Latest from EU Member States
UK Treasury plan to keep open food speculation loopholes
Is the UK trying to restrain the Financial Conduct Authority and keep food speculation alike and kicking? […]
Year: 2013
Latest from EU Member States
Rainy day for UK farm incomes
The UK all-farm average business income is GBP 47000 for the year 2012-13, according to official figures released by DEFRA. However the ministry figure includes an average of GBP 25000 for Single Payment Scheme (SPS) money, which is not directly generated on any farm. So an adjusted headline figure for earnings from farming would be GBP 22000 between those working the farm: less than the average weekly earnings for an employee in a food factory (source: National Office for Statistics). DEFRA attributes the slide to a poor growing season and difficult conditions for cropping and livestock sectors alike. Higher feed costs were blamed for a 50% fall in lowland grazing incomes (average GBP 16500), while their upland counterparts in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) suffered a 35% drop in earnings (average GBP 19500). DEFRA concedes that both categories of farming activity lost money saying they: “…failed to make a positive return from agriculture…” Yet the ministry insists on blaming the lower exchange rate for reduced CAP receipts, as if these were a direct product of farming. […]
Recent updates
Report for European Parliament Warns of Trade Deal Risks
Will the Investor State Dispute Resolution aspect of the TTIP talks make it easier for Corporations to Sue Democratically Elected Governments? […]
Recent updates
Stop Food Speculation
Swiss banks operating worldwide are involved in the speculation of staple food to a tune of 3,6 billion Swiss Francs. Among these banks, Credit Suisse is the single largest investor in staple food. It is unacceptable that a few investors get rich at the expense of countless poor people! Swiss NGOs Bread for All and the Lenten Fund have launched an online petition and campaign video requesting Brady Dougan, the CEO of Credit Suisse to divest his bank’s investments in stable food. Everybody can sign on! Change for better is possible. As a result of citizen pressure in countries such as Belgium, Germany or the UK, banks including Deutsche Deka Bank, the DZ Bank, and BNP in France have recently pulled out of making business with food speculation. Take a look at the one minute explosive campaign video at http://www.stopp-spekulation.ch/en/and consider endorsing the petition. Everybody, whatever your nationality or residence can sign on!
Latest from EU Member States
Basescu – morning gardener, daytime agri-industrialist
Did you know it is possible to be a small scale gardener before breakfast and a destroyer of small scale production in work? Meet Traian Basescu. […]
Latest from Brussels
Latest EU Agricultural Economics Brief: family farms in decline
What’s happening to the family farm across Europe? […]
Latest from EU Member States
Moratoriums on land sale: member states battle EU
How have the European Union’s newest members protected its land? Have land moratoriums worked? […]
Latest from EU Member States
Bulgaria extends ban on land acquisition by non-nationals
Nationalist party Ataka succeeds in extending moratorium on selling land to foreign citizens and legal entities until 2020 […]
Latest from the ARC network
Wildlife Comeback in Europe: another east-west divide?
Some wild species are returning once again. But what does this mean around the Continent? […]
Latest from EU Member States
Less than one third of Tesco bagged salads reach a plate
The UK supermarket this week revealed wastage rates for some of its products […]
Latest from the ARC network
Featured Campaign Action: Save Kishantos!
The Kishantos Rural Development Centre in Hungary is a unique organic farm and education centre: here sustainable agriculture, ecological farming and education have been serving society as a whole. The Hungarian Land Fund (representing the State as the owner) issued an open call tender for the rent of the lands in ten lots. If this decision is not annulled it means that the Kishantos non-profit Organisation will lose all the land as of 1 November 2013. […]
Latest from key partners
Crucial document on European Innovation Partnership launched
The EIP – European Innovation Programme – offers significant potential for citizens and agri-environment. What’s in it? […]
Latest from EU Member States
Hungarian response to CAP: how has the rhetoric changed?
Exploring the gap between the rhetoric and the reality in Hungary on CAP refrom […]
Latest from EU Member States
UK growers bemoan passing of seasonal workers’ scheme
UK National Farmers’ Union warned of ‘long term damage’ to its membership when the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Scheme is shut down […]
Latest from the ARC network
The Greens/EFA group joins the Food Revolution!
To mark World Food Day, the Greens/EFA group today launches a new campaign platform called ‘Join the Food Revolution’. The web-based platform provides a space where people can present projects and ideas, whether big or small and create a community. EU citizens can get together to act to suggest alternative and innovative practices to the food production model currently promoted throughout the EU. So if you are passionate about good food and good farming whether as a farmer, fisherman, food professional, organisation or citizen, you can join the ‘Join the Food Revolution’ community and be part of a political project aimed at improving EU food policy.