Fuori di Zucca is not just an online platform coordinating fair and sustainable purchasing transactions. The association mobilises a peer-to-peer network, where members of civil society, policymakers, producers, consumers can interact around a common mission: food sovereignty. So how does it do this? Matteo Metta has more. […]
Welcome to Herdade do Freixo do Meio, a 600-hectare community farm in Alentejo, Portugal. Run by a cooperative, the farm prides itself on agroecological food production that is local, responsible and conscious. Alfredo Sendim explains how the farm is building resilience through a collective approach. […]
How can we learn from Covid-19 to make our food systems work better? Broadly, there are two strands, argue Stephen Leitheiser and Lummina Horlings. One, an eco-modernist tech utopianism, which sees an increased use of digital and technological tools which will increase the power of corporations. The other is a food commons approach. This values-based approach needs to be nourished by more holistic, decentralised policy making for a truly resilient response to current and future crises. […]
Four innovative and committed agroecology initiatives showed how they stepped up in times of Covid19 at a webinar organised by Forum Synergies and ARC2020 last week. And dozens, from all over Europe and beyond, got involved in the conversation. Alison Brogan tells us about this event which provided a moment to reflect, some key contemporary learnings, and which sowed the seeds of further action. […]
More than 300 participants from 40 countries gathered for the 7th international CSA Symposium. The theme of this Symposium was “Beyond Borders” and indeed the movement is working to transgress political, social and economic borders, from Lesvos to China, the US to Palestine. By Natalie Markiefka tell us about it. […]
Here we round up some recent perspectives on the Commission’s CAP proposal. This includes a summary of the 18 months of work that went into the document(s), concern over capping backsliding, a briefing on conditionality, which member states want to keep the cash as it was, and an Urgenci (CSA) and Birdlife perspective. […]
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. […]
Slavery still exists in the EU, with some horticultural produce coming from places with extreme, inhumane working conditions which fit the International Labour Organisation’s definition of forced labour. There are ways to start dealing with this, at policy and local levels, including via community supported agriculture. […]
If the food industry is not in crisis, it certainly contains an increasing level of complexity and associated risks. A recent analysis suggested 50% of US food production is wasted, with global estimates above 30%.
Recent developments in the digital economy could help. Enter blockchain. […]
Community Supported Agriculture network Urgenci held their 3rd European CSA meeting last weekend in Ostrava, Czech Republic. See here for the Declaration, as adopted, in full. […]
150+ people from 20+ countries are attending Urgenci’s third European CSA gathering in Ostrava this weekend. ARC2020’s Oliver Moore is one of them. Here’s his account of the story so far. […]
An Urgenci report on Community Supported Agriculture in Europe reveals rapid growth of this dynamic concept across the Continent. Participants from 22 countries came together to collaboratively produce the vibrant, colourful and very positive document. […]
Food activists, curious eaters, harried, hurried producers and many more came together in Ireland to have food sovereignty proclamation meals. This date – 24th April – was also the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising – the start of Ireland’s independence movement, and the day the Irish proclamation of Independence was read out. So what happened? […]
On Sunday 20th March, the Big Everything Else Parade (Tout Autre Chose/Hart Boven Hard) took place in Brussels. Many alternatives to the business-as-usual austerity and corporate control agenda were represented, including the better food and farming brigade. Nele Baltide was there. Here’s her report – a fascinating snapshot of the great food initiatives happening on the ground in Belgium. […]
Watch out for business-as-usual agri-buiness solutions, even very well meaning ones…. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention