It’s now easier than ever to use international tools to fight for access to land. By crafting a strategy and tooling up with the right legislation, social movements and civil society organisations can achieve wins for land rights — as we can learn from the Sami people’s historic victory earlier this year, write Astrid Bouchedor, Attila Szocs, Philip Seufert, and Fernando García-Dory. […]
Civic Society Organisations Developed a Declaration at a recent FAO conference. Here’s how it unfolded. […]
“Remote Control and Peasant Intelligence – on automating decisions, suppressing knowledges and transforming ways of knowing” takes a critical perspective on new developments in the farming sphere. It focuses on the impact on peasant farming of digitisation, data gathering and management, technologisation, automation, approaches to regulation and corporate control. It also puts forward a food sovereignty and peasant agroecology perspective on digital technologies. […]
To set clear directions for responsible digitalisation in agriculture, the CAP and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy should integrate a new policy target aimed at substantially increasing the current low share of EU farmers engaged in other gainful activities connected to the farm to at least 25% by 2030. Dr. Matteo Metta shares findings from his Ph.D. research on digitalisation and on-farm diversification. […]
The dramatic situation that the Ukranian people have been experiencing since February 2022 is well known. Less well reported is how agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods have resisted and adapted since February 2022. This is a very important and timely interview related to power, food sovereignty, solidarity, and land. And for the latter, there are many considerations, from consolidation and access to grabbing and the future. Transcript of an interview with Natalia Mamonova. […]
Running since 1964, the Salon International de l’Agriculture in Paris is a microcosm of the knotted landscape around French agriculture. Visiting it for one day gives just a flavour of the much larger diversity, longer history, and deeper issues of this sector so important for French identities in France and Europe. We visited the 2023 opening day, curious to meet people, understand what is exhibited and what is not, and how. Here are our main takeaways. Photo reportage by Matteo Metta. […]
A year after the European Commission adopted a Communication on “A long-term Vision for the EU’s rural areas – Towards stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous rural areas by 2040”, it hosted a Rural Pact Conference in Brussels on June 15 and 16. Some 450 stakeholders participated. ARC2020 comments on its impact. […]
A new German government coalition of Socialists, Liberals and Greens – known as the “traffic light coalition” – has put a new farming and food policy on its agenda. ARC2020 President Hannes Lorenzen provides insight into the agreement reached between the coalition parties. […]
Despite the spin, after years of negotiations, the CAP that will be voted on this week in Strasbourg does little of substance to really address the crises – climate and biodiversity – and does as little as possible to address fairness. And there will be much talk of the greenest CAP ever, but this is mostly hot air unfortunately. Here we outline what’s being voted on in plenary, present related survey data from EEB/Birdlife, IFOAM EU and share the views of Sommer Ackerman of the Withdraw the CAP movement. […]
The second Balkan Rural Parliament took place last month in Ohrid, North Macedonia. The Declaration of the 2nd Balkan Rural Parliament is the major output of the forum which was organised by the Balkan Rural Development Network. […]
In the aftermath of the European Parliament’s adopted position, we analyse the adopted amendments in relation to the various aspects more relevant to rural development: financial allocation, flexibility between funds, LEADER, Smart Villages, environmental spending, organic farming, decentralization of delivery mechanism, etc. […]
An unpleasant stench stank out cities across Europe this spring as the pandemic-induced drop in emissions from transport and industry cleared the air for agricultural air pollution. As luck would have it, the Covid-19 lockdowns coincided with peak slurry-spreading time – making the stink all the more pungent. But there’s more to manure than a bad smell to worry about. Alison Brogan reports. […]
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. […]
Inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ Green New Deal resolution earlier this year, the Green New Deal for Europe is gaining serious traction. It presents a radical vision to empower communities to lead the way in a truly green transition centred on environmental justice and equality. But has it been coopted by the new European Commission to pass off a seriously watered down “Green Deal” instead? Louise Kelleher, Czech Coordinator for the Green New Deal for Europe, investigates. […]
While the next CAP reform is still in discussion at the Council, and the European Parliament has not yet taken a final position, Samuel Féret explains the rationale of the new concept of CAP Strategic Plans (CSP) for a future CAP as proposed by the European Commission. This is intended as a pivotal piece of the future new delivery model, probably the biggest proposed change in how the CAP is set to operate in the future. The first in a five part article series on where next for CAP. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention