Climate, Poverty and Policies: food systems in France, Germany and Italy

In Europe, the economic crisis, high unemployment rates, rising absolute and relative poverty, and a recent pandemic crisis with a devastating impact on human health and social security have led to an increase in the number of people who are unable to access food that is sufficient in quantity and quality to meet their nutritional needs and dietary preferences (Eurostat, 2020). In 2019, one in five people in Europe was at risk of poverty and social exclusion, with 6.8% of the European population (nearly 27 million people) unable to afford a meal containing meat, fish, or a vegetarian equivalent every other day. In 2022, the ongoing economic crisis and the social consequences of COVID-19 took their toll: 95.3 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, accounting for 21.6% of the total population. Women, young adults aged 18 to 24, people with a low level of education, and the unemployed were, on average, more likely to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion than other groups. In 2022, 8.3% of the EU population could not afford a meal containing meat, fish, or a vegetarian equivalent every other day.

The complexity of food poverty lies in its interconnection with other forms of poverty: an approach that considers assistance to individuals in a holistic and systemic manner can help achieve greater sustainability in policies addressing food poverty. According to the FAO, food poverty consists of four fundamental dimensions: 1. the physical availability of food: determined by levels of food production and trade; 2. physical and economic access to food: determined by income levels and market price trends, but also by geographical proximity to fresh, high-quality food; 3. utilization: pertaining to the quality and nutritional adequacy of the food consumed for a healthy diet and to other non-food factors such as sanitation, water, etc.; 4. stability: relating to the necessary continuity of physical and material access to adequate nutrition, which can be disrupted by political, economic, and/or environmental factors. Each of these dimensions influences and is influenced by various factors within the food system, but also by the interconnection with many other factors that impact daily life: health, housing conditions, work, and human relationships. For example, it is well known that economic hardship not only leads to a reduction in the number of meals consumed daily, but also in the quality of those meals, with a clear impact on health. Only by viewing food poverty as one component of a broader system of vulnerability will it be possible to understand the complexity of the problem and find coherent solutions. In this sense, food serves as a gateway to other vulnerabilities that lead individuals to find themselves in various forms of marginalization.

Food poverty is therefore a multidimensional phenomenon: alongside the material aspects, there are equally important non-material aspects. These aspects pertain to food in its social and psychological dimensions, such as the cultural and traditional factors that cause the meaning of “quality” to vary across countries, regions, cities, and families. In this context, a quality diet is conceived as a sustainable diet—that is, one that aims to be nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable, economically accessible, and environmentally friendly. Therefore, every context requires a different diet, just as every family must be able to consume food that meets its needs even under vulnerable conditions.