Breaking Bread

Food and Water Systems Under Pressure

While climate change is high up the media agenda, its impacts on food and water systems remain under-investigated. But now that the end of abundance is becoming an everyday experience in Europe, we are thinking more closely about how our food reaches the table. 

Lower yields, higher prices, and struggling communities are just some of the social and economic costs of water scarcity and extreme weather. But how and what we eat is also inextricable from identity, tradition and social life. Food and water systems under pressure bring these questions to the fore. 

The series ‘Breaking bread’ explores political, social and cultural aspects of food and water across European societies, highlighting the dangers of a parched planet while picking out some seeds for a fair and sustainable food and water system to come. 

The project is organised by the Green European Journal with the support of Eurozine, and thanks to the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation. The EU Parliament is not responsible for the content of this project.

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Articles in this focus

Taking Water for Granted 

Plastic pollution and the climate emergency are forcing us to question our water consumption habits.

EN
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The Alchemists of Ludwigshafen: Conjuring Food Out of Air and Coal 

Artificial fertilisers revolutionised human nutrition. But new food technologies also have unforeseen consequences. 

EN
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A Recipe for Survival

Once a means of survival, pickling and jamming traditions are now making a comeback. Can they be recognised for their cultural heritage?

EN
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Ukraine: Still Europe’s Breadbasket 

Despite the disruptions to the European grain market caused by the war, Ukraine remains one of the world’s leading grain exporters.

EN
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The Invisible Price of Water

During communism, irrigation systems made the Romanian Plain agriculturally robust, but have since collapsed. Droughts are the new reality.

EN
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Water: From Scarcity to Equity

Water wars are not inevitable but the result of bad management.

ENES
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Who Represents Farmers?  

Europe’s biggest farming lobby, together with the EPP, opposes any policy inimical to the interests of large landowners.

DEENESFRIT
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Peace to the Plates! War on the Animals!

Humanism has elevated humanity above its natural condition, but our relationship to animals remains in a state of war.

EN
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The Po Valley: An Italian paradox 

Over-exploitation, pollution, and land consumption are exacerbating the effects of climate change in Italy’s Pianura Padana.

EN
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Desperation for Refrigeration

Seen as a necessity, the fridge is turning into a luxury item. Has it become a guilty environmental consumer trap?

EN
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To Save Europe’s Rivers, It’s Back to Basics 

Rivers can be used to combat the risks of flooding or drought, particularly in urban areas. But schemes can negatively impact the environment and water quality.

EN
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