Food is a human right that Europe must protect

9 July 2025 – Cristina Guarda, MEP for the Greens/EFA, spoke on the right to food alongside members of the steering committee of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “Food is a Human Right for All,” officially registered yesterday by the European Commission.

“Citizens are calling on the EU to recognize the right to food as a fundamental principle, to be implemented across all EU policies. And they are right: we must promote universal access to healthy, sustainable food, protect small-scale producers and workers’ rights, and stop treating food as just another commodity,” said Guarda, a member of the Agriculture Committee (AGRI) and Vice-Chair of the Petitions Committee (PETI) in the European Parliament.

“This Initiative is a turning point: citizens across Europe have the opportunity to push for a fairer, more sustainable, and rights-based food system and unite to demand that the EU stops treating food as a privilege and starts treating it as a right. With this ECI, we call for concrete legislative action to ensure that everyone—regardless of income, status, or geography—has access to adequate, nutritious, and sustainable food. It’s time for the EU to listen and act,” said Almudena Garcia Sastre from the ECI “Food is a Human Right for All” steering committee.

“Yesterday we also hosted the panel ‘No One Left Hungry: Food Access as a Fundamental Human Right’ in the European Parliament, which I co-organized with ASSEDEL to explore the right to food in the context of climate change, geopolitical tensions, and growing inequality,” Guarda added. “If we are able to feed 80 billion farm animals globally, it is unacceptable that we still fail to feed 8 billion people. Europe must redirect its agricultural policy toward fairer food systems, rooted in the real needs of citizens and the planet—not just market-driven logic,” the MEP concluded.

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