Public procurement of food in the EU is worth billions annually – money that could help deliver healthy meals in schools, hospitals and nursing homes, while supporting sustainable agriculture, fair incomes for farmers and workers’ rights. As the EU prepares to revise its procurement directives, this op-ed by ICLEI’s Jean-Marc Louvin asks why the potential of sustainable food procurement is still untapped – even as many local and regional governments are already demonstrating what’s possible – and highlights two campaigns whose joint Brussels Declaration advocates for the transformative role of the public plate.
By Jean-Marc Louvin, Campaign Coordinator at ICLEI Europe – Local Governments for Sustainability
The (missed) power of the public plate
For all this talk in Brussels of an agrifood vision, there’s one area where the EU is blind: food procurement. How is it that such a fundamental policy instrument and such a powerful tool for shifting towards sustainable food systems has been sidelined? One guess is that it demands, by definition, a food systems approach—which is exactly the thing the new Vision lacks.
Indeed, let’s recall a few facts. Public procurement involves 250,000 public authorities and accounts for up to 14% of the EU’s GDP, and in the food sector alone, it represents an estimated €50 billion annually, according to a report from the Commission’s Joint Research Commission (JRC). Thanks to this scale and market power, the JRC report recognises that food procurement has the potential to shape production and consumption trends.
And, when approached strategically, it can simultaneously provide healthy and nutritious meals in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes, while supporting sustainable production practices, tackling climate change, empowering small-scale farmers, revitalising local economies, protecting workers’ rights, and improving animal welfare.
The EU campaigns on sustainable food procurement
While the European Commission has overlooked food procurement, several local and regional governments across the EU are demonstrating its power and far-reaching benefits every day, and two campaigns have been amplifying these best practices while advocating for better rules.
The Buy Better Food Campaign (BBF), launched in 2021, coordinated by ICLEI, yet led by ten EU NGOs, was created with three main objectives: to raise awareness of the transformative role procurement can play in sustainable food systems; to advocate for better rules for public food procurement; and to demand the integration of food education into school curricula.
Since 2022, and in light of the now shelved Sustainable Food Systems Framework proposal, BBF — together with the EU Food Policy Coalition — developed its Manifesto for the Establishment of Minimum Mandatory Criteria for Public Canteens. A Manifesto ultimately calling for a sustainability level-playing field across the EU, ensuring that public money supports fair and sustainable food systems while delivering healthy, nutritious diets.
The second initiative is the Freeing Public Procurement Campaign (FPP), coordinated by France Urbaine and other French and Belgian NGOs. Launched in January 2024, FPP also puts forward three main demands: first, to frame food procurement within a broader global health and environmental perspective; second, to consolidate scattered food-related provisions into a coherent framework; and third, to open up the choice of procedure for 50% of the annual volume of food purchases. FPP recognises the strategic potential of procurement and aims to allow public authorities to leverage it more effectively. Its overarching goal is to ensure that those willing to use procurement for transformation can do so more freely.
A shared vision for public food procurement in the EU
For nearly a year, these two campaigns proceeded along largely parallel paths, although they sometimes found themselves at a crossroads of certain sticky issues. Indeed, calling for minimum criteria to abide by may look like additional work for contracting authorities, whereas simplifying the purchasing process is not per se a guarantee for more sustainability. However, this period of constructive criticism led both parties to acknowledge their visions were aligned (food procurement must become a tool for healthy and sustainable food systems) and that their respective demands were in fact complementary.
To address these diverse realities and to strengthen the push for sustainable food procurement, the two campaigns issued the joint Brussels Declaration, launched in November 2024 at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). The Declaration sends a strong signal to EU policymakers: if Archimedes needed a fixed point and a lever to move the world, local authorities need minimum sustainability criteria and simplified procurement procedures to transform EU food systems.
What’s cooking next for the public plate?
This message was reaffirmed during a well-attended, jointly organised workshop on The Future of Food Procurement in the EU, held on April 23, which convened speakers such as Marta Messa (Secretary General of Slow Food), Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe), Camilla Laureti (S&D), and Wim Debeuckelaere (DG SANTE), alongside practical contributions from the cities of Liège and Agorès, to provide insights into the technical and political landscape around food procurement.
The need for such a workshop appears evident. Since the release of the Brussels Declaration, several shifts have occurred. The ambitious Farm to Fork Strategy, which included an aim for minimum sustainability criteria for public canteens, has been replaced by the Vision for the Future of Food and Agriculture, which focuses on competitiveness, simplification, generational renewal, and digitalisation in agriculture.
The Vision acknowledges procurement’s potential, stating that it will “put forward a legal proposal to strengthen it.” While this sounds ambitious, it’s less impressive when considering that a revision was already scheduled. Still, the Vision commits to a “best-value approach” that encourages participation by SMEs and small-scale farmers, creates incentives for consumption of local, seasonal, and sustainably produced food, and supports short food supply chains as strategic tools to ensure fairer prices for farmers and fishers.
While these goals are commendable, questions remain about how they will be implemented. Moreover, and in simple terms, the shift from a sectoral law with clear standards to a revised directive on procurement marks a deeper change—from regulating what public authorities should buy, to defining how they can buy it. This broader scope makes implementation more complex, especially since the directives affect all public procurement—not just food.
The good food “procurement” movement
Despite this shift from what to how, the revision of the directives remains a crucial opportunity: to ease the burden on public authorities, steer competitiveness in the right direction (competing for sustainability, not just lowest prices), and promote socially and environmentally responsible public spending that delivers healthy food and supports sustainable agriculture.
However, as Kevin Morgan reminds us in his latest book Serving the Public, there is no silver bullet for sustainable food procurement. Simplifying procedures doesn’t automatically mean more local or fresh food. Minimum criteria are hard to meet when food supply chains are not in place or budgets are prohibitively tight; and ultimately, if key actors — decision makers, procurement officers, and kitchen staff — aren’t on board, healthy and sustainable public meals simply won’t take off.
That means that, beyond the strategic advocacy work at the EU level, what is crucial is that campaigns such as the BBF and FPP keep raising awareness on the topic, create connections, share good practices, and ultimately make citizens and policymakers aware that food procurement means public money, which means public good, and as such must be spent for the benefit of all.
More
Shortsighted Vision: Unpacking EU’s new agrifood policy plans
EU’s Competitiveness Compass – North-Pointing or are Things Heading South for Agri Policy?
Sustainable Food Systems | Public Canteens – A Tool for Regional Resilience
