April 2023 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Rural Realities | Testing Grounds for Wellbeing

April 27, 2023 ARC

The countryside is a nice place to live. Farmers are happy. That’s what we heard on the ground in the cooperative farms we visited in France in 2021 and 2022. One thing these farms have in common is a focus on collective wellbeing: farmers are innovating and experimenting to improve quality of life for themselves and their communities. Yet these experiments go under the radar at national and European level, and need supports to weave ties between actors and sectors. Part three of a series analysing the hot topics around transition, by the Rural Resilience project team. […]

Enjeux de transition | Bien vivre sur son territoire rural : un des moteurs pour expérimenter ?

April 27, 2023 ARC

Des campagnes heureuses, des endroits où il fait bon vivre… Voilà ce que « Nos campagnes en résilience » a pu observer lors des visites de terrain (2020-2022). Les territoires ruraux fourmillent d’idées et d’innovations : expérimenter est une des formes du “bien vivre ensemble”. Troisième partie d’une analyse thématique. Rédaction : l’équipe du projet, désormais sous la nouvelle appelation « Rural Resilience ». […]

Strengthening Multifunctional Agriculture through Digitalisation: Insights from Europe and Japan

April 27, 2023 Matteo Metta

We are told today that agriculture and rural areas are living through a pervasive digital transformation. But will digitalisation reverse the current productivism model or perpetuate it? At 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Regional Agricultural and Forestry Economics (ARAFE), Matteo Metta presented his insights on digital agriculture from the rural perspectives. The hybrid event took place last 23 October 2022 at the Ryukoku University (Kyoto, Japan) and touched upon key issues, global trends and local realities in agri, food, and rural transformations. […]

Can the CAP and Carbon Farming Coexist?

April 25, 2023 Mathieu Willard

Carbon Farming is the new hype in agriculture. A proposal for a Certification Framework of Carbon Removals was proposed back in November by the Commission and there is a strong push by the Swedish presidency and French government to make it happen quickly. But can a Europe-wide Carbon Farming program coexist with the CAP? In this article, we explore the similarities and contradictions between the two. […]

Sustainable Food Systems Law – EU Food Policy Coalition’s Recommendations for a Meaningful Transition

April 25, 2023 ARC

As the European Commission prepares for the launch of its proposal on the Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Legislative Framework in late September, the EU Food Policy Coalition has published a joint report laying out clear policy recommendations for the SFS Law to ensure a meaningful transition to sustainable food systems across the European Union. Summary and report to download here. […]

Are We Ready to Amend the CAP SP to Fit For 55?

April 19, 2023 Mathieu Willard

Although the CAP Strategic Plans have been approved and are now being implemented, they are not closed files. Once a year, amendments can be proposed by Member States and, under specific conditions, other adaptations can be required. Recent readjustments of targets for climate mitigation in different legislations to meet the ambition of the Fit For 55 package should offer an opportunity to raise the ambition of CAP Strategic Plans on climate action. […]

The Michael Dower Award for European Rural Resilience

April 19, 2023 ARC

This weekend, our sights are set on England. The Michael Dower Award for European Rural Resilience will be launched in honour of the late European Englishman, at an event dedicated to his life and work, in the Peak District National Park on Saturday April 22nd. […]

Rural Resilience | A Collective Adventure

April 17, 2023 ARC

It’s a long road to building a new way of imagining life in the countryside. We are pleased to share with you ARC2020’s findings from the field in France: “Nos Campagnes en Résilience: Collective Reflections within Socio-Ecological Transition, 2020-2022” . Here we report on the journey so far for the people involved in this project, with an extract from the first chapter of the report: A Collective Adventure. By the “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” team. […]

Nos campagnes en résilience | Cogitations collectives au cœur de la transition socio-écologique

April 17, 2023 ARC

L’association ARC2020 vous invite à découvrir son analyse des recherches-actions menées sur le terrain en France : « Nos campagnes en résilience: Cogitations collectives au cœur de la transition socio-écologique, 2020-2022 », en publiant ici le premier chapitre de nos cogitations collectives : « La transition, une aventure collective ». Dès aujourd’hui, le rapport est disponible à télécharger gratuitement. […]

GMO Deregulation Delayed – Where Are We At, Where Might We Be Going?

April 13, 2023 Mathieu Willard

The European Commission’s legislative proposal for the deregulation of new GMOs – or new genomic techniques as they are also known – is to be delayed from June 7th 2023 until at least the latter half of that month. Mathieu Willard contextualises recent events surrounding the controversial proposal with an overview of the current GMO regulatory framework and the possible policy options hinted at in an impact assessment leaked by AGRA FACTS. […]

France – Pesticides, Mega-Basins and Who Gets to do What

April 13, 2023 Ashley Parsons

The French retirement age isn’t the only debate making waves in the land of fraternity and croissants right now. One-third of French drinking water turns out to be contaminated thanks to a banned pesticide, which is unsettling news. So shouldn’t it be about time to retire some pesticides? This and the emergence of water-grabbing make up this this week’s round-up, French edition. Dive in with Ashley Parsons […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Diversified Diversification in Action

April 6, 2023 Oliver Moore

It’s good to be specific. It’s also good to be diverse. To be mixed and sometimes messy, to embed in a multiverse, a pluriverse, of things and people, of places and actions, of enabling infrastructure and strategic purpose. When it comes to making vibrant rural spaces, within our social and planetary boundaries, while living well, together…there’s a lot to be said for diversity – in its many, myriad forms. Welcome to Feeding Ourselves 2023 – a diversity love story. Words by Oliver Moore. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 | Fertile Ground for System Change

April 5, 2023 Louise Kelleher

Another rural is possible! ARC2020 and friends were in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland on March 25-26 for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering, which takes food and farming as an entry point for moving towards fairer, more caring communities. What are the ingredients to cook up transformative system change? How can we build bridges between islands of practice? Why do we need to keep talking about gender? Louise Kelleher gives us a taste of conversations and connections at Feeding Ourselves 2023. […]

Main stories

Ukraine Joining the EU – An Elephant in the Room

April 3, 2023 ARC

If Ukraine joins the European Union, and the current Common Agricultural Policy system of per hectare payments remains untransformed, oligarch-run conglomerates could become eligible for tens of millions of euros in taxpayer money. But this is not the only possible agricultural reality in an enlarged EU. There are farmers, researchers, civic initiatives and officials – like the delegates of Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region who visited Low Saxony in March 2023 – exploring ways to rebuild and reorient the country’s farming and food system in times of war. […]