The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is grounded in the recognition that people, land, and society are deeply interlinked. But today, that connection is under strain. Farmers face mounting pressure from extreme weather, rising input costs and increasing regulatory complexity. Against this backdrop, the upcoming CAP reform is a pivotal moment, one that must deliver real outcomes to future-proof European agriculture.   To do that, policymakers should focus on three clear priorities: enabling co-investment between the public and private sectors; ensuring payments are simpler and rewarding farmers for what really matters; and equipping farmers with tailored support beyond payments. This is the foundation for a CAP that truly supports food security, climate action, and farmer livelihoods, while keeping food affordable for consumers.   By aligning around these priorities, the CAP can move beyond being just a rulebook for farmers and become a framework that brings together everyone involved in sustaining and shaping our food future, balancing agricultural progress with care for the environment and our communities. At PepsiCo, we see the impact of these policies up close, starting from the very first step of our value chain. Across the EU, we work with over 800 farmers to source key agricultural crops and ingredients, including potatoes, corn and oats. These ingredients are the backbone of iconic brands like Lay’s, Doritos, and Quaker, which rely on thriving farming communities and sustainable agricultural practices. Their success is our success. And so is their sustainability.  But I can also see that today’s farmers face an uncertain future. With the EU standing at a crossroads, we have to rethink how to support food security, respond to climate impacts and deliver more equitable outcomes for farmers, while keeping food affordable and accessible for consumers.   That’s why CAP reform matters now. Done right, the CAP can become a global model for a public-private partnership that drives meaningful and measurable progress across the full agri-food value chain.  On PepsiCo’s part, we remain committed to being a constructive partner in support of a more competitive, resilient and sustainable food system — based on regenerative agriculture.  This approach uses science-based farming practices that aim to restore ecosystems by improving soil health and fertility, reducing emissions, enhancing water quality and protecting biodiversity while also supporting farmer livelihoods. For example, in Jaén, southern Spain, we recently launched ‘Viva Oliva’ to support local olive growers, many of whom have been working in this historic trade for generations. Through this project, we’re providing hands-on training from agronomy experts so that farmers can protect the ecosystem more efficiently and conserve vital resources.   Crucially, these practices also create new opportunities, ensuring that farming can continue to be a viable option for the next generation. In 2024 we sourced 100 percent of the olive oil for our Alvalle gazpacho brand from Jaén, securing a high-quality local supply for Alvalle while strengthening the role of farmers in our supply shed.  > We’re investing in innovative techniques that bring life back to the land > because it is the right thing to do for our business, for the farmers we work > with and for the planet. Viva Oliva is just one of the many projects that’s helped us spread regenerative agriculture across a total of 3.5 million acres (approximately 1.4 million hectares) of farmland. Recently, we extended our target and are now aiming to reach 10 million acres (around 4 million hectares) globally by 2030.   We’re also taking action further upstream through partnerships with fertilizer companies like Yara, equipping farmers with precision tools to improve nutrient efficiency, increase yields and lower the carbon footprint of their crops. This collaboration supports approximately 1,000 farms across the EU and the UK that supply key ingredients for Lay’s and Walkers, covering around 128,000 hectares. By 2030 the partnership aims to reduce fertilizer production emissions by up to 80 percent and in-field fertilizer emissions by up to 20 percent, helping scale regenerative practices while supporting farmer productivity.  > Recently, we extended our regenerative agriculture target and are now aiming > to spread these practices across 10 million acres of farmland globally by > 2030. I know that we have the expertise and ambition to meet these goals, but we can’t do it alone. To make this a reality, we need EU policymakers to deliver a coherent and enabling regulatory framework that’s fit for purpose, based on three guiding principles.  Firstly, policymakers must match ambition with investment. Strong public funding is essential, but the CAP should be reimagined to enable co-investment through blended finance models, where public and private capital work together to accelerate impact. Private investment should be results driven, allowing trusted private-sector partners, who operate at size and scale, to co-design solutions with farmers.  Secondly, payments should be simpler and pay farmers for what really matters. This requires rewarding farmers not just for compliance but also for delivering real, measurable environmental benefits such as healthier soils, lower emissions, cleaner water, and richer biodiversity. Farming is unlike most other businesses, with income around 40 percent lower than non-agricultural income,1, which is why CAP incentives must reflect the true costs farmers face, including machinery upgrades and land-use shifts. And the system should incentivize progress over perfection — farmers who are already taking action should be compensated accordingly.  Thirdly, the CAP must recognize that farmers need support beyond payments. Investing in climate information systems, knowledge sharing networks, rural infrastructure and novel technologies will help accelerate and scale the implementation of new techniques — while ensuring profitability. Travelling across Europe to meet our teams on the ground, I see firsthand how local needs differ, so farmers should also be free to choose the solutions that are best suited to their region and crops to ensure policies are impactful.    > “Done right, the CAP can become a global model for a public-private > partnership that drives meaningful and measurable progress across the full > agrifood value chain. Archana Jagannathan And PepsiCo is committed to being part of that solution. Together with like-minded partners, we’re fully committed to growing food in a way that revitalizes the earth, supports farmer livelihoods, and feeds a growing population.  

