Addressing food security and sustainability | Anton Refalo

Humanity is going through another phase of rising uncertainty; the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, natural disasters and climate change as well as ever-rising prices and soaring inflation are fuelling this sense of insecurity.

This uncertainty has also exposed the vulnerability of global food systems and the general public is increasingly realising that access to food cannot be taken for granted. Especially in the more advanced countries, food security is being pushed to the forefront of public policymaking.

In Malta, the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights has been closely monitoring these developments to ensure that the local community has peace of mind and feels assured that the supply of food is not threatened and its quality of life is protected. The Ministry is striving to have a food system that is more resilient and sustainable and which gives due consideration to the interests of all stakeholders, be they consumers or producers. The ultimate aim of Maltese policymakers is to have a food system that is healthy, green, fair and affordable.

Last year, this ministry started working on a National Food Policy which will seek to identity common challenges, set a vision and provide strategic direction to the local food sector. It will help establish priorities, identify key measures that need to be implemented and exploit opportunities arising through better alignment of cross-sector policies. Food brings together policies relating among others to health, education, environment, climate change, energy, culture and enterprise.

The National Food Policy while being founded on the key principles of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy will seek to adapt them to local realities. This policy will have three pillars: driving a long-term shift in food culture, also by promoting our food heritage and tackling food waste, ensuring the economic sustainability of local production and enhancing the resilience and security of Malta’s food system.

In March 2021, the European Commission published a plan entitled `The Action Plan for the Development of Organic Production in the EU’. This plan set a comprehensive agenda that is to be implemented by both member states and the Commission itself, if the target set in the European Green Deal of having 25% of agricultural land under organic farming by 2030, is to be achieved.

Malta’s own Organic Action Plan will be the first of its kind and will essentially follow upon the measures identified through the EU’s action plan. This plan, which is expected to be made public later this year, will seek to encourage and to drive the shift to organic food, which is considered to be one of the most sustainable systems of  food production. Sustainability arises from the fact that organic food is produced with great respect towards nature and takes into full account the interests of all the stakeholders.

The Organic Action Plan will identify several measures which will help create a more favourable ecosystem around the producer, strengthen institutional leadership and stimulate the local market for organic products.

These measures will also include increased financial support to compensate for the real local costs for farmers to move into and stay in organic farming.  The additional financial resources required to incentivise and support  organic farming will be made available through the recently approved national CAP Strategy Plan 2023-2027.

Recently the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights appointed Malta’s National  Ambassador for Organic and Sustainable Food.  A specific objective of this post is for the Ambassador to lead this drive towards organic production. Working together with local producers, consumers, businesses and entities, the Ambassador will also seek to identify local opportunities to create organically certified food products that exploit local conditions and traditions while giving due consideration to  the environment.

As part of the process of formulating the food policy as well as the organic action plan, the ministry has been having consultation meetings with key stakeholders as well as gathering information and collating data that is deemed essential in ensuring that they are based on the realities of Malta. The intelligence and knowledge being gathered will prove invaluable to other initiatives and projects undertaken by the ministry in support of the agriculture and fishery communities.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights is confident that the National Food Policy and The National Organic Action Plan will be another two important milestones in the continued modernisation of the local food sector. This not only seeks to boost the resilience and sustainability of the food sector, but also to increase its contribution to the economy and the general well-being of Maltese society.