The ESEC’s recommendations for an ambitious contract between agriculture and French society

French agriculture is facing a number of very different challenges: climatic and environmental, economic and food-related, as well as socio-demographic. In view of this widely shared observation, the Government has decided to draw up a draft law on agricultural policy and the future of agriculture, based on a wide-ranging consultation process at both national and local level, in order to create a pact between the nation and agriculture. Changes in the overall organisation of access to food and the rise in the urban population have resulted in a weakening of the link between production and consumption, leading to a lack of awareness and even a misunderstanding of the mutual expectations of the various players. It was against this backdrop that the Prime Minister referred the matter to the ESEC.

The ESEC has been involved in drawing up this future Pact by producing an opinion designed to enlighten the government, and is formulating guidelines for a Pact designed to to meet the various challenges facing society and enable everyone to have access to high-quality, healthy and sustainable food.