United States President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are shaping up to be a major headache for his far-right allies in Europe.  Washington’s decision to impose a 20 percent levy on all European Union imports is set to disproportionately impact the rural and blue-collar workers that have gravitated toward right-wing populist parties across the bloc. That’s left many European political figures who are the MAGA movement’s biggest cheerleaders in an awkward spot. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s ultranationalist Vox party, tried to walk a dialectical tightrope on the eve of the announcement, insisting that his group was absolutely against the tariffs, and that he had even lobbied against them when he attended the Conservative Political Action Conference conference in Washington in February. But he simultaneously expressed admiration for Trump, whose inauguration he attended in January, saying he had nothing but respect for a leader who defends “his interests” — even when they “go against ours.” According to projections from the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Spain’s economy stands to suffer losses of up to €4.3 billion as a result of Trump’s tariffs this year. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — a Socialist — announced a €14.1 billion industry rescue package on Thursday in response to Trump’s tariffs. The agri-food sector is expected to be the worst hit: Exports of domestic olive oil, which currently bring in around €1 billion from U.S. consumers, could decline sharply, and the country’s wine sector could be devastated if Trump carries out his threat to respond to retaliatory EU tariffs on bourbon with a 200 percent levy on wines and spirits.  Meanwhile, Spain’s manufacturing industry, which exported machinery and electrical equipment worth more than €4 billion in 2024, could suffer a 28 percent drop in sales.  According to Spain’s Center for Sociological Research, Vox is backed by one in every five farm workers and over 10 percent of industrial workers. Abascal on Thursday sought to shift the blame for the economic impact of the tariffs onto mainstream politicians in Madrid and Brussels. “Neither [Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen, nor Sánchez, nor [center-right opposition leader [Alberto Núñez] Feijóo have defended the interests of the Spanish people,” Abascal wrote on X, complaining that Spaniards were being dragged into a “suicidal trade war.” “We must expel this corrupt caste that has only brought ruin and loss of freedoms,” he added. “And we will do it.” BLAME BRUSSELS Far-right leaders in other parts of Europe used similar talking points. “The European economy, and ultimately the European people, are once again paying the price for the incompetence of Brussels politicians,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, a long-time member of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, wrote on Facebook. “The European Commission should have negotiated!” Szijjártó argued the current situation could have been avoided had Brussels slashed European automotive tariffs from 10 to 2.5 percent and forged a tariff cooperation agreement with Washington. “[The Commission] did not negotiate; instead, they once again turned an economic issue into an ideological one,” he fumed. “And all this while earning thousands of euros a month …” The Alternative for Germany used its parliamentary group’s account on X to similarly suggest Europe had brought the levies upon itself. “This decision throws a spanner in the works of the global economy,” the post read. “It would have been smart if the EU Commission had initiated a reduction of the higher European car tariffs in advance. Now, the response needed above all is an offer of talks.” European Parliament lawmaker Auke Zijlstra, a member of the Netherlands’ far-right Freedom Party, blamed the EU for the dispute. In a post on X he argued that it is an “uncomfortable truth” that the EU is levying tariffs on goods coming into the bloc and said free trade was an illusion because Europe applied “general import tariffs for the outside world … Hypocrisy is a word of European origin.” For its part, France’s National Rally, which is currently focusing most of its public statements on attacking party figurehead Marine Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction, suggested the Trump tariffs weren’t particularly novel. “Mr. Obama, who appeared to be a nice person, used against France U.S. extraterritorial laws for example by extorting €10 billion to [French bank] BNP Paribas,”  lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy told French radio RMC.  Tanguy said it was important for Europe to respond with a targeted response, but said the Commission would be “stupid” to react to the dispute by imposing tariffs on U.S. bourbon as it did in 2017.  “The European Union, we have to admit, is stupid in most measures it adopts,” he added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced his government will launch a €14.1 billion aid package to reduce the domestic impact of United States President Donald Trump’s 20 percent tariff on all imports from the European Union.  As part of the package, Sánchez said that public loans worth €6 billion would be made available for companies affected by the levies, with an additional €400 million allocated to reinforce the automotive industry. The funds will also be used to modernize the industrial sector, and for a new campaign that aims to promote Spanish products with the slogan “Our values are not for sale. But our products are.” According to projections from the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Europe’s fastest-growing economy stands to suffer losses of up to €4.3 billion as a result of Trump’s tariffs this year.  The agri-food sector is expected to be the worst hit: Exports of domestic olive oil, which currently bring in around €1 billion from U.S. consumers, could decline sharply, and the country’s wine sector could be devastated if Trump carries out his threat to respond to retaliatory EU tariffs on bourbon with a 200 percent levy on wines and spirits.  While Spain’s automotive sector barely exports any cars to the U.S., it is set to be indirectly impacted by the 25 percent tariffs announced by Washington last week because the country remains a leading manufacturer of mechanical components. Spain exported machinery and electrical equipment worth more than €4 billion to the U.S. in 2024. Sánchez emphasized that his government’s labor laws will be used to protect workers in sectors impacted by what he described as an “unprecedented” and “unilateral” attack from the U.S. He also rejected Trump’s assertion that the levies are “reciprocal,” describing them instead as “an excuse to punish countries, apply sterile protectionism, and raise revenue to try to mitigate a deficit caused by questionable fiscal policy.”

