October is just around the corner – and so are the European Days of Action! Since 2018, the #GoodFoodGoodFarming movement has united thousands across Europe to demand just food systems. This year’s focus is Food Justice: recognising food as a human right, not just a commodity. Today’s system puts profit before people, but this October citizens can take action and call on EU leaders to ensure safe, healthy and affordable food for all. Good Food Good Farming tells us more.
A system built on injustice
Europe’s food system is broken. Billions of EU taxpayers’ money is funnelled into the hands of agribusiness giants. Meanwhile, Europe has lost five million farms in the past 15 years, and one in ten Europeans can no longer afford a healthy meal every other day.
At the same time, agricultural workers, 2 million of them migrants, face some of the harshest working conditions in the EU, while the dominant model of industrial agriculture continues to destroy nature and worsen the climate crisis.
“The system is failing the farmers who grow our food, the people who eat it, and the environment that sustains it,” says Pauline Naterstad of Good Food Good Farming. “Food justice means turning this around: ensuring fair farmer incomes, healthy and affordable food for everyone, and farming that works with nature, not against it.”
How to join the European Days of Action!
The European Days of Action are designed to make participation simple and accessible. Citizens, farmers, schools, local groups, and organisations can choose from a “menu of actions” and register their action on the Good Food Good Farming website to be featured on the Action Map.
Options range from personal actions, like posting a photo with a #FoodJustice message, to larger-scale actions such as organising farm visits, communal dinners, or screenings of The Pickers, a documentary on the conditions of migrant food workers in the EU. Once registered, each action will appear on an interactive Action Map, illustrating the diversity of actions, and will receive a practical Action Guide to support their efforts. Learn more about how to get involved here!
“This is about showing that change doesn’t just happen in Brussels or Strasbourg,” says Naterstad. “It happens in villages, towns, schools, and kitchens across Europe. Every action, no matter how small, becomes part of a collective call for justice.”
From local action to European change!
Behind the colourful events and creative actions is a clear demand: politicians must start designing farming and food policies that serve the public interest.
“The money funding these policies comes from citizens’ pockets,” Naterstad emphasises. “So policy should serve citizens’ needs: fair incomes, equitable food access, sustainable production, and democratic participation. Right now, it mainly serves the needs of corporations.”
Joining the movement
*If you want to use this video to spread on your social media, you can download it in 11 EU languages here.
The European Days of Action, which runs from 1st – 31st October, are open to all interested individuals or groups who would like to join the call for food justice in one way or another. They can register on the campaign website, select their action, and join a growing movement for better food and farming in the EU.
“Whether you’re an organisation, a farmer, a parent, a student, or just someone who cares about the future of food, there’s a way for you to get involved,” says Naterstad. “Food justice can only become a reality if we have a powerful collective voice to fight for it.”
What is Good Food Good Farming?
Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) is a diverse alliance of civil society groups that has campaigned for sustainable food and farming across Europe since 2012. We unite local, national, and EU-level organizations to pressure decision-makers into transforming EU food and farming policies. From advocating for ambitious reforms to the CAP to pushing for the phase-out of pesticides, GFGF is actively engaged in a wide range of issues related to food and farming.
The European Days of Action is the hallmark campaign of the #GoodFoodGoodFarming movement for the past 8 years and is a month filled with decentrally organized actions. The campaign takes place every October and provides a platform for citizens and organizations -large and small- to join the movement.
More
European Days of Action – Mobilizing for a Just Transition of our Food Systems
Fund the Future of Food & Farming: A United Call from Across Europe
Letter From The Farm | Neighbours, Not Numbers: How Local Feeds Us All
Rural Europe Takes Action – Food System Lessons from Marburg
A Not So Common Agricultural Policy and A Mega MF(F)ing Fund – What’s Cooking in the New CAP?
The Rise of a New Grain Alliance – Germany’s Free Bakers Sow the Seeds of Change
Crafting the Collective – Tijs Boelens’ Vision for a Farmer-Led Grain Revival
Re-Sowing the Seeds of Connection in Switzerland, Part I – Nurturing What We Have
This Farmer Says He’s Not Drowning in Paperwork – He’s Swimming in EU Money
The EU’s Public Plate – An Opportunity for Food System Transformation
