2025 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Rural Resilience Gathering | Knowledge is the Power to Shape our Rural Futures Together

December 19, 2025 Louise Kelleher

We congregated on the last weekend in November, together with participants from 12 European countries and beyond, for our Rural Resilience Gathering 2025. We took home new perspectives, tools and best practices, a richer vision of the mosaic of rural Europe – and a full tank of hope: that we can shape our agroecological future in our communities. Report by Louise Kelleher and Pauline Petit. […]

What hope on the horizon? From Farm to Fork to a grand bargain in 2026

December 19, 2025 ARC

As the tractors roll back into the streets of Brussels and London, it feels an opportune moment to reflect on the state of food, farming and the environment across Europe, and to contemplate — at a time of division and anger — whether there might still be scope through deep listening and meaningful negotiation to strike a ‘grand bargain’ across Europe in which farmers and the environment both truly flourish. Op-ed by Edward Davey. […]

Ireland | Feeding Ourselves, breaking new ground for the local food movement

December 19, 2025 Oliver Moore

Every year the Feeding Ourselves movement joins more of the dots in the local food ecosystem. This year especially it has broken new ground – digging into Ireland’s difficult colonial past and building bridges to a more resilient future by consolidating ties with unlikely partners and anchor institutions. To give us a taste of where the movement is at, Oliver Moore reports from Ireland. […]

Op-Ed | Pesticide lobby use farmers’ protests as cover for slashing EU safety regulations

December 18, 2025 ARC

It’s getting increasingly harder for the pesticide lobby to argue against the science showing harm to people and ecosystems of its toxic products. ‘Luckily’ it has an ace up its sleeve: farmers’ frustrations/anger. Corporate lobby group Croplife Europe appears to be opportunistically planning to use farmers’ protests on the 18th of December in Brussels, in order to create political momentum to further slash EU safety rules for its products. Op-ed by Nina Holland of Corporate Europe Observatory. […]

EU Called Out at COP30 as Denmark Leads on Food Transition

December 17, 2025 Rachel Sherrington

Rollbacks in Brussels overshadowed Europe’s presence at COP30 in Belém, while Indigenous movements, civil society and frontrunner nations pushed forward plans for agroecology, plant-rich diets and fair climate transitions. Investigative researcher and reporter Rachel Sherrington joins the dots between Belém and Brussels. […]

EU Deal on GMO Deregulation: Hiding GMO Food While Claiming Patent Rights

December 16, 2025 Franziska Achterberg

On 4 December, EU negotiators reached an agreement to deregulate plants engineered with new genomic techniques. In this op-ed, Franziska Achterberg of Save Our Seeds argues that the deal dismantles key elements of EU GMO law for a broad category of genetically modified plants rebranded as “conventional-like” and granted patent rights. While the agreement still awaits final approval, Achterberg sets out why it should be rejected. […]

Podcast | Fields of Power, Episode 4: Land & Democracy

December 15, 2025 Péter József Bori

In the final episode of Fields of Power, we step back from the land grabbing cases we’ve traced across Hungary and ask a deeper question: what does land have to do with democracy? Fields of Power is a four-part podcast series is created by Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda. […]

Fields Under Fire: Ukraine and the EU’s Agriculture

December 12, 2025 ARC

Three years on from Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian farmers are still struggling to navigate the lasting legacy of the occupation in Europe’s breadbasket. With the relationship between the EU and the war-torn country set to deepen in the coming years, Ukrainian journalist Anna Romandash takes a deep dive on the current state of affairs on the ground and how to step forward beyond symbolic solidarity and into concrete support. […]

Podcast | Fields of Power, Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary

December 8, 2025 Péter József Bori

In episode 3 of the “Fields of Power” podcast series, we head out onto Hungary’s great plains in search of people living through the country’s land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear. By Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda. […]

The Future of Seeds: The Power Play Between Patents and New GMOs

December 3, 2025 Natasha Foote

EU lawmakers have been locked in intense negotiations for months on loosening rules on the use of new genetic technologies in plant breeding. But talks are stalling on one particularly sticky issue. So why have patents become so central in this story, and what would it mean for farmers and breeders if lawmakers get their way on permitting patents? Natasha Foote digs in. […]

Podcast | Fields of Power, Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles

December 1, 2025 Péter József Bori

Here is episode 2! “The Land Grab Chronicles” moves from the aisles of a Hungarian supermarket into the hidden machinery of a political-economic system where land, food, and power are tightly intertwined. “Fields of Power” is a four-part podcast series is created by Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda. […]

Podcast | Fields of Power, Episode 1: Of Farms & Fortune

November 24, 2025 Péter József Bori

“Fields of Power” is a serial podcast that tells the story of how control over land in Hungary became a crucial terrain for consolidating Prime Minister Orbán’s regime’s authoritarian grip on power. At the heart of “Fields of Power” is a central question: how does land ownership shape democracy? Or even more urgently: how does the loss of land ownership by farmers help fuel the rise of illiberal, right-wing and authoritarian politics? Here is “Of Farms & Fortune”, the first in a four-part series created by Ian M. Cook, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda. […]

Serbia | When Young People and Farmers are Guardians of Soil Health

November 21, 2025 Ladislav Luc

While the impact of the EU’s new Soil Monitoring Law remains to be seen, in Europe’s territories local communities are working on the ground to protect the soil. Ladislav Luc reports from Serbia on a citizen science project that offers an intriguing entry point for farmers and young people to learn about the importance of soil health. […]

Whats Seeds for Tomorrow? A Podcast Mini-Series by Seeds4All and Seed Carriers

November 20, 2025 Adèle Pautrat

The Seeds4All project has long been working to understand how the EU regulatory framework on seeds and cultivated biodiversity impacts the daily reality of agroecological seed and food operators. Europe is now at a decisive turning point. The rules that govern our seeds are being rewritten as we speak, with powerful forces seeking to tighten their grip on seed and food production. Efforts must be accelerated to amplify what the European agroecological seed movement is bringing to the future of our food, and how it should be urgently supported by both EU and local decision makers. With that purpose in mind, Seeds4All joined forces with SEED CARRIERS to produce the mini audio series WHAT SEEDS FOR TOMORROW? […]

GMO-Free Seed Production Under Threat! Consequences of NGT deregulation on the ground

November 19, 2025 ARC

Without GMO-free seeds, a GMO-free agricultural and food industry is not possible. Yet there has been little discussion of the potential impact on GMO-free seed production of the European Commission’s planned deregulation of new genomic techniques (NGTs). Op-ed by Eva Gelinsky and Lena Hüttmann of IG Saatgut. […]