Latest from Brussels

Bayer Beware | Pressure on Pesticides as Green Deal Date Looms

This week the European Commission will reveal how it plans to work towards the pesticide reduction targets as set in the Green Deal, via the  Farm to Fork strategy and also the Biodiversity strategy. However chemical giant Bayer CropScience has made clear it does not want any binding legislation as part of the new EU Biodiversity Strategy. With specific numbers for reduction in the use of pesticides and fertilizers in the biodiversity strategy in particular, will real targets be dampened down on the 20th May?   […]

Latest from EU Member States

Rough Ride for East European Workers in Seasonal Veg

Low cost labour intensive vegetable production has been under strain in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of seasonal workers have moved from east to west –  as they do each year. This year is not, however, a typical year. Covid19 has added new dimensions, while also shining a spotlight on an otherwise hidden army of harvesters. But is harvesting the white gold more valuable than the health of Romanian farm workers? […]

Latest from Brussels

CAP Transitional Regulation – Running to Stand Still

Some things move fast while others can seemingly be delayed indefinitely. And sometimes, as if by magic, both can happen at one and the same time. So it is with the CAP transitional regulation, where real transformation in agri-food is delayed by a further two years – but the process to do this is itself being fastracked at breakneck speed. The CAP process it seems, is running to stand still. […]

Latest from Brussels

Scrap the CAP and give Farmers a Fresh Start – Greenpeace

“Scrap the current CAP proposal and start fresh to build a truly just and sustainable food system in Europe.”  This is the message at the heart of Greenpeace’s call for complete reform of European food and farming policy. In a recently published statement, the Europe Unit of the global campaigning organisation pulls no punches in castigating the CAP driven model of food and farming in Europe and proposes its vision of alternative policy measures to bring about the necessary food system transformations.  […]

Recent updates

ARC2020 and Rural Europe in times of Covid-19

It is difficult to grasp the scale of the situation we face with covid-19. People’s lives change fundamentally. So do our societies and economies. We face massive reductions: less mobility, no physical meetings, no open markets, no cultural events. We are living in isolation. How can we, how can our societies adjust to this new reality? How can we as ARC2020, as European network, research community, news provider and advocacy platform contribute to keeping civic movements alive and active around sustainable farming, food supply and transition towards better farming, food supply and ago-environmental practices? […]

Latest from EU Member States

EU Pesticide Risk Assessment Practices Slammed in New Study

A new peer-reviewed paper has identified systemic failings in Europe’s pesticide risk assessment process. Written by Claire Robinson and a group of experts in law, policy, and toxicology, our paper outlines how these failings could seriously undermine ambitions for sustainable agriculture and a “green recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic – and proposes a comprehensive agenda for reform. […]

Latest from key partners

Alternatives to Rural Right-Wing Populist Europe

Populism has become a powerful political force in Europe. The current wave of populist movements has seeped through the European countryside from France to Sweden to Poland. Yet despite the emergence of resistance and alternatives to populism, the political debate continues to overlook rural Europe. In the first of a two-part series Natalia Mamonova shares her insights into why populism is having a moment in rural areas. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Czech Republic | Keeping Farming & Food in the Family

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, our creaking food systems have triggered a crisis within a crisis. Covid-19 has sounded the alarm on the planet’s unsustainable agricultural systems. Small-scale farms are vital links in the resilient local supply chains we need to build. But in the Czech Republic small farmers face challenges, and a six-week closure of farmers markets has hit hard. Louise Kelleher reports. […]