News 02.09.2026

The food system is turning Europe into an oven

Traktor der ein Feld pflügt

No air conditioning for a field. No thermostat for a herd of cattle. Our food system isn't just suffering the climate crisis — it's fueling it.

International Campaigns Coordinator, foodwatch

This is an opinion piece by Lorine Azoulai, International Campaigns Coordinator.

It is 38°C in my office. The fan on my desk is working hard, but all it does is blow warm air directly into my face. My palms are sweating. I have stopped pretending I can concentrate. 

Everywhere I look, the conversation is about air conditioning: how to cool our homes, our offices, our cities. How to get through another day of unbearable heat. 

But I keep thinking about something else.

How are our farmers supposed to get through this?

Because while I can sit here sweating and wait for the temperature to drop, a farmer has no such option. There is no thermostat for a field, no air conditioning for a herd of cattle.  

What once looked like a worst-case climate scenario for the coming decades is unfolding in Europe now. 

In France, maize production is expected to fall by 35%, to its lowest level since 19801. In northern Finistère, the heat has wiped out entire plots of cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce and artichokes. Even with irrigation, some young plants simply did not survive. Green bean flowers were scorched before they could produce pods; the peas that did survive were smaller and drier.  

The June heatwave also killed an estimated 2.5 to 3 million broiler chickens3. Industrial livestock systems are not only fuelling the climate crisis; they are also failing to protect animals from its consequences. As extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe, these systems will come under growing pressure - with animals paying the price. If you ask yourself whether animal welfare can ever be reconciled with a system built on confinement, high stocking densities and maximum productivity, the answer is no. 

In Austria, the grain harvest is forecast to fall by 19% after an exceptionally hot and dry summer4. Intensive pesticide use has weakened the soils and ecosystems that agriculture relies on to withstand heat and drought. 316,000 tonnes of pesticides were sold in the EU in 20245, undermining soils’ capacity to retain water and agro-ecosystems’ ability to recover from extreme weather events 6. Like industrial livestock farming, industrial agriculture is caught in a vicious cycle: it is a major driver of climate change, while simultaneously undermining our ability to adapt to it, thus making our food systems increasingly fragile.  

In the Alps, the pasture has simply run out. With grass scorched and water running short, farmers are bringing cattle down from the mountains weeks early, burning through winter feed in the middle of summer - and, in some cases, sending animals to slaughter because they can no longer keep them fed and watered. 

And in the Netherlands, the government has already declared an actual water shortage7. River flows have fallen to historically low levels, while farmers are being restricted from taking water from ditches and streams. Potato crops - a cornerstone of Dutch agriculture - are suffering from the combination of heat and drought. 

This is no longer a story about climate projections and distant scenarios. Climate change is already hitting the foundations of our food system. Which leaves us with an uncomfortable question.

Could the food systems we rely on today end up undermining our very ability to feed ourselves tomorrow? 

Climate change is already putting our food systems under strain. But the way our food is produced and consumed is also fuelling the crisis. 

Here is the paradox: the food system is not just taking the heat - it is turning it up. From land use and farming to food manufacturing, retail, consumption and waste, our food systems generate nearly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.8 

We are using an extraordinary share of our crops to feed animals: around 70% of the protein from cereals, oilseeds and pulses produced and consumed in the EU goes to animal feed9. And this system extends far beyond Europe's borders. In 2022, the EU relied on around 30 million hectares of cropland outside its borders to satisfy its consumption – importing more than a quarter of its own cropland footprint10.  

We have also stripped our agricultural landscapes of their ability to store carbon and withstand climate shocks - removing hedgerows, draining wetlands and simplifying ecosystems in the pursuit of ever-higher yields… Making our agriculture both more polluting and more vulnerable. 

But these are political choices. 

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy supports mostly the largest landholdings: around 20% of beneficiaries receive 80% of direct payments11. Policies continue to reward intensive systems that depend heavily on imported feed, land, water and labour – even as the evidence grows that they damage the very resources they rely on, undermine animal welfare and human health, and have failed to tackle hunger.  Meanwhile, citizens are demanding a greater say in how our food is produced. We need to change the rules: making agroecology the norm, not the niche, and rewarding farming systems that protect soils, biodiversity and our climate.  

If the food system we support today - a system largely controlled by a handful of multinationals across the entire food chain, whose primary interest is profit - is fuelling climate change and makes it harder to feed ourselves tomorrow, then the whole “competitiveness” argument is smoke and mirrors. What is competitive about exhausting our soils, draining our water and destroying the foundations of food production? Real competitiveness means being able to feed people with healthy, affordable food for decades to come, not protecting short-term profits. 

It’s time to stop pretending that more subsidies to an outdated model is the solution. Europe will not meet its climate targets without reducing livestock numbers, as well as cutting synthetic fertiliser and pesticide use. This heatwave should be a wake-up call: farmers need a system that rewards sustainable farming, not one that continues to channel public money according to the size of a farm which, let's be honest, has the opposite effect. My fan is still blowing hot air into my face. 

I can wait for the heatwave to pass. 

Our food system cannot. 

Stand for food safety: stop the omnibus

Europe is cooking, and intensive pesticide use is part of why our soils can't take the heat. Instead of fixing that, the EU wants to weaken the very checks meant to catch it — rushing ten food safety laws through in one package, scrapping regular pesticide reviews, loosening import controls. MEPs haven't made up their minds yet. Tell them to protect food safety, not agro-industry shortcuts.

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Sources and additional information