1 Forewords The science is unequivocal: pressing challenges lie in front of us. The latest evidence from the European Environment Agency shows that the European Union is off track across nearly all its environmental and sustainability targets. For Europe to become a sustainable, climate friendly continent that stays within the planetary boundaries, we need to implement deep systemic changes – and do so quickly. The EU urgently needs a new and ambitious blueprint for tackling climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss and overconsumption. That the new Commission’s first major policy announcement – the Green Deal – starts to address this urgency carries an important message. The food sector is at the centre of this – and the dairy sector, in particular. Representing more than 12 per cent of the EU’s total agricultural output, dairy production is the Union’s second biggest agricultural sector. But today, it faces numerous, interlinked challenges across all three pillars of sustainability – economic, social and environmental. A few months ago, we were approached by Arla Foods to conduct a study on how the European dairy sector could become more sustainable – in all three pillars. As an independent think tank striving for sustainability and evidence-based policy making, we’ve taken on what we believe is a great opportunity and decided to write a report that goes beyond just fact checking and provides solutions and possible pathways for all actors involved in the value chain. That’s because the challenges lying ahead cannot be addressed by one party alone. The dairy sector itself can bring profound and necessary changes but, on their own, these will not be enough: policy makers, civil society, consumers and others will also have to become the drivers of the transition. In the context of the Green Deal and the upcoming Farm to Fork strategy, we hope that our findings and conclusions contribute to the discussion and, above all, lead to evidencebased decisions that are so urgently needed. Céline Charveriat, Executive Director Institute for European Environmental Policy
Download PDF file