BRUSSELS — Donald Trump is an equal-opportunity mercantilist. When it comes to the European Union’s €198 billion trade surplus with the United States, he’ll claw at any sector he can. Brandishing 25 percent tariffs on EU steel and aluminum, the U.S. president has demanded that the bloc buy more American cars, fossil fuels, weapons, pharmaceuticals — and food. “They don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them … tremendous amounts of food and farm products,” Trump complained to journalists in Florida earlier this month, decrying his country’s €18 billion deficit in agri-food trade with Europe. Taking more of the first four is feasible. The Commission can lower its 10 percent duty on imported automobiles, while EU countries can purchase less oil from Kazakhstan, fewer missiles from South Korea, and smaller drug batches from Switzerland. These demands would hurt local industry, but they are doable if Brussels wants to appease the irascible ultranationalist. The fifth is not. A range of culinary, phytosanitary and political obstacles bar the way to Europe’s importing most American staples — from Texan beef and Kentucky chicken to Wisconsin milk and Kansas wheat. Then there’s the fact the new EU commissioners for agriculture and animal welfare, Christophe Hansen and Olivér Várhelyi, want to tightly regulate agri-food imports. It may be a bitter pill for the president to swallow. But not even his “Art of the Deal” can vanquish Europe’s Art of the Meal. THE INVISIBLE HAND PICKS EUROPEAN FOOD  Contrary to what Trump says, the imbalance in agri-food trade isn’t due to unfair customs duties. U.S. and EU rates are similarly low for most products: zero for hard liquor, a few percent for wine and cereals, and 5 percent to 10 percent for fruits, vegetables, cured meats, confectionery, canned food and processed goods. The exceptions are EU dairy and pork (often upward of 20 percent), yet these aren’t areas where American rivals have much of a chance anyway, given that the EU runs a massive surplus in both categories (Germany and Spain are top exporters). Moreover, the U.S. is protective too — for example, on beef — and accepted higher EU dairy duties in the 1988 Uruguay round of GATT negotiations. Why? Because it extracted a promise that the EU wouldn’t subsidize oilseed production. Why would that matter to the Americans? Because that’s what they’re best at cultivating. Farms in the U.S. are on average 10 times bigger than in the EU and are able to churn out raw materials: hunks of meat, blocks of cheese and silos full of cereals. However, apart from the odd Californian wine, the U.S. doesn’t have many specialty products to vaunt. Europe is the opposite: A mosaic of small, regionally diverse farms, its producers are uncompetitive in most commodities, but possess an advantage in traditional foods. For example, the continent has five times more “geographical indication” trademarks than the U.S., allowing its farmers to transform simple crops into premium goods.  It’s bad agribusiness but great gastronomy, which is the second reason Americans spend more on EU farm goods than vice versa. While Americans happily gobble and slurp European GIs, Europeans typically find U.S. foods too fatty, salty, sugary or alcoholic for their palates. “If you look at the product composition, it’s very different,” said John Clarke, until recently the EU’s top agricultural trade negotiator. “The EU exports mostly high-value products: wine, spirits, charcuterie, olive oil, cheese. The U.S. exports low-value commodities: soya, maize, almonds … the fact [these have] a lower unit value is a fact of life.” During Trump’s first term, a bad harvest in Brazil and Argentina at least gave Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker an opportunity to offer Washington an apparent concession: The EU would buy more American soybeans. Trump gleefully celebrated what was in fact a financial necessity for European farmers, who need soy for animal feed. This time that won’t work, though. Brazilian grain harvests are near record levels, while Ukraine is investing heavily in oilseeds. The Commission is rolling out a protein strategy that  encourages supply diversification and more domestic production. And Europeans are eating less red meat, dragging soybean demand down. PHYTOSANITARY PARANOIA If Trump wants Europeans to eat more American food, he’ll have to convince them to swallow something even tougher: U.S. food safety standards. Europeans might buy American software, movies and weapons, but they aren’t keen on U.S. beef pumped with hormones, chlorine-washed chicken or genetically modified corn. The main reason? Brussels’ precautionary principle — a regulatory approach that requires proof a product is safe before it can be sold. The U.S., by contrast, operates on a risk-based system, where anything not proven harmful is fair game. That divergence has created a trade minefield. American beef exports are capped at 35,000 metric tons annually under a special quota, thanks to an EU-wide ban on hormone-treated meat. U.S. poultry is largely locked out because of pathogen reduction treatments — a fancy way of saying Americans rinse their chicken in antimicrobial washes the EU deems unacceptable. Genetically modified crops, a staple of U.S. agribusiness, also face strict EU restrictions, requiring lengthy approvals and labeling rules that spook European consumers. Pesticides are another flash point. Today, over 70 different pesticides banned in the EU as toxic to human health and the environment remain widespread in U.S. grain and fruit farming. That includes chlorpyrifos, an insecticide linked to brain damage in children, and paraquat, a weedkiller associated with a higher long-term risk of Parkinson’s disease. As a result, Brussels imposes residue limits that frequently force U.S. growers to create separate, EU-compliant supply chains. While Trump may rage about tariffs and trade imbalances, it’s Brussels’ food safety regulations — not import duties — that are keeping much American food off European plates. And with the EU mulling even stricter crackdowns on imports that don’t conform to its standards, expect the transatlantic trade menu to get even leaner. DON’T ANGER THE FARMERS Trump may not be aware, but European capitals also witnessed furious farmer protests last year. Fear of foreign competition was one of the main triggers, with unions bitterly criticizing imports from Ukraine and South America’s Mercosur bloc for their looser production standards, laxer agrochemical use and cheaper agricultural land. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have still not lifted their illegal blockades on Ukrainian grain, and the Commission is in no position to force them to do so. In fact, Brussels has responded by making fair pricing for farmers the lodestar of its upcoming agri-food policy. The EU even wants to apply “mirror clauses” to imports to align rules on animal welfare and pesticides, according to a leaked draft of a long-term policy vision due out this week. A surge in U.S. imports would likely prompt the same attacks. These could be politically decisive ahead of stormy presidential races this year in Poland and Romania, two European breadbaskets, as well as major elections in France, Italy and Spain in the next two years.  So is there no solution to Trump’s hunger for agri-trade parity? It seems not, unless the president decides to massively expand the U.S. military’s presence in the EU, bringing tens of thousands more peanut butter-loving troops to defend the continent’s security. It’s a crazy idea of course. Then again … Giovanna Coi contributed reporting.

THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET IS A LIE Italy’s food is supposed to be the world’s healthiest. So why are so many of its kids obese? By ALESSANDRO FORD in Nicotera, Italy CGI illustration by Chan Yu Chen for POLITICO It’s the most famous diet in the world. It might also be the most misunderstood, I think, as I scarf ink-black spaghetti al nero di seppia, savor a Lamezia red and drizzle olive oil on Calabrian ’nduja meatballs. Cerulean blue waters bob below, flecked by the basil green of nearby Sicily and the Aeolian Islands. I chew fast so my dining companion can deliver another helping of history. “This cuisine dates back millennia,” declares a proud Antonio Montuoro, president of the International Academy of the Mediterranean Diet. Food is just a part of it though. “The other parts are the panorama, the beauty of nature, our historic centers, our heritage,” he enthuses, extracting his fork from a potato peperonata to point at the scenery around us.  “All this is part of the lifestyle of the Mediterranean diet,” the 72-year-old explains serenely, mopping tomato sauce off his plate with a thick hunk of artisanal bread.  It’s a beautiful story and a terrific seasoning for our meal. The only problem is it’s not true. Fifty years since the term was coined by the American physiologist Ancel Keys — and a decade and a half after UNESCO recognized it as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity — the Mediterranean diet has become a mishmash of hyperbole, half-truths and howlers, stirred together for political and commercial ends. Advertisement Amid backlash against the Green Deal and agricultural protectionism hardening across Europe, southern politicians and lobbies have weaponized a series of recipes and ingredients to fry the European Union over its liberal climate and trade policies, while boosting lucrative — and often unhealthy — exports to America and Asia. Italian politicians have always been sensitive about food, but Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has taken that to new extremes, pursuing a vendetta in Brussels against attempts to cut meat consumption, draft warnings against booze and pick a common front-of-pack nutrition label for the EU. The right-wing figure claims ad nauseam that these stigmatize her ancestral food traditions, and has stoked a gastronationalist frenzy to enlarge support for her Brothers of Italy party. Public health has greatly suffered in Italy as a result. The country struggles with one of the EU’s highest rates of childhood obesity. One-tenth of citizens drink alcohol daily, and salt overconsumption costs it more than France, Spain and Greece combined, according to a recent report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.  Compare modern Italian eating with the original idea of the Mediterranean diet and you reach an unavoidable truth: The Mediterranean diet is dead.   So why do we keep hearing about it? CUCINA POVERA There are two competing theories on how the Mediterranean diet was born. Both begin with Ancel Keys, its founding father. A Colorado-born polymath with PhDs in biology and physiology, Keys got his start in the world of nutrition in the 1930s, developing a portable provision for United States troops as they prepared to enter the World War II (the famous “K-ration”). An energy-dense brick of sausage and sweets, the K-ration was hardly salutary. But then neither was contemporary American food, whose fatty abundance was killing middle-class men in droves. At the time, doctors were baffled: This was the best-fed cohort of the richest nation on Earth. What was going on? Keys and his chemist wife Margaret figured it was down to diet, specifically too many saturated fats, and in 1951 they flew to southern Italy to prove it. A colleague had told them working-class Neapolitans rarely suffered from heart attacks and generally lived longer than, say, Minnesotan executives. The Keys measured the locals’ serum cholesterol. It was much lower.  Advertisement But correlation isn’t causation, so the couple set up a pilot study in Nicotera, a sunny seaside town at the toe of the Italian boot. The Keys recruited 35 families and, for the next three years, took blood samples, calculated body mass and ambushed Nicoterans at mealtimes to see what — and how much — they were really eating.  It was “cucina povera” (peasant cooking), described Montuoro, whose relatives remember being accosted by the peculiar foreign researchers. Everything they ate was local and organic, rooted in traditional recipes furnished by subsistence farming.  The results of Keys’ research were incredible. Besides scarce coronary disease, the experiment found minimal cancers or degenerative illnesses. Off the back of their findings, scientists organized the “Seven Countries Study,” the largest epidemiological investigation in history, spanning 12,000 men across three continents. It turned the Keyses into celebrities, and the couple put out several bestselling cookbooks. “How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way” was published in 1975, bringing a cornucopia of rustic dishes to the overfed households of industrial America. Idyllic imagery was key to its success, helping blow the notion of la dolce vita across the Atlantic. This contributed to a dramatic fall in heart attacks, saving thousands and spurring the global rise of Italian food. Freshly picked tomatoes at a Mutti factory near Parma. | Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images So far, so good. Where the two theories split is on what the Keys really found in Nicotera. Orthodoxy holds that the American duo discovered a fantastically nourishing, mostly plant-based regimen centered on moderation and communal eating, as well as a food pyramid much like the one we all saw as children. According to their data, young men got one-third of their daily intake from cereals, one-third from fruit and vegetables, one-fifth from wine, and one-tenth from animal proteins and olive oil. Sugar and salt were negligible. It’s the dominant interpretation and the one modern nutritionists rely on when they assert that the Mediterranean diet is the world’s healthiest. But there’s another version. Backed by iconoclastic academics and anthropologists, this rendering argues that Ancel Keys’ books were never meant to be descriptive — they were prescriptive. “Italians have never practiced the Mediterranean diet,” said Alberto Grandi, author of “Italian Food Doesn’t Exist” and professor at the University of Parma. “The goal is to make Americans eat better and so [Keys] builds an ideal food model,” a fictional amalgam of ingredients cultivated around the Mediterranean basin, insisted Grandi. The diet wasn’t discovered so much as invented — and Nicoterans’ leanness was due to a different ingredient: hunger. Advertisement Keys “went to the people’s houses and people were ashamed. They’d say ‘Come back tomorrow because today we won’t eat anything.’ Or they’d only have polenta or chestnut flour,” Grandi contends. Claiming such individuals enjoyed some ancient, gastronomic elixir is “really offensive to the memory of our grandparents and great-grandparents. Because they went hungry.” It’s a controversial take that has made Grandi notorious in Italy. Several of my interviewees dismissed the northern academic as an attention-grabbing sensationalist. Others, however, backed him, citing archeological evidence, Keysian exegesis and parental memories. It’s impossible to know for sure and, in a way, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that while the Mediterranean diet may stand above others in eminence, its feet are mired in mystery. And for many, that’s convenient, since this ambiguity has been crucial in transforming the coarse peasant cooking of mid-century Nicotera into the slick brand of mass marketing we know today. CUCINA COMMERCIALE Icons take time to build and the Mediterranean diet was no different. Affluent, modish northerners initially laughed at the Keyses’ notion that they should imitate the impoverished, backward south, said John Dickie, professor of Italian studies at University College London and author of “Delizia: The Epic History of Italians and Their Food.” It took twenty turbulent years to change their minds. First was the economic miracle of the 1960s, which industrialized Italy at the same time as agriculture’s “green revolution” drove people from farms to factories. Next were the “years of lead,” during which anarchists and mafiosi bombed the state. Then came the financial crash triggered by the 1970s oil crisis. Overwhelmed, Italians turned to a mythical past, embracing folksy foods and a culinary crusade for so-called “authenticity.” “What we associate with the Italian diet, these supposed traditions, loads of them date from the [period] when Italians have left peasant living far behind and covered it with a nostalgia for the countryside,” said Dickie.  An anti-American backlash followed. The Slow Food movement erupted in 1986 after a McDonald’s opened in central Rome. Angry at the “banalization of food,” the left-wing peasant alliance wanted a return to Italy’s gastronomic lineage, including the increasingly well-known Mediterranean diet, said Barbara Nappini, the current president of Slow Food Italy.  Right-wingers liked that too, and they soon adopted the lingo. Farmer unions and food companies spotted the opportunity and lobbied the European Economic Community — the forerunner to the EU — for intellectual property protection and overseas promo, which they received in the 1990s. Yet even as the largely meat-free Mediterranean diet attracted burgeoning interest from the medical profession, in the popular imagination, it was growing ever more open to interpretation. The health craze of the 1990s stamped the diet into fitness magazines, which were less fussy about animal proteins. Meat and cheese slowly acquired more prominence, as did olive oil, while fruits and vegetables were gradually passed over.  “Europeans’ heritage fever begins,” remembered Michele Fino, a winegrower and professor of European law. “Cheeses, cured meats, vegetable preserves, baked goods, pasta — a whole, huge range.” Along with wine, these are the moneymakers, creating more added value and netting more profit than the humble cereals, fruits and vegetables promoted by the Keyses. They are also the less healthy products though, meant to be consumed sparingly. It was around this time that the World Health Organization classified alcohol as a carcinogen, for which there is no safe level of use (processed meat got the same grade in 2015, with red meat listed as “probably carcinogenic”). By the time UNESCO recognized the diet as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010, a mental switch had been made. In theory, UNESCO recognition isn’t intended to confer any commercial benefit. In practice, this one endorsed — and unleashed — one of the world’s most successful brands. “The Mediterranean Diet” became synonymous with “Mediterranean food” — as if whatever Italians ate was wholesome by definition. The Galbani cheese plant in Casale Cremasco, near Milan. | Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images That year Italian agri-food exports totaled a modest €27 billion, topped by fresh fruit and vegetables (over €4 billion in value), which were roughly still on par with meat, cheese and processed pastas combined. Over a decade later, exports have tripled, streaking past €70 billion last year. The composition has also flipped. Wine dominates the ranking (€8 billion), followed by pastas and dough-based goods (€7 billion), dairy (€6 billion), and processed vegetables (tomato sauces and such). Fresh produce has grown too, though not as much as cured meats and olive oil, which now account for a couple of billion each. This evolution has been mirrored by a shift in how Italians eat. Supermarket shelves in the country have swollen with doughy snacks and processed sauces, sparking an obesity and overweight crisis. Southerners and children have been particularly affected, with the latter ranked Europe’s second-most obese (behind kids in Cyprus and just ahead of neighboring Greece, Croatia and Spain). Ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks undoubtedly play a big role, but so do local staples. While it is convenient to blame fatness on foreign imports, under-18s are also the highest meat, dairy, pasta and dessert consumers, as well as the least careful about excess salt and the lowest fruit and vegetable eaters, according to the country’s statistics institute.  The plates of today’s Nicoteran children are more likely to hold a gelato than a tomato. Yet that hasn’t stopped companies waving the diet around to flog foods their grandparents would’ve hardly recognized. “Mediterranean diet sets records on world tables,” crowed Coldiretti, Italy’s largest farmer union, in a press release this month, as it celebrated the boom in sales of trademarked wines, olive oil and factory-made pastas. According to Massimiliano Giansanti, the head of Italy’s third-largest farmer union, Confagricoltura, it’s all gravy. When I asked whether people were confusing terms, he admitted “there’s a potential risk,” but he argued we shouldn’t tell people what to eat. “We’re exporting the products of our Mediterranean diet to the world,” he concluded proudly. CUCINA POLITICA Italians are said to have two obsessions: football and food. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi famously exploited the first, scoring big electoral points by manipulating the craze for calcio (his Forza Italia party was named after a football chant). Giorgia Meloni has taken to the second, cooking up a pungent gastronationalism with her Agriculture Minister and ex-brother-in-law Francesco Lollobrigida. Meloni was berating Brussels about food before she came to power, making attacks on the Farm to Fork strategy, the agricultural arm of the Green Deal, into a pillar of her platform. Addressing a European Parliament event in 2021, the then-opposition politician alleged there were “discriminatory policies” against meat, referring to EU plans to cut livestock emissions and encourage more sustainable, plant-based diets. Advertisement The European Commission also wanted to establish a bloc-wide food label to help consumers make better choices. The top contender was France’s Nutri-Score, which provided shoppers with a simple, five-color nutritional rating from green to red. Meloni denounced it as “crazy,” arguing it favored French products and unfairly penalized Italian staples, like salami, Parmigiano Reggiano and olive oil (in reality, these fatty products got the same score as their French counterparts). Lobbies like Coldiretti and Confagricoltura had a solution though. Researchers had amassed evidence that the Mediterranean diet (the all-but-vegetarian one) was among the world’s healthiest. Italy’s money-spinning meats and cheeses were still in its matrix, no matter how minimal. Why not just say the Nutri-Score clashed with the unassailable Mediterranean diet?  So Meloni did. After her landslide victory in October 2022, she marshaled a multipronged influence effort in Brussels to bury the front-of-pack labeling legislation. While Lollobrigida fulminated at the monthly meeting of agricultural ministers, Meloni’s lawmakers joined flash mobs and demonstrations outside. Italian politicians have always been sensitive about food, but PM Meloni has taken that to new extremes. | Adnan Beci/AFP via Getty Images There, Coldiretti and Confagricoltura staff heaved signs saying “Italian produce = quality” and “No to Nutri-Score.” Behind the scenes, the Italian ambassador also met with Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski — part of Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists political family — and pressed him to scrap the labeling law. Days later, the Pole’s chief of staff emailed the health commissioner, who was leading on the file, to argue against the French system, according to documents recently released to NGOs in a freedom-of-information act.  “It was the hijacking of the Mediterranean diet,” Serge Hercberg, a professor at the Sorbonne and the inventor of Nutri-Score, told me over the phone. “They knew it was false. They had to know. But by force of repetition, they thought they’d be able to convince, and they did.” More than 300 scientists published a report refuting the allegations in 2023, but by then it was too late. The Commission shelved the law. “It’s Goebbels’ line,” said Hercberg. “Repeat a line often enough and it becomes the truth.”  The playbook was so successful that Rome repeated it with alcohol, insisting the Commission’s intention to put cancer warnings on booze violated the Mediterranean diet.  Advertisement Historically, they had more of a point here given the liver-curdling quantities of booze that Nicoterans drank, but scientifically the research had moved on. We now know coastal communities were not healthy because of wine drinking but in spite of it. No matter. The Commission dropped that plan as well. Ireland eventually went it alone, facing a barrage of Italian criticism, with Lollobrigida claiming it was a protectionist conspiracy to bash wine in favor of local whiskey (despite the fact they will bear the same label). Lollobrigida also attacked lab-grown meat and went after veggie sausages, banding together with far-right parties in Spain, France, Hungary and Poland to harangue Brussels over its supposed attempts to dismantle national food traditions.  As absurd as the accusations were, they’ve won hearts and minds. Right-wing or left, nearly every single Italian I spoke to for this article was opposed to Brussels’ agri-food policies. They were convinced their cooking was among the world’s healthiest and that obesity was imported by foreign corporations. That’s partly true. But it’s also partly false, and until Italians acknowledge they are no longer eating as their ancestors did, they and their kids will be the ones paying the price. The Mediterranean diet is dead. Somebody please tell the Italians. Giovanna Coi contributed to this report. Advertisement

LONDON — All is quiet in London’s SW1 as the U.K.’s politicians, officials, journalists and assorted Westminster creatures are busy brining turkeys or sipping early morning Buck’s Fizz. Luckily for you, POLITICO is still here to bring you inside the room where it happens — even today. We asked Westminster’s biggest names for their favorite Christmas cooking tip — including what to drink while slaving over the oven for the next 12 hours. ALL THE TRIMMINGS Keir Starmer, prime minister: Playbook made attempts to get an answer out of Starmer … but he must not have been feeling festive this year.  Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader: Alcohol and butter make everything better. Rachel Reeves, chancellor: Christmas Day is always very traditional with me cooking turkey and all the trimmings for six of us. On Boxing Day, I will be cooking for the wider family. My tip this year is to make port and Stilton gravy if you’re doing beef — as we are on Boxing Day. The Christmas cake was made in advance, but is iced on Christmas Eve. Wes Streeting, health secretary: If you’re looking for a show-stopping ham for Boxing Day, look no further than Nigella’s ham in Coca-Cola. It sounds disgusting, but it is the nicest ham I’ve ever prepared.  Kay Burley, Sky News host: Northern girls love gravy and all my guests also do when I add mustard at the start and a dollop of jam just before I serve. I also always make Eton Mess (of Brexit) as we call it in our house! Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader: Get to the pub at midday. Queue outside, I do, knocking on the door, “come on open up.” I’ve done it since I was 18 and I’ve no intention of stopping. My tip is to not stay too long; otherwise, people at home cooking Christmas lunch get very upset. Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader: Alcohol and butter make everything better. | Sebastein Bozon/Getty Images Steve Reed, environment secretary: I’m barbecuing the turkey this year, so I can’t tell you yet whether that’s a top tip or a total disaster! Other than that — brining the turkey overnight massively improves the flavor. Liz Truss, ex-prime minister: My top tips for the perfect roast potatoes — don’t peel them, don’t parboil them and don’t even worry about preheating the oven. Simply cut them into chunks and put them straight into a roasting pan lined with olive oil or goose fat and put them in the oven. To ensure the perfect crispy exterior, just give them a good shake halfway through cooking. WAIT, WHAT, PIZZA? Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief executive: With a blend of vegetarians and carnivores in the family, we started a new tradition of homemade pizza from scratch for our Christmas meal during lockdown and have kept it going. There is nothing like the smell of rising dough when you come back from a Christmas walk and we all get to put on our favorite toppings together. Mel Stride, shadow chancellor: Mine would be cocktail-related as one of my proudest possessions is my cocktail cabinet! I would recommend a spiced Negroni for Christmas. Classic Negroni, but use gin spiced with star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg. Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury: My favorite cocktail is a simple Negroni — equal measures of gin (ideally Plymouth, infused in the fridge with cinnamon, star anise, cloves and bay leaf for a festive twist), Campari and sweet vermouth; stirred with ice and a slice of orange. But my unexpected new skill of 2024 has been making mezcal cocktails. Swap out the gin for mezcal for a more earthy and smoky Negroni, more fitting for winter than the summery original. David Lammy, foreign secretary: Add a serving of Guyanese pepperpot to the side of your  Christmas turkey. My aunt bringing this around always puts our family in the festive mood. Scarlett Maguire, director at JL Partners: My dog Merlin will only eat meat that I have personally cooked, so I will be making a special bit of turkey for her (a whole separate turkey crown to roast, which is obviously ridiculous but will feed her for days). My tip is to get a cute dog, but to avoid spoiling them so much that they will only eat luxury meals. Ed Davey, Lib Dem leader: Christmas Day is my birthday so I insist on Yorkshire puddings whatever the fare — and to make great Yorkshires you need a super hot oven and tins with very hot oil. Laura Trott, shadow education secretary: My best Christmas cooking tip is curry paste in your gravy, it’s a Trott family tradition. SPUDS AND PUDS Sadiq Khan, mayor of London: Christmas is the time for cracking out the old recipes, but don’t be afraid of a little change and sprucing up your dinner. A little flavored butter in your turkey, chestnuts in your sprouts and try out a little festive spice in your sides — and don’t scrimp on the black pepper. Jacob Rees-Mogg, reality TV star: My best tip would be not to seek my advice on culinary matters. Christmas is the time for cranking out old recipes, but don’t be afraid of a little change and sprucing up your dinner. | Darek Delmanowicz/EPA Jane Hartley, U.S. ambassador to London: At my holiday receptions at Winfield House, I have started a tradition that brings a little taste of home to London by serving a classic cocktail: the Manhattan. And if that’s too strong, we’re always ready to serve up a warm cup of tea (heated in the microwave, of course). I also serve another American tradition: my favorite burger from my hometown of New York City. Stephen Bush, FT associate editor: Parboil your potatoes then roast them in sunflower oil. It makes them a lovely texture outside, but unlike goose fat means they still taste like actual potatoes. Michael Gove, Spectator editor: This year you should try making clootie dumpling — a classic Scottish Christmas dessert. It’s like a less flamboyant Christmas pudding, which you also get to drown in custard. Stephen Bush, Labour peer: It’s only the fifth time in over a century that Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah coincide. We’ll be bringing the two traditions together with roast turkey, all the veg, and some super crispy potato latkes. For the best latkes, all the liquid has to be squeezed out of the grated potato, before they are fried in the hottest of oil. Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor: My cooking tip is when you deep fry latkes, you put a little nub of unpeeled carrot in the center of the pan. It picks up all the little black bits as you deep fry the potato latke. Ed Balls, GMB host: Yorkshire puddings work well with every roast including turkey on Christmas Day — ignore the “roast beef only” zealots. The key is really hot oil in really hot tins, at least 220 in a fan oven. I do 85 milliliters plain flour, two eggs, 130 milliliters milk plus a splash of water and salt and pepper and cook the batter in the super hot tins for 15 minutes. Success guaranteed! Yvette Cooper, home secretary: My tip is to get Ed to cook! Nigel Huddleston, Tory chair: Don’t boil Brussels sprouts but fry them with bacon, chestnuts and a bit of brown sugar. Lizzy Buchan, the Mirror’s political editor: Top tip from my house is special scrambled eggs for Christmas morning — with a hefty dose of double cream and white pepper. Start the day as you mean to go on! Emily Thornberry, Labour MP: I make my Irish grandmother’s Christmas pudding on “Stir up Sunday” and soak the fruit in brandy the night before cooking it. It contains a potato. I always make an extra one with the idea of also eating it at Christmas the next year. It always goes green and gets thrown out. This year it hasn’t. We are going to see. Pray for us! Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary: Cook your Yorkshire puddings first, then put them back in the oven to heat up for a few minutes before serving. It’s a game-changer. CORBYN: DON’T WASTE FOOD Steve Swinford, the Times’ political editor: Ditch the turkey and do a joint you actually love! This year will be lamb stuffed with rosemary and garlic with all the trimmings. We also ditch the Christmas pudding for sticky toffee pudding. Delicious. Happy Christmas, everyone. Andrew Griffith, shadow business and trade secretary: The best roast parsnips involve proper butcher’s goose fat, removing the cores before roasting and then serving tossed with honey, mustard and finely chopped bacon lardons. Alex Wickham, Bloomberg’s political editor: Get everyone else out of the kitchen to avoid rows and podcasts. Put honey and soy sauce on your sprouts. Lemon juice and fresh parsley on your carrots and parsnips. Gravy and bread sauce from scratch. Nice loaf for a sandwich the next day. And no need to rush — it’s Christmas. For Brussels sprouts, if you must have them at all, use salt and some olive oil. | Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images Bridget Phillipson, education secretary: For perfect, crisp roast potatoes — coat the parboiled potatoes in cornflour before putting them in the oven. Andrew Mitchell, Tory MP: On Christmas Day the Mitchell family waits for the start of their festivities until the king’s speech at 3 p.m. — perhaps appropriately for the member of parliament for Royal Sutton Coldfield. This year we will kick off with one of the finest English “Champagnes” from the Chilworth Manor vineyards in the heart of the Surrey hills! Miatta Fahnbulleh, energy minister: A bit of jerk seasoning on the turkey. Gives it a real kick!  Jeremy Corbyn, Independent MP: Firstly, for Brussels sprouts, if you must have them at all, use salt and some olive oil. Secondly, don’t waste food — there is always tomorrow. Ben Riley-Smith, The Telegraph’s political editor: My personal favorite is making mulled cider. The secret key ingredient is pomegranate seeds. They turn the brew a lush red and burst with juice when consumed. Catherine West, foreign minister: I made a batch of Christmas puddings at October half-term which are ready for steaming on Christmas Day and to give away as gifts. Definitely to be served with brandy butter as opposed to brandy sauce. Craig Beaumont, the Federation of Small Businesses executive director: I’d suggest serving honey roast parsNICs (sorry) and turkey — preferably from a British family farm! Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons: For the perfect Christmas gravy, add port to the turkey juices and trivet (a baking tray with all the veg and stuff you put under the bird/roast) first, before making the gravy. Tom McTague, UnHerd’s political editor: Don’t open the Champagne too early, start cooking and set the kitchen on fire as once happened to one member of my family!

BRUSSELS — The biggest dietary problem facing Europeans is not excess meat, sugar, or salt, says Serge Hercberg, professor of nutrition at the Sorbonne and creator of the Nutri-Score food-labeling system. Nor is it alcohol, artificial sweeteners, or even a lack of fruit, vegetables and whole grains. The most confounding obstacle, Hercberg told POLITICO in an interview, is deception by self-serving agri-food lobbies. “It’s very difficult to identify one ingredient or behavior. Moreover, we know what measures work,” he reflected, citing VAT changes, advertising restrictions, healthier public procurement policies, and of course his own labeling system. “The big challenge is being capable of thwarting lobbies who oppose those measures.” It’s a sobering message from the man behind the “five fruit and veg per day” slogan, who has watched as right-wing politicians and corporate interests successfully buried the five-color logo, which was adopted in France in 2017 and was seen as the likeliest candidate for an EU-wide front-of-pack labeling scheme during the last European Commission. Since 2022, however, Nutri-Score has been in full retreat, caught up in the same anti-Green Deal backlash that stymied laws to reduce pesticide use, promote animal welfare and curb deforestation. Italy has led that counterattack, driving culture-war narratives about an “anti-Italian system” that unfairly marks down its meats, cheeses and olive oil. Greece, Hungary, Romania and others have joined in, bolstered by support from EU agricultural association Copa-Cogeca and its national members such as France’s FNSEA, Italy’s Coldiretti and Confagricoltura, and Spain’s Asaja.  Since 2022, Nutri-Score has been in full retreat, caught up in the same anti-Green Deal backlash that stymied laws to reduce pesticide use, promote animal welfare and curb deforestation. | Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images “It’s caricatural,” said Hercberg, noting that olive oil is well-graded with a B and that meats and cheeses get lower scores because they should be eaten in moderation. “I remind them that today it’s in the countries of the south — Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal — that the prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity is the highest.” Nevertheless, Italy has backed the alternative NutrInform, whose algorithm displays five batteries (calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt) and the percent of a person’s daily needs that the product meets. The French scientist is skeptical: “If tomorrow there was a logo shown to be more effective, I’d abandon Nutri-Score immediately,” he vowed. For now, he isn’t letting go and complains of stagnation in the takeup of Nutri-Score. Portugal’s new center-right government dropped the system this summer, leaving only six EU countries whose health ministry still recommends it: France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.  Hercberg blames what many are calling “gastro populism,” which he described as an “attempt to flatter the identitarian fiber, to make people believe we’re threatening their core values.” He cited the campaign rhetoric of far-right parties ahead of the EU election in June, where they gained their strongest-ever representation in the European Parliament. But Nutri-Score’s outlook has only worsened since then, with the new commissioners for agriculture and health — Christophe Hansen and Olivér Várhelyi — appearing to have shelved the idea of proposing an EU law on food labeling. That’s despite a recent report by the European Court of Auditors urging the EU executive to do just that.  “It’s really absurd,” Hercberg concluded, highlighting how the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimated last month that bad diets inflict nearly €1 trillion in hidden health costs on the continent. “The big problem in Europe is this incapacity to not give way to lobbies and put public health first.”