Greening measures found to be ineffective in enhancing the CAPs environmental performance, a report by the European Court of Auditors finds. As well as critique of the current greening measures, the ECA report provided a set of recommendations to improve environmental performance in the upcoming CAP reform. […]
A report for the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee has called for an end to payments based on historical references, known as entitlements. Instead, a more uniform system, one fairer to younger farmers, should be introduced. […]
An exciting happening in rural Ireland, which ARC2020 is very happy to be involved with, is on 26th and 27th May. This event focuses on – and celebrates – the may ways people can come together to make rural spaces better through food and farming. […]
Sebastian Lakner & Guy Pe’er question the effectiveness of the current CAP’s performance, as well as the lack of ambition in the CAP communication. Current direct payments and upcoming supposed flexibilities are considered in detail. […]
What should CAP focus on – and how radical a change is needed in how the EU’s farming and food policy works? The platform Pour une autre PAC (For Another Common Agricultural Policy) is a French inter-association body created for a common reflection and action in view of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. […]
The platform Pour une autre PAC (For Another Common Agricultural Policy) is a French inter-association body created for a common reflection and action on CAP reform. This article explains and critiques the French Agricultural Minister’s position on CAP. […]
The platform Pour une autre PAC (For Another Common Agricultural Policy) is a French inter-association body created for a common reflection and action regarding the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. In this exclusive for ARC2020, platform coordinator Auréile Catallo introduces its history, its composition and its functioning. […]
UK Ag minister Micheal Gove has claimed Brexit is a golden opportunity to create an independent, public goods focused national agri-food policy. This policy position has been praised by many, from environmentalists to the NFU. However, is he speaking with a forked tongue? And if not, then what might this potentially radical rupture signal for the EU and CAP? […]
From 1st January, a series of changes in the Common Agriculture Policy have been in effect. Agreed on 12th December, the so-called Omnibus was entered into the official EU record on 29th December. These changes are variously described as simplifications or improvements. But are they? […]
The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of Yorkshire, Northern England. Agriculture has been an integral part of the area’s culture and economy for thousands of years. A hill farm agricultural system is upheld here, with sheep as the primary livestock, although many have diversified into mixed beef systems, and dairy operations in the lower valleys. How has CAP – and its changes over time – impacted on this place and its people? […]
Relax and reflect over the holiday season – and see here for lots of ways to get involved with us for 2018 – from soil to AgTech, conservation tillage to farm hack – there are lots of topis to sink your teeth into with ARC for 2018. […]
Here Frank Armstrong ponders how different the rural west of Ireland was – and can be again – through the medium of food production. Family excursions, a mid century self-help co-op movement, which used horticulture as a vehicle for change, and the future of food production all feature. […]
Continuing in our series of CAP commentary from as wide a range of sources as possible, below we present the CAP position statement of MEP Martin Häusling. In it, he points to the folly of following an export and growth model for agri-food. Moreover, this model as it stands delivers little by way of environmental goods, or for animal welfare or the rural economy. He also emphasises the specific benefits of organic farming, while giving us ten points for major CAP reform. […]
CAP’s way to address diverse rural spaces under a broad policy umbrella has many shortcomings, including the discrimination against wood pastures as eligible land for direct payments. This impacts pastoralists and the landscape negatively. So will this be addressed by the new reform of the CAP? Or has something else emerged which might actually act as a tool for change? by Flora Sonkin. […]
Somewhere between convenience, efficiency, cost saving and a comprehensive EU surveillance mega state, the use of drones and other in-the-sky technologies for ensuring CAP compliance represents, as it were, a Brave New World. Helene Schultz unpacks the details. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention