Challenges and Threats to Food Security in Modern Agriculture, Based on the Agriculture Sector in EU Countries

The paper analyses the key challenges and threats to contemporary food security, highlighting the interconnections between large-scale agricultural production and environmental degradation. Selected issues are only a part of this complex phenomenon. The main aim is to initiate a discussion and identify the risks and challenges currently facing agriculture in the context of ensuring food security, and to highlight the potential consequences of treating current agricultural land management practices as a chance for food security. The paper discusses, among other things, the relationship between high-production efficiency and system resilience, and the evolution of the policy framework within the Common Agricultural Policy, which reflects the challenges facing the agricultural sector. A key theme concerns the currently dominant model of agriculture. Particular attention is paid to its negative effects, such as high water consumption, the widespread use of monocultures, the loss of biodiversity, and the excessive use of chemicals and antibiotics. The analysis is further complemented by a discussion of challenges related to safeguarding food security. Overall, the paper underlines the necessity of transforming ways of thinking about food security in the long-term perspective (now and for the future generation) in order to protect natural resources and public health, as well as for reorienting agricultural subsidies towards the support of environmentally sustainable practices. Such a perspective on complex phenomena like food security is essential for maintaining it in the context of escalating crises, including climate change and other global and local challenges.