b'Do we want to feel virtuous or solve real-life sustainable farming challenges?ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF THE EU FARM TO FORK STRATEGY. BY: JON ENTINEE uropean Union politicians call it a protein transition strategythe continents sustainable farming blueprint embodied in the Green Deal, the heart of the Farm to Fork (F2F) recommendations edging towards adoption. Getting this right is critical, as Europes global policy influ-ence is huge. A revolutionary strategy should inform Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), industrial initiatives in food and farm production as part of post-COVID crisis recovery plans and inter-national trade agreements. The effort at big picture rethink is laudable, especially considering escalating climate change challenges. But with the stakes so high, a shiny new car of good intentions is not suffi-cient. Dataevidencematters. So, lets lift the sustainability hood and see whats underneath: Is it more Yugo or Tesla?F2F policy calls for increasing food production while dra-matically slashing synthetic pesticide use. To achieve this, the EU has placed most of its chips on organic farming It proposes to increase organic farming in agricultural production from 7.5% to 25% while reducing pesticide use by 50%. That sounds good, but as often happens when sustainability ideals move toward implementation, meeting complex environ-mental goals requires trade-offs. Considering natural chemicals used in organic farming are magnitudes more expensive (farm-ing is only marginally profitable) than synthetic ones, and are less efficient, how does F2F plan to meet their own targets? As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN warns, too much pesticide use can damage the health of farmers and the environment; but wholesale reductions in the use of cropJon Entineprotection chemicals would be catastrophic, as farmers could lose as much as 40% of harvests due to infestations and disease. Note that the F2F strategy also does not include any new biotechnologies, including GMO Bt modified seeds that contain a natural bacterium gene that dramatically reduces the need for insecticides; or CRISPR gene editing poised to curb the use ofWholesale reductions in thesynthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Those options, now pursued by every major country in the world outside of Europe, are notuse of crop protection chemicals even on the table. The F2F doesnt address those inconvenient contradictions.would be catastrophic, as Like in medieval times, Europe considers itself the center of the universe. It aims to export a food model around the world,farmers could lose as much leveraging what it believes would be an agricultural-based trade advantage over the U.S., Latin America and Asia. Its major tradeas 40% of harvests due to target: the worlds fastest growing consumer market, Africa.infestations and disease.In essence, its a recolonization strategy based on convincing fast-educating Africans that biotechnology is dangerous while tweaked, pre-industrial farming technologies are the wave of the future.14IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'