Rebalance power and strengthen farmers’ position in the EU food system? A CDA of the Farm to Fork Strategy

Aziz Omar () and Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe ()
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Aziz Omar: Aarhus University
Martin Hvarregaard Thorsøe: Aarhus University

Agriculture and Human Values, 2024, vol. 41, issue 2, No 16, 646 pages

Abstract: Abstract The Farm to Fork (F2F) Strategy at the heart of the European Union’s Green Deal set out to create a “just transition” towards a sustainable food system, with benefits for all actors. We conducted a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explore discourses around power in the food system and farmers’ position in the communication and implementation of the Farm to Fork Strategy. Discourse analysis encapsulates various scientific methodologies for deciphering the meaning behind the creation and communication of different forms of language and identify power dynamics, amongst other aspects. We identified two prior discourses in one of the objectives of the European Union’s new Common Agricultural Policy (2023-27). Our analysis found that the discourses, namely “rebalance power in food system” and “strengthening farmers’ position in value chains,” are marginalized in favour of an innovation-investment discourse, indicative of greater financialization and technologization based on techno-finances fixes in transforming the European Union agri-food system. We argue that entities representing agri-business interests have been influential in the policymaking process and voices representing smallholder and medium-sized farmers’ transformational discourses have been excluded.

Keywords: Critical discourse analysis; Farm to Fork Strategy; Food policy; Food sovereignty; Agri-food transitions; Agroecological transformation; Power relations; Technology; Investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10508-5

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