (nature!), only plays a secondary role. There is far too little attention and too little action to address the climate crisis and its impact on our food system.  

But while this Vision is not yet future-proof, hope persists, especially as many elements are still unspecific and need to be further developed. For us, this means to work all the harder in the coming weeks and months! 

It finally happened! After years of discussions and difficult negotiations, the EU has agreed to legally binding food waste reduction targets – a world first! This will legally require millions of tonnes of food waste to be reduced by 2030 in the 27 EU member states. 

And also for us at Foodrise, it is a big moment. Founded as an organisation committed to stopping food waste and saving precious food together with communities, we have been fighting for this for 12 years!  

What was agreed? 

• TARGETS: As – unfortunately – expected, the Council of the EU and the EU Parliament agreed to stick to the same low targets as proposed by the European Commission in the first place: a (very low) 10% reduction in processing and manufacturing food waste by 2030 compared to 2021-2023; and a 30% reduction per capita of food waste from households, retailers, and food services compared to 2021-2023. Primary production is excluded from the targets completely. At the same time, the EU is supposed to be committed to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030. In other words: with the agreed very disappointing targets, the EU is effectively planning to fail! 

• EDIBLE or INEDIBLE food waste? The agreed legally binding targets to reduce EU Member State food waste will cover both the edible and inedible parts of wasted food. As part of the negotiations, EU Member States pushed for a separate approach, focusing targets solely on the edible fraction. With data currently unavailable on the distinction between edible and inedible food waste, this would have delayed targets – and limiting targets to inedible waste would have reduced the ambition of targets. Moreover, it is possible to reduce inedible food waste through prevention of overproduction and overconsumption. We therefore opposed a target narrowly focused on edible food waste only. In the end, the respective proposal was removed from the final deal – a success! 

• DONATIONS: Towards the end of the negotiations, suddenly a proposal to introduce mandatory donations of unsold food to food banks got on the table. As this would have actively undermined the cause for designing food waste and food poverty out of the system – as our Senior Policy and Campaigns Manager Martin Bowman has explained in this article -, we strongly opposed such a clause, and succeeded.  

• REVIEW CLAUSE: The co-legislators agreed to let the EU Commission review – by the end of 2027 – the targets to be reached by 2030, and, if appropriate, to modify and/or extend them to other stages of the food supply chain. Also by the end of 2027, the deal includes an assessment of the extent and causes of food waste and losses in primary production and possible measures against it. A fundamental problem thereby remains: the vast majority of primary production food waste is currently excluded from measurement, so there is no baseline data available for most primary production sector yet. Lastly, the EU Commission also got the possibility to potentially propose new legally binding targets for 2035. 

Further context: 

The path towards yesterday’s announcement – after almost 8 hours of negotiations, till 2:45 in the morning – has been rocky: 

• When the Waste Framework Directive was revised in 2018, the Council of the EU successfully delayed the reporting of food waste data by Member States. The same happened to the date when the Commission was meant to propose binding targets. As a result, the EU Commission only presented their proposal in 2023. With negotiations ongoing until now, the beginning of 2025, EU countries had less and less time to act until 2030, further limiting their willingness to be more ambitious. 

• The EU Commission offered almost no civil society consultation when developing the targets in the first place. In their limited consultation, there was no chance to comment on what level targets should be set at. Their justification for setting such low targets for the manufacturing & processing sector was weak – and seemed to be based on industry pressure. 

• The European Parliament elections in 2024 meant a shift to the right and emboldened the European People’s Party (EPP) to move away from their previous commitment to higher targets. Together with an unambitious lead negotiator (’rapporteur’) from the Eurosceptic ‘European Conservatives and Reformists’, this further weakened the European Parliament’s ability to push for higher targets. 

To sum up: 

Since 2030 is now only 5 years away, the 30% targets for households, retail and catering sectors will still be stretching for many Member States. It will therefore be essential for EU countries to rapidly develop action plans to unlock faster progress, drawing on regulations beyond just voluntary business measures. More ambitious countries should see these binding targets merely as a floor to their ambition and still voluntarily aim to halve food waste in all sectors by 2030. Here, we especially want to highlight countries such as the Netherlands, Romania, and Austria who also stated their higher ambition in our EU food waste survey last year. Looking forward, it is essential for the EU to extend measurement to cover food unharvested on farms and include primary production in binding reduction targets, as otherwise food waste risks being pushed onto farmers. 

Luckily, we were, and we are not alone in this. As part of the Prevent Waste Coalition on food waste, together with EEB, ZeroWaste Europe, SAFE, as well as TooGoodToGo, in the past years we raised pressure on policy-makers and fought hard for more ambitious targets – be it through exchanges with EU Member States, political groups in the EU Parliament, as well as the EU Commission. With several policy briefings and statements supported by experts and organisations from all over Europe and beyond, we not only made some noise, but also contributed critical evidence for an informed debate. Thank you to all our partners, who made this possible!  

Our fight to halve food waste until 2030, from farm to fork, continues! 

22 October 2024. The alarm sets off early. I check my emails and open Euractiv’s Agri-Food morning newsletter.“EU biomethane target ‘a curse’“, it says in the title. And my tiredness disappears immediately. 

Euractiv Agri-Food Brief, 22 October 2024 

Launching a new report is always a big moment. It’s the ‘grande finale’ after months full of strategy discussions, researching, editing, media work, and most of all great teamwork. 

But this time, an extra element of excitement came into play, as Foodrise EU is about to present its newest report “Biomethane from manure: a curse, not a cure“ at the European Biogas Conference.  

Organised by the industry every year in Brussels, it is not only the most prominent platform to discuss the future of biogas and biomethane in Europe. As tickets cost almost 1000 euros, it is also an exclusive space that in most cases makes it impossible for civil society organisations to participate and bring in their perspective. 

But this year is different. The European Biogas Association has accepted our proposal to present our newest report at the morning plenary “The future of agriculture, today. Resilience, Sustainability and Food Security“.  

In front of more than 700 guests, during her speech our researcher and author of the report, Francesca Magnolo, highlights key concerns about the current and planned upscale of biomethane from manure, stressing that it:

🔸Creates (financial and regulatory) incentives to maintain or expand livestock production, when a drastic reduction in both production and consumption is essential to meet the EU’s environmental and public health goals and keep global warming below 1.5°
🔸Replaces a natural gas dependency with an animal feed dependency sourced from other continents, especially in the Global South, transforming animal feed into energy crops. This shift threatens the EU’s strategic autonomy and perpetuates neo-colonial forms of extractivism.
🔸Contradicts key EU policies, such as the EU Nature Restoration Law and the Deforestation-free products Regulation.
🔸Worsens power imbalances by increasing competition for land and driving up rental costs.  

Naturally, not everyone in the conference hall agrees with our concerns. I can hear it bubbling more and more in the rows of seats behind me, with people starting to debate with each other. 

After her presentation, Francesca Magnolo joins a constructive discussion with Connie Miller (FAO); Gaelle Marion (EU Commission), Diana Lenzi (Farming for Future Foundation), and Laurence Molke (Cycle0). As the audience also asks questions about our report, we have already achieved one thing: our concerns are being discussed at the centre of this conference! 

Our intervention and main policy recommendation, to end incentives to manure as biomethane feedstock, is then also displayed in the visual summary of the plenary: 

And also after our participation in the morning plenary session and during the entire two-day conference, we achieve exactly that: a debate. Again and again, people approach us and congratulate Francesca Magnolo on her speech. We hear from a biogas association that acknowledges a reduction in animal farming in its country, and has already significantly reduced its projected use of manure as a feedstock. We hear from biogas producers who reflect the origin of their feedstocks, and rather chose truly sustainable smaller scale options (horse straw & poop!). But we also engage in controversial discussions with fossil companies such as Repsol who are now heavily investing in biomethane from manure to “green” their business. Here, it becomes dramatically clear that those companies simply do not (want to) have a clue what the current harmful impact of the agricultural system is – and that biomethane will not solve the damage that intensive factory farming is causing every single day.  

But there is no time for frustration – the next dialogue partner is already waiting! And it again provides us extra motivation to keep exposing those harmful business models and the destructive relations between industrial meat consumption, biomethane production, and the health of our soils.  

After two days, I am exhausted. But most of all, I am glad that we attempted this adventure, including many encounters and contacts that we would otherwise never have made and reached with our report & evidence.  

And one thing is certain: our journey to “burst the biomethane bubble” – as part of a great coalition of inspiring organisations – continues! 

📸 credits : Gleamlight / Philippe Molitor 

As part of the Food Voices Coalition, we have sent a letter accompanied by our manifesto to Christophe Hansen, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. The coalition includes seven organisations from six European countries: Foodrise UK, Green REV Institute, Terra!, CECU (Federación de Consumidores y Usuarios), CAN France, ALTAA (Alliance pour les Transitions Agricoles et Alimentaires), and Foodrise EU. Together, we strive to fix a broken food system wherein corporations dominate decisions, silencing the voices of those who grow, harvest, and consume food. 

In our manifesto we call on commissioner Hansen to join us in transforming retail practices that maintain an unhealthy, unequal and unsustainable food system. Additionally we urge him to work on a progressive food system to ensure that food is produced, distributed and consumed in ways that respect the planet, uphold human rights and animal welfare, empower communities and support equitable economics. 

Our ask is clear: let’s work together to create a food system that benefits everyone. We have invited Commissioner Hansen to meet with us and explore how we can collaborate to bring these ideas to life! 

Read the letter to Commissioner Hansen here

With the new EU Commission in office, this is also an exciting time for the Food Policy Coalition (FPC), a diverse group of organisations representing farmers, consumers, nature, health, and animals. With Foodrise EU being an active member, we are proud to announce two letters that the FPC has published this week:

1. Together with 43 organisations, we have written to the new EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen, to offer our help and expertise in shaping policies to support a transition to fair, healthy, and truly sustainable food and farming systems. You find the whole letter here
2. And together with over 20 civil society organisations, we call on Vice-President Ribera Rodríguez and Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra to put climate action and a just transition for EU agriculture at the core of their work. This also means to not waste public money on “technological fixes” such as biomethane production (as explained in our recent report), but rather develop a strategy for shifting animal farming away from industrial models that harm our environment communities, animals, and health! In this journey, farmers should be strongly supported. You find the whole letter here.

On 19 November 2024, the fourth Plant the Future dinner took place, organised by the Transition Coalition Food. The afternoon programme brought together around 230 people from a wide range of sectors: entrepreneurs from the entire chain, scientists, NGOs, and politicians. The theme was ‘from ideal to business impact’. Despite the great diversity of contributions by speakers, including from meat processing companies, there was no doubt among those present about the need to reduce the share of animal protein in our diet and to drastically increase the share of plant-based protein.

Foodrise EU was one of the many organisations and companies that hosted a round table. At our table were Elly Hemmelder (supermarket Plus) and Eline van Muilwijk (Quista), Bram van Helvoirt (scientist), Brenda Poot (Municipality of The Hague), Liane Lankreijer (Ons Eten, a local food alternatives network in The Hague), and Renate Stuger (founder of the petition for a neighborhood supermarket in Moerwijk). Foodrise EU specifically invited them to support the initiative from Moerwijk for a supermarket with economic, ecological, and social functions for the neighborhood and to further explore the concept of a democratic supermarket. During the imaginative and tasty plant-based dinner, we had inspiring conversations about giving voices to people in the supply of produce and value creation of supermarkets and what would be needed to make this happen. Time flew by and at the end we concluded that we would like to set up a business case with residents and entrepreneurs for a social and healthy supermarket, in which of course the share of plant-based proteins is at least 60%, but also the supply meets at least 60% of the Wheel of Five with mainly fresh food and short chains. We would like to thank our guests for their committed and inspiring contributions to the discussion!

During the dinner, Frank Mechielsen, director of Foodrise EU, offered a summary of the report “Trading away the Future? How the EU’s agri-trade policy is at odds with sustainability goals” to MPs from five political parties. The report uses case studies in soy, rapeseed, and beef to show that EU trade policy does not contribute to a sustainable transition of our food system, but rather increases inequality and climate change, health problems and food insecurity.

Key-note speakers were Rasmus Prehn, former Danish Minister of Agriculture, and Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, President of the Vegetarian Association in Denmark. They presented the progressive Danish Plan of Action to enable the plant-based transition in agriculture. Their main message was to work together, even with parties with whom you usually do not sit around the table and look for the common ground that connects us all, in this case food. In the process, all interests are carefully considered, but it is inevitable that concessions will also have to be made. Above all, look for the possibilities for all parties. They referred to the Netherlands, where the agriculture sector has many similarities with the situation in Denmark, to develop its own Plan of Action to accelerate the food transition and to collaborate with the Danes to produce such a plan at the European level as well.

