The European Union (EU) plans to decarbonize the region by 2050. As highlighted in the Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, food systems are essential to this transition. Here, we examine the resource dependence and carbon emissions of EU-27 food systems from 2004 to 2014 through a multi-regional input-output approach augmented with an ecological footprint that takes into account demand and supply (including trade) and considers multiple externalities. Food contributes to almost a third of the region's EF and appropriates more than half of its biocapacity. Average dependence on biocapacity within national borders has decreased, while dependence on biocapacity within the EU has increased; however, a quarter of the biocapacity for food consumption comes from countries outside the EU. Despite the reduction in both total EF and food EF during the study period. (Alessandro Galli, Marta Antonelliová, Mathis Wackernagel )