Farm to Fork’s Discourse on Resources and Population

Farm to Fork (F2F) is an ongoing policy initiative that represents the vision for reforming the European agri-food system. The F2F text, as most policy texts, belongs to a discourse, i.e. a positioned way of representing the world, and constitutes a practical argument over what to do about food and the environment. This article’s goal is twofold: to critically question the internal logic of the F2F text and to sketch an explanatory critique that characterizes its discourse, ideological resonance, and likely socio-ecological effects. We use a simple Critical Discourse Analysis technique to map F2F’s semiotic structure and single out three key mental categories – _food affordability_, _environmental crisis_ and _adequate technology _– that represent crucial components of its practical argument. Next, we describe how the F2F construes the ecology of agriculture and food production/consumption through these categories. The F2F’s underlying ontology of resources and population is teased oud by stressing the continuities and discontinuities with Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism, and the specific articulation of these components is identified as green neo-Malthusianism, a discourse that resonates strongly with growth-bound democracies and with the notion of research as service.