Following our research and campaigning highlighting the supply of fish oil sourced from FAO 34 — the Major Fishing Area located off the coast of Northwest Africa — to the European feed industry, Foodrise is issuing this statement in response to the industry’s response, including:

• Salmon Scotland statement that it does not use marine ingredients sourced from West African fisheries;

• MOWI’s statement that it has not sourced any raw materials from Mauritania since 2023;

• Skretting statement that Skretting Norway did not purchase fish oil from Africa in 2023 or 2024 (although we note that according to a media report in November 2024, Skretting stated that it continued to source from the region).

We are pleased that the industry has responded to the overwhelming evidence on the damaging impact of sourcing from this region.

We remain extremely concerned about the ‘food-feed competition’ which is being driven by the global aquaculture industry in regions around the world as high-impact activities such as salmon and seabass farming continue to expand to serve high-income consumers in Europe, North America and Asia.

We therefore reiterate our call to companies throughout the supply chain (feed ingredient and compound feed producers, farmed salmon companies, retailers and food service companies) to provide full transparency on their sourcing practices and to comply with the following set of demands:

• Fish meal and fish oil (or products dependent on FMFO) should not be sourced from locations where its production is driving food-feed competition and exacerbating food insecurity and/ or exacerbating the risk of collapse of the marine ecosystem

• Salmon producers must have clear policies on responsible feed sourcing, which exclude the sourcing of feed produced with ingredients that are driving food-feed competition and exacerbating food insecurity and/ or exacerbating the risk of collapse of the marine ecosystem
• Producers must be fully transparent, consistent and granular on their aquafeed sourcing, including volumes, locations, species

Read the full report here

English summary

Dutch summary

Our new report is out!

There is no better time to rethink the EU’s current agri-trade policy. Recent U.S. election results have revealed the sudden vulnerability in the European Union’s global position. With Donald Trump threatening new tariffs and trade restrictions on Europe, the risks of the EU relying on third countries for its plant protein supply have become painfully clear. At the same time, the controversy surrounding the EU-Mercosur trade deal has laid bare the stark consequences of current trade agreements: negative impacts on farmers’ livelihoods due to unfair competition and environmental harm. This deal alone could trigger between 620,000 and 1.35 million hectares of deforestation over just five years, driven by expanded beef production in the Mercosur region.

As one of the largest global markets and one of the world’s most outward-oriented economies, the EU plays a key role in influencing global food trade. However, our new report ‘Trading Away the Future? How the EU’s agri-food policy is at odds with sustainability goals’ reveals how the EU’s current agri-trade policy is undermining global and EU sustainability goals in five key areas:

• The climate crisis: The livestock sector is a major barrier to the EU meeting its commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement and the European Green Deal: in the EU, emissions from the livestock sector are responsible for 81-86% of the block’s total agricultural GHG emissions. This sector is maintained by an abundant supply of imported soy. In 2022, the EU imported nearly 30 million tonnes of soy, amounting to 93% of total consumption. Nearly all of this is used to produce the 150 million tonnes of feed required to sustain the EU livestock sector, making it “a key enabler of mass-produced meat and dairy products”.
• Public health: The EU maintains stringent regulations on pesticide residues in agricultural products. However, pesticides banned or not approved in the EU can return to European consumers through imported soy and rapeseed, used in turn to feed cattle that EU citizens consume. In Brazil, soy is the most pesticide-intensive crop, and Brazil is the EU’s main supplier of soy. A human biomonitoring survey conducted between 2014 and 2021 found that 84% of samples from the bodies of children and adults across five European countries contained residues of two or more pesticides.
• Food security and EU farmers’ livelihoods: Today, one-third of globally produced calories are used to feed livestock; producing this feed requires three-quarters of agricultural land under cultivation. The EU has a major deficit in vegetable proteins due to high demand from its livestock sector, which cannot be met domestically. This reliance on imports from third countries exposes the EU to natural disasters, pandemics, and geopolitical crises. Additionally, cheap imports of soy and other products undercut EU farmers’ returns, driving discontent that impacts the rollout of crucial environmental policies. This was seen with the Commission’s recent decision to roll back ‘good agricultural and environmental conditions’ (GAEC) in the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) that would have promoted agroecological practices and the growth of protein crops. While far-right political parties and farming lobbies disingenuously co-opted farmer protests to frame them as solely being about the negative impact of “green” policies, the truth is that EU farmers are being undercut by bilateral trade agreements.
• Global equity: The EU’s agri-trade policy undermines public health in third countries and perpetuates neocolonial forms of agrarian extractivism. While 84% of EU exports to the Mercosur region are services and high-value industrial products, 75% of Mercosur exports to the EU are agricultural and mineral resources that require land use change, extraction, and the use of hazardous agro-chemicals. In some cases, these chemicals, despite being banned or not approved for use in the EU, are actually produced by European companies such as Bayer, Syngenta, and BASF and exported to third countries with different regulations on pesticides and herbicides. This is an egregious double standard in terms of respect for public health and the environment within and beyond the EU’s borders. Between 2011 and 2021, over 29,000 pesticide poisonings were recorded in Brazil, the EU’s largest supplier of soy.
• Animal welfare: While the EU positions itself as a global leader in animal welfare by setting strict rules for animal feed and livestock breeding, transport, and slaughter conditions, most obligations do not apply to imported meat. When it comes to imports, only welfare at the time of slaughter is taken into consideration. In Brazil, the second-largest beef exporter to the EU, animal welfare checks on farms and slaughterhouses are not regularly carried out. In Argentina, the third-largest exporter, the humane slaughter of animals is not required. However, there is strong public support in the EU for more stringent import requirements: the special 2023 Eurobarometer survey on animal welfare found that 93% of European citizens want imported animal products to respect the same animal welfare standards as those applied in the EU.

We call for concrete policy actions, including setting more ambitious international standards, adopting import requirements in EU law aligned with sustainability goals that benefit EU farmers, promoting a shift towards protein autonomy, and strategically implementing ‘Mirror Measures.’ The latter is further explored in the coalition report “Double Standards on Our Plates: Using Mirror Measures to Mitigate the Impacts of EU Trade Policy for a Sustainable Food System.”

The time to rethink trade is now!

Read the report

Read the executive summary

With the European Biogas Conference starting today, Foodrise EU’s new research shatters arguments for increasing the use of livestock manure as a feedstock for biomethane production and calls for an immediate moratorium on new and expanded factory farms in the EU.

As the EU is planning to scale up its biomethane production from yearly 4.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 35 bcm in 2030, industry calculations heavily count on manure which is expected to contribute one third of all raw materials to this target. Under the heading Biomethane from manure: a curse, not a cure, the latest report from the food justice organisation Foodrise EU dramatically bursts the bubble on biomethane production from livestock manure by exposing the perverse link between the current biomethane rush and the intensification of livestock production in Europe.

As new evidence shows, the push towards expanded livestock factory farms for the production of biogas and biomethane throughout Europe – heavily supported by public subsidies and accounting tricks in the Renewable Energy Directive – is in total contradiction with the requirement to drastically reduce livestock production and consumption. While the current move to more plant-based consumption pattern has also been recently affirmed by the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, it is all the more worrying that current biomethane policies sabotage such positive developments, standing against climate and public health goals.

Despite the remarkable absence of a European Commission impact assessment, increasing biomethane from manure is hailed as a win-all solution, one that reduces environmental impacts of industrial livestock and contributes to energy independence. This sounds too good to be true? Unfortunately, it is, with the current biomethane rush having major perverse environmental, economic and social implications.

As Foodrise EU’s latest report demonstrates, Europe’s blind trust in biomethane:

• Creates (financial and regulatory) incentives to maintain or expand livestock production, when a drastic reduction in both production and consumption is essential to meet the EU’s environmental and public health goals and keep global warming below 1.5°
• Replaces a natural gas dependency with an animal feed dependency sourced from other continents, especially in the Global South, transforming animal feed into energy crops. This shift threatens the EU’s strategic autonomy and perpetuates neo-colonial forms of extractivism.
• Contradicts key EU policies, such as the EU Nature Restoration Law and the Deforestation-free products Regulation.
• Worsens power imbalances by increasing competition for land and driving up rental costs.

Francesca Magnolo, the researcher and technical expert who conducted the research said: “One of the perverse consequences of the biomethane rush is the ironic replacement of dependence on natural gas imports with dependence on animal feed, particularly from the Global South. In other words, biomethane fuels the neo-colonial exploitation of resources outside of Europe. But social justice issues are also emerging here in the EU, where local communities fear increased transports of waste as well as pollution from biomethane production. Most importantly, these concerns are currently being ignored. At the same time, competition for land and thus rental costs for farmers are rising further and further.”

