Latest from EU Member States

Letter From The Farm | Cooking With The Lights Off – Ingredients of Rural Resilience

We’re back on Cortijo El Manzano in Campotéjar, rural Andalusia, with another letter from ARC2020’s Matteo Metta. This agroecological farm has been building resilience collectively since 1986. After his experience living and volunteering on the farm in February, Matteo reflects on what El Manzano can teach us about some key ingredients of rural resilience: housing, labour and energy […]

Latest from EU Member States

Letter From The Farm | A Flamenco Approach to Rural Resilience

In February, ARC2020’s Matteo Metta visited and worked on El Manzano, a farm deeply rooted in the living history of rural Andalusia, so rich in nuances, contrasts, and emotions, as expressed in the notes of flamenco and words of poets like Federico García Lorca. Farms like El Manzano are yet another example of a rural bridge between sustainable agri and food systems. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Letter From The Farm | Winter Health Czech for the Herd

We’re with Czech farmer Terezie Daňková on Hoslovice ranch in South Bohemia for a wintertime ‘Czech-in’ on animal welfare. This is the season for the cattle, sheep and hardworking horses on the ranch to take a rest. As well as feeding the animals, Terezie gives them special care in the winter months before they return to pasture. Like the animals, pastures must be carefully managed, to allow them to play a role in efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Missing Targets and Making Partnerships – Denmark and Climate Change

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, there is a dynamic tension between the ambitious aims of the EU and its member states on the one hand, and the realities of embedded, entrenched elements of the economy such as agri-food on the other. The European Union set target in 2021: a 50% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) by 2030. Progress remains however, slow. Progress is especially slow in agriculture. Rasmus Larsen unpacks the situation in one of Europe’s intensive agriculture strongholds, Denmark, where, after faltering misfires, a new three way partnership has been proposed. What is this, and will it work? […]

Latest from EU Member States

Digital Czech-in – The Cost of Too Many Portals

Taxpayers have a right to demand value for money from agricultural subsidies. But does this merit placing farmers under continuous surveillance? Farmers can struggle to reap the benefits of new digital tools that add to rather than ease their workload. Czech farmer Terezie Daňková relates her experience with the demands of the new digital order, and proposes an intergenerational solution. […]

Latest from EU Member States

EU Digital Agriculture Needs Clear Socio-Ecological Directions

To set clear directions for responsible digitalisation in agriculture, the CAP and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy should integrate a new policy target aimed at substantially increasing the current low share of EU farmers engaged in other gainful activities connected to the farm to at least 25% by 2030. Dr. Matteo Metta shares findings from his Ph.D. research on digitalisation and on-farm diversification. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Marburg Gathering | Building Bridges for Future-Proof Food Systems

In early November, the Rural Resilience project was proud to support the European Action-Gathering for Sustainable Food Systems. This meeting of over 100 food systems actors working at local, regional, national and European levels was co-organised by ARC2020 and local partners Kollektiv von Morgen and AbL in Marburg, Germany. Report by Louise Kelleher of the Rural Resilience project. […]

Latest from Brussels

EU Pesticide Plan Stumbles into Uncertain Terrain

Despite suffering an outright rejection by the European Parliament, the EU’s plan to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030 may not be a dead duck just yet as EU ministers set out plans to continue work on their side of the file. But how would that work in practice? Natasha Foote brings you the latest on the file.  […]