Latest from Brussels

Building Momentum for Agroecological Farming – EU Food Policy Coalition Expresses Solidarity with Farmers

Here we republish the text of the EU Food Policy Coalition letter, signed by a number of organisations, expressing solidarity with farmers in Europe. The context  was the protest gathering that took place on 1st February, and the farmer protests more generally.  A PDF of the letter and signatories can be found on the Agroecology Europe website. […]

Latest from Brussels

European Farmers are Angry: Addressing Root Causes Would Overcome Polarisation

On Wednesday February 1, Tomaso Ferrando stood side-by-side with the farmers who had taken over Place Luxembourg and the streets adjacent to the European Parliament in Brussels. On my way, long lines of tractors with Belgian, French and Dutch plates could be seen almost a kilometre away from the square. As he drew closer to the scene, the sound of their horns and the smell of burned tires saturated my ears and nose. Here he outlines his thoughts on the farmers’ protests and what they mean. […]

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Remote Control and Peasant Intelligence – excerpt

“Remote Control and Peasant Intelligence – on automating decisions, suppressing knowledges and transforming ways of knowing” takes a critical perspective on new developments in the farming sphere. It focuses on the impact on peasant farming of digitisation, data gathering and management, technologisation, automation, approaches to regulation and corporate control. It also puts forward a food sovereignty and peasant agroecology perspective on digital technologies. […]

Latest from Brussels

2023 – A Brief Review Before the Break

Below is the editorial from our latest newsletter, released Thursday 21st December. Hello dear readers, As this year comes to a close, it’s hard to know what to think about life, the universe and everything. One thing is for sure, ‘the end of history’ –  that didn’t materialise. […]

Main stories

Genetically Modified Crops Aren’t a Solution to Climate Change, Despite What the Biotech Industry Says

The European Commission launched a proposal to deregulate a large number of plants manufactured using new genetic techniques. Biotech firms seem to have succeeded in convincing the European Commission that we need new genetically modified crops to tackle climate change. They argue that by enhancing crops’ resistance to drought or improving their ability to capture carbon, climate change may no longer seem such a daunting challenge. If this seems too good to be true, unfortunately, it is. […]

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Stuck in Silos: Report on CAP Strategic Plans

The project CAP Strategic Plans co-organised by ARC2020 with the Good Food Good Farming network is now completing its fourth year since its launch in 2020. 2023 can be seen as the end of a policy reform cycle and beginning of a new one for the Common Agricultural Policy, aka CAP. Just recently, the Commission published its main takeaways and conclusions on the joint effort and collective ambition of the CAP Strategic Plans 2023-2027 (CSPs). Read our report. […]

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We Can’t Eat Promises! Good Food Good Farming month culminates in Brussels protest

“We can’t eat promises!” – The slogan of the Good Food Good Farming protest for a better food system, which took place in Brussels on November 8, 2023. The protest was the culmination of the Good Food Good Farming October Action Days, and highlighted the urgent need for transformative agri-food policies to realise key aspects of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. […]

Main stories

The Policy Paradoxes of Underutilised Crops

Why do nearly 50% of our calories come from the same three crops: wheat, rice, and maize? Underutilised crops (UCs) boast a long history of cultivation in many parts of the world and hold great nutritional and environmental promise for the future of our food systems. What role for policy and a value chain approach which considers access to seeds, the ecological aspects of agricultural production, the power positions of stakeholders, the nutritional value of food, and food security and sovereignty? […]