Editing Common Agricultural Policy (section)

===Public health at the peril of agricultural policies===
[[Public health]] professionals have also leveled criticism at the CAP and its support regimes, arguing that agricultural policy often disregards health. It is evident that supply outputs are generating widespread public health issues of [[obesity]] and [[Diet (nutrition)|diet]]-related [[non-communicable disease]]s (NCDs), such as [[cardio-vascular disease]] (CVD), cancer and [[type II diabetes]]. Diet is one of the major modifiable determinants in promoting or preventing chronic disease, and agricultural products have a major influence on the disease risk factors.

Initial criticism emerged in the early 2000s regarding the production orientation of the CAP and the need for decoupling due to the disjointed nature of agricultural production policy in relation to consumption (and thus nutrition). The arguments were re-enforced at the 2001 European Health Forum Gastein on the CAP, which made explicit – to policy makers – the link between nutrient quality of diets and agricultural policy. The Forum also identified opportunities to align the CAP to health objectives, more specifically by encouraging changes to dietary behaviour through adjusting CAP support.

Since 2008, under the leadership of the European Public Health and Agriculture Consortium (EPHAC),<ref name="EPHA 2017">{{cite web | title=EPHA | website=EPHA | date=20 September 2017 | url=https://epha.org/ | access-date=1 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.citizensforeurope.eu/|title=Citizens for Europe – Share Knowledge, Increase Impact|website=Citizens For Europe}}</ref> the public health nutrition narrative has gained traction in policy circles. Although agricultural policy-makers are beginning to realize the arguments for upstream health intervention, practical measures remain politically unpalatable. EPHAC maintains that agricultural policies can be used to internalize the health externalities of diet-related ill-health and improve population, society-wide public health nutrition.

Health groups have become increasingly vocal in their call for agricultural policies to contribute towards resolving the consumption problems of food; such as, excessive intake of [[saturated fatty acid]]s (FSA), sugar and salt, or under-consumption of vitamins (leading to [[hypovitaminosis]]) and minerals. More attention should be paid, it is argued, on intervention policies upstream, at the primary food production and [[food processing|processing]] stages, to influence nutritional quality and the structural determinants of food choice, including; availability, accessibility and price.