ARC NEWSFLASH March 2015

ARC NEWSFLASH March 2015
Hello from Oliver and Luise, Arc2020’s Communication team!

Welcome to our March newsletter.

We’re still full of enthusiasm after meeting up with almost 200 other civil society activists at our Good Food, Good Farming conference in Brussels. People from dozens of food and farming NGOs, as well as farmers, policy makers, academics and concerned citizens, all converged on the Belgian capital last month to tackle the question: how do we fix our broken food system? The aim of the event was to develop a roadmap for a common food policy. You can contribute to this process by going to our roadmap page and giving us your thoughts. The conference link takes you to a great 5 minute video overview, as well as some fantastic graphic harvesting art from the event itself, and lots more. Well worth a visit.

We’re also running a Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and agroecology project, and have published a brochure outlining ten of the best examples of ‘transitioning towards agroecology’ around the EU. North, south east, and west of the Continent are all covered, as are many agri-food sectors. For more, including the brochure itself, seehere.

This brochure is accompanied by some short animations from Romania, Italy, the Baltic, Ireland and the UK. These can be found here, along with another one, which introduces CAP and agroeocology. (and see if you can find where to click in each case study in the brochure to take to directly to the videos!)

Some of the month’s other highlights:
Thousands of Polish Farmer’s Protest
Short supply Chains & the Romanian Rural Development Policy
Eco Ruralis and Traditional Seeds
No More Neighbours: land grab and its effect on territories
TTIP Food Safety and Animal Welfare
UK online only payments presents headaches for farmers

Remember we’re very active on twitter and facebook too – drop by for a chat! (our conference hashtag #arc2020 made 1.7 million impressions online at the time of the event, being used almost 600 times over the two days).

Dr. Oliver Moore – oliver@arc2020.eu
Communications Manager

Luise Körner – communication@arc2020.eu
Communications team

Roadmap

A roadmap for Good Food – Good Farming and a living countryside 

For more than 6 months in 2010 ARC2020  developed a Civil Society Communication on the CAP Reform, demanding a paradigm shift in agricultural production and food consumption as well as a renaissance of the European countryside. Based upon these fundamental agreements (translated in 12 languages) we now invite Civil Society to start a renewed dialogue in order to agree on a roadmap towards the next food and agricultural reforms.

This shared roadmap is also a roadmap about what we all share: our commons. These are our Common Values, Common knowledge, Natural Commons and our Common Goods.

Read the roadmap and contribute to it!

Stop TTIP

Local Food Names: not for sale
The TTIP talks have revealed a contentious debate over local food names, so-called Geographical Indications (GIs). Far from a technical issue, the differing approaches to protections for local food names underscore very different traditions. Historically, European farmers have sought to protect names and processes for certain food products associated with a specific local food culture. GIs were originally a tool used by disadvantaged regions to protect their specific products and receive a premium price for unique, and sometimes difficult natural conditions of production, especially in mountain areas. It has been seen as a tool to keep a higher added value in a specific region and to create closer connections with consumers through clear rules for quality production. Karen Hansen-Kuhn and Hannes Lorenzen unpack the issues in a thorough article.

Hogan tells the US not to worry- everything is on the table

EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan sought to dispel US agribusiness concerns over sensitive issues in trade talks between the EU and US at the Agriculture Outlook Forum on February 19. Hogan said the EU was working to end the deadlock over authorization of new genetically modified (GM) animal feed imports and stressed that protected Geographical Indications fears were overhyped.

Arc2020 disagrees! See why here.

 

Events

Upcoming Events and Policy Dates

March 6 Environment Council Meeting Brussels, Belgium

March 16-17 Agriculture and Fisheries Council Meeting Brussels, Belgium

May 6-8 GMO-free Europe Conference – Future Opportunities and Challenges Berlin, Germany

May 19-21 OECD Rural Development Conference Arkansas, United States

Find all events listed on ARC2020 here.

GMO free Europe

GMO-free Europe – Future Opportunities and Challenges

Ten years after the first European GMO Free Regions conference took place in Berlin over 60 regional governments and hundreds of companies and their associations, science groups and civil society organizations will meet again in May 6 to 8, 2015.
The conference will include joint plenary sessions as well as separate meetings and a broad range of workshops on the different aspects of GMO Free agriculture, production, trade, retail and consumption.

Copyright © 2015 Agricultural and Rural Convention (ARC 2020), All rights reserved.