2022 - Page 8 of 12 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Rural Ireland on the Move – new report on Just Transition and Diversification launched.

April 20, 2022 ARC

This week ARC2020 and partner organisations release a report, and hold two events, on the topics of Just Transition and Diversification in Ireland. Targets to reduce emissions come alongside pressure for agriculture to improve its impact on biodiversity, water and air quality. Meanwhile rising feed, fertilizer and other input costs, and a sequence of recent crises – brexit, covid, and now the tragic war in Ukraine – compound the pressure. So what next for rural Ireland? […]

Letter From The Farm | A Year In Review

April 15, 2022 Mateusz Ciasnocha

We’re back on Ciasnocha Family Farm, where Mateusz is counting his blessings after a fruitful season of experimenting and investing on the farm. Luckily he found time to travel beyond the farm gate too, to seek and share knowledge, taking part in the UN Food Systems Summit, and COP26, where he championed regenerative agriculture and climate smart farming. Mateusz takes us through a memorable year on and off the farm. […]

Changes “required” to Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan – European Commission

April 13, 2022 Oliver Moore

Changes in the CAP strategic Plan submitted by Ireland are “required”. In the Observation Letter sent to Ireland – which you can download below – there are a number of areas the European Commission has called for changes in. The overall green architecture itself, including eco-schemes especially, needs work, if Ireland is to achieve its environmental targets. There is a distinct lack of ambition, scoring, and incentives for stronger environmental practices. Increasing dairy herd numbers is named directly as making the necessary changes more difficult. That the letter’s language is strident in places is noteworthy. So what is the Commission asking for? And what comes next? Oliver Moore reports. […]

UK | Hemp – Overgrowing the Regime part 2

April 8, 2022 Ursula Billington

For many growers it’s a plant with huge potential. For many policymakers it’s a dangerous drug. Despite a lack of tools, knowledge, infrastructure and support, woefully few routes to market, and suffocating restrictions on production and use of the crop, meet the British hemp growers who are ploughing ahead. Now a campaign of civil disobedience hopes to provoke policymakers to rethink regulations. Story by Ursula Billington. Second in a two-part series. […]

West Balkans – Accession, Agriculture and a Greener Agenda

April 8, 2022 Hannes Lorenzen

War in Ukraine has sharpened the EU’s focus on food security, farm and trade policies and the EU Green Deal. This war has also spotlighted progressive engagement with the Western Balkans, a region with its own simmering political tensions not unrelated to the wider conflict. Agricultural ministers meet this week to engage, to connect to EU institutions, but also to help lead on a greener farming agenda for Europe. Hannes Lorenzen, who participated in the meeting, has more. […]

CAP Strategic Plans: Observation Letters under Scrutiny

April 5, 2022 Mathieu Willard

On March 31st, all 19 Member States that submitted their CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs) by the 1st January deadline received their awaited Observation Letters (OLs). In this article we discuss the implications of the Commission backtracking on a transparent process and explore the content of OLs that have been partially released. […]

Hungary | Electoral Win for Orbán – can he keep up pro-farmer façade?

April 5, 2022 Péter József Bori

This weekend Hungarians voted Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ party into a fourth consecutive term in government. What is the secret to Orbán’s continued popularity with rural voters, when he has been breaking promises to them for more than a decade? How will this new parliamentary majority for FIDESZ affect agriculture, farmers and rural areas in the midst of global political and economic turmoil? Analysis by Péter József Bori. […]

France | Farming by Numbers part 2

April 1, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Work less, age better. Instead of more money, choosing to bring in more farmers. For Stéphane and his associates on their six-hectare horticulture farm, GAEC Le Jardin des Pierres Bleues, every choice is calculated to yield the best outcomes for people and planet. Part 2 of a conversation with Valérie Geslin. […]

Paroles de paysans | Stéphane, le paysan à la calculette 2

April 1, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Installés sur le GAEC Le Jardin des pierres bleues, une ferme de 6 hectares, Stéphane et ses 3 associés font des calculs permanents pour orienter leurs choix, pour que chacun puisse vivre dignement avec ses idées et la nature. Vendre tout au kilo pour ne pas se moquer des gens ; c’est un choix. Associer plus au lieu de gagner plus ; c’est un choix. Travailler le moins possible pour bien vieillir ; c’est un choix. Deuxième partie de son échange avec Valérie Geslin. […]

Farming with Benefits – Building Soil and Community

March 31, 2022 Marianne Landzettel

“Am I really prepared to poison the kids?” wondered American wheat farmer Klaas Martens, after an injury that he suspects was caused by herbicides. He has since converted the whole farm to organic. These days, he pays attention to the story his ‘weeds’ tell him, nurturing the community of organisms in his soil – and building community knowledge among farmers. Excerpt from a book by Marianne Landzettel. […]

A Leaked Pesticide Regulation and a Political Merry Go Round

March 30, 2022 Ashley Parsons

The AGRIFISH Council delayed tabling the legislation meant to reform plant protection products (SUR) on March 23 until ‘before summer,’ to the dismay of campaigners. ARC has a leaked version of the revised proposal. So what’s in it? And what’s next in the political wrangling around pesticides in the EU institutions – are EU member states now playing a game of pass the pesticides parcel? […]

Ukraine | Connecting Rural Borderlands in the Carpathians

March 28, 2022 ARC

The Carpathian Civil Society Platform is gathering energy for change in the borderlands that connect Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. These remote mountainous areas have similar characteristics and face similar challenges, such as increasing poverty and social exclusion. With war moving closer to Western Ukraine, the platform’s work to connect civil society actors in the Carpathian mountains has taken on a renewed significance. Report by Sándor Köles, Chair of Carpathian Foundation-Hungary. […]

France | Farming by Numbers part 1

March 25, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Stéphane loves numbers, and it’s a formula for the success of the six-hectare horticulture farm, GAEC Le Jardin des Pierres Bleues, that he runs together with three associates and one employee in Vay, north-west France. By his calculation, everyone gets to earn a dignified living, true to their principles and to nature. Free of debt, and free of CAP subsidies… In conversation with Valérie Geslin. […]

Paroles de paysans | Stéphane, le paysan à la calculette 1

March 25, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Installé en maraîchage, grâce à son appétence pour les chiffres, Stéphane nous dévoile les secrets de la réussite de son GAEC à 4 associés en Loire Atlantique. Par des calculs permanents et une comptabilité qui oriente les choix, chaque chose est réfléchie pour que chacun puisse vivre dignement avec ses idées et la nature. L’équipe « Nos campagnes en résilience » est allé à la rencontre de Stéphane. Nous vous invitons à découvrir son échange avec la coordinatrice du projet, Valérie Geslin. […]

EU Institutions – Productivity Now, Environment Maybe Later

March 25, 2022 Oliver Moore

With war in Ukraine, the EU institutions made a concerted effort to shore up its highly exposed agri-industrial food system this week. Emergency money and ecologically protected lands are to be used for food security – as expressed through animal feed and mineral fertilizer supply. Along the way, delays and derailings to greener transition have occurred in pesticides regulation, in environmental elements of CAP, and more. So is the EU Green Deal becoming pie in the sky? Oliver Moore and Ashley Parsons report. […]