The European Union is one of the world’s largest agro-food players. In an ever-changing economic and policy environment, the EU agro-food system has demonstrated its resilience and the ability to keep productivity growing. More needs to be done for the agricultural sector to improve its environmental sustainability performance in line with expectations.

Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the European Union applies the OECD Productivity, Sustainability and Resilience (PSR) analytical framework along with the latest data from the OECD Agri-Environmental Indicators to benchmark the sustainable productivity performance of the EU’s agricultural sector and to identify the main challenges ahead. The EU´s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is called to play an important role in implementing the European Green Deal’s vision and objectives. Responding to pressing environmental concerns will require redesigning CAP payments, addressing the implementation gap on sustainability, implementing an ambitious data and digitalisation strategy, and bringing innovation to the centre of the agricultural policy.