Frank Mechielsen, Director of Foodrise EU highlighted: “This reports bursts the bubble on biomethane from manure and shows it for what it is: a curse, not a cure. We request an immediate moratorium on more industrial livestock and call on policy-makers to prioritise dietary changes instead. What we need now are coordinated EU energy and food policies for a systemic and just change in our food systems. We cannot afford to repeat the painful mistakes of the last harmful biogas boom.”

In Senegal, the artisanal fishing community is making sure that their voices are heard. Decades of negligent fisheries management, overfishing and the arrival of fishmeal and fish oil factories have led to a dramatic reduction in fish populations along the coast of West Africa. As a consequence, fishermen find it increasingly hard to secure their daily catch. This in turn creates a ripple effect along the value chain: fish processing suffers from an increasingly scarce and expensive raw material. The price of a crate of sardines, sardinella, mackerel for instance have risen ten-fold over the last few years, making it impossible for artisanal processors to compete. 

By tradition, fish processing is a woman’s profession in West Africa. On our recent visit to Cayar, a fishing town harbouring one of the largest fishing fleets in Senegal, we spoke to the local GIE (economic interest group) of women processors and their outlook remains grim. The group’s members – all independent processors – have been in steady decline from over 300 to around 70 with women leaving as they cannot make ends meet through fish processing anymore. Therefore, lethargy has fallen over the processing sites. And it isn’t just the factories that threaten their livelihoods – climate change and new offshore oil and gas exploration in Senegal make the group worry about further harmful effects on the coastal and marine biodiversity and the capacity of fish populations to recover. 

It’s been long since the women were able to pay for the fish they smoke, dry, salt and ferment out of their own purses. They tell us that the only reason they are still in business are foreign companies that buy their product up-front, prefinancing the purchase of the fish they process. Nowadays, most of the fish they use comes deep-frozen from the port of Dakar. Meanwhile, the fish landed on the beach just next to the processing site remains absurdly inaccessible. 

The women are not alone in their fight, however. Several coalitions are active in Senegal, advocating for sustainable fisheries and the fair treatment of artisanal fishing community. The Network of Women in Artisanal Fisheries (REFEPAS) Interprofessional Council of Artisanal Fisheries (CONIPAS), the National Coalition for Sustainable Fisheries (CONAPED), the Coalition Against Fishmeal and Fish Oil Factories have all been putting pressure on the previous and current government. Their goal is to put a stop to allowing further factories to be built on the Senegalese coast and to close the ones in operation. Additionally, they want to make the fisheries sector more transparent, enforce sustainable fishing practices, and prevent foreign fishing fleets from pillaging populations of fish essential to the nutrition and livelihoods across the region. Further desperate calls for action revolve around preventing the persistent tragedy of clandestine migration: among those attempting to cross the Atlantic to reach Europe via the Canary Islands, many come from families dependant on fisheries and who have run out of options. More than 22,000 people have made it to the Canaries this way, more than double than last year. 

When confronted with the devastation caused by the global seafood economy, industrial fish farming and the feed companies that rely on the fishmeal and oil sourced from places like West Africa, it is hard to believe in the many statements of sustainability and efficiency that fish feed and farmed fish producers often like to repeat. Madame Ndao, president of the women processors’ GIE in Cayar, cannot understand why ‘these companies have to come to West Africa to steal the fish that her people depend on. They should be taking the fish from their own waters instead of pillaging elsewhere.’ 

Foodrise continues to work on this issue, hoping to support and amplify the voices like Madame Ndao’s. Our research has and will continue to illustrate how food systems in Europe can have devastating effects in other parts of the world. And we are not alone. The UN special rapporteur Micheal Fakhri, having received a Feedback-led joint letter, made sure to address the issue in the Human Rights Council, stating that: ‘Many farmed fish are carnivorous species that require feed products harvested from wild fish stock, thereby creating another source of pressure on wild fish stocks and disrupting ecosystems. Moreover, global feed companies are exacerbating food insecurity in some communities. For example, over half a million tons of pelagic fish that could feed over 33 million people in the region are instead extracted from the ocean along the coast of West Africa and converted to fishmeal and fish oil, primarily in order to feed farmed fish and livestock, mostly in Asia and Europe.’ We will continue to work with allies in the EU to make sure this issue is not forgotten in policy making and make sure to denounce the companies that profit from this harmful system.  

Photo credits:  Coalition against FMFO factories