In Loire-Atlantique, in western France, ARC2020 and Nos Campagnes en Resilience hosted a rural gathering. The weekend created space for farmers, rural actors, regional and European organisations and policymakers to share, reflect and prepare action for the future of our countryside. […]
Début octobre, en Loire-Atlantique, l’équipe d’ARC2020 a organisé une rencontre européenne « Nos campagnes en résilience ». Le temps d’un week-end, nous avons créé ensemble un espace pour les paysans, les acteurs locaux, les organisations régionales et européennes et les décideurs politiques pour partager, réfléchir et préparer des actions pour l’avenir de nos campagnes.
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What does digitalisation mean from the perspectives of a diversified, dairy family farm in rural Japan? For more than three generations, the Sudo Family has adapted their farm to the challenges and opportunities of working and living in the southern tip of the Bōsō Peninsula of Japan, Chiba Prefecture. […]
Even though the EU’s pesticide legislation is the most sophisticated, it has failed to achieve a reduction in use. The EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy seeks to change that. Many questions remain. This article is an excerpt from the Pesticide Atlas 2022, published on October 18th, 2022 Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union, and others. […]
Access to land was the topic of a panel discussion at our rural resilience gathering in north-west France last week. To add to the conversation, we present our findings from research on the ground, over the past two years of the “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” project. In the first of a series on hot topics around transition, we look at land, water and soil – all pivotal issues for socio-ecological transition. Analysis by “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” team. […]
The 5th European Rural Parliament was held in Poland over four days, ending on the 15th September with the Rural People’s Declaration of Kielce. So how was the gathering? What’s in the Declaration – and does it do enough to address the needs of Rural Europe? […]
From the Sámi perspective, all matters are environmental matters. The Sámi Environmental Programme is a holistic framework with a long-term, decolonised perspective on sustainability and Indigenous culture. Josefina Skerk, former Vice President of the Sámi Parliament, shares powerful perspectives on life, land and climate justice in a conversation originally published in “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual”, the policy guide launched by ARC2020 and Forum Synergies in June 2022. […]
In this op-ed, Matthias Wolfschmidt of Foodwatch International unpacks the EU’s food system, its reliance on cheap imports, its generation of food waste, the power of lobby groups and Europe’s subsequent reliance on damaging pesticides and fertilizers. In this context, Wolfschmidt considers how the weaponisation of hunger embeds a lock in of problematic agri-industrial inputs, while also pointing to a way out of this bind within 15 years. […]
At the European Rural Parliament, ongoing in Kielce, Poland, the Future of Europe takes centre stage today. ARC2020 president Hannes Lorenzen hosted a panel on this topic, with Marion Eckardt (ELARD), Katrina Idu (Forum Synergies) Normunds Popens (European Commission), Radim Sršeň European Committee of the Regions, Goran Šoster (PREPARE) and Toma Šutić (European Commission). […]
The European commission presented a new regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products. This regulation is a long awaited response to the insufficient results of the Sustainable Use of Pesticide Directive (SUD) that framed the use of pesticides since 2009. We have a look and check if the CAP Strategic Plans can provide good tools to help reach the ambition. […]
Le foncier, l’eau, les sols. Tous ces acteurs tirent la sonnette d’alarme. Comment vivent-ils ces enjeux sur le terrain ? Force de propositions d’actions dans leur territoires, comment y font-ils face ? Première partie d’une série d’analyse thématique par l’équipe de « Nos campagnes en résilience ». […]
This extract from “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual” tells the story of the Sustainable Food Consortium, a group of food activists who came together in Redon, France. We hear in particular about the political, bureaucratic and agro-industrial barriers the Consortium faced, and draw some learnings from this. […]
Next in our series of extracts from “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual” is the story of Resilience.Earth, a non-profit cooperative committed to community resilience and regenerative design as fundamental tools for social and ecological transformation. In engaging rural communities, Resilience.Earth builds from a feminine, indigenous and decolonial perspective. […]
In the final of his four part series, Stuart Meikle considers what Ireland could produce for local on-island consumption. Infrastructure, climate, consumer sentiment all play a part. […]
Not all agri-sectors have the same impact. As the debate in Ireland over greenhouse gas emissions cuts for economic sectors intensifies, who is thinking about the fair share within sectors? Here we republish an article from Rural Ireland on the Move, our report from April this year. In it, Fintan Kelly – agriculture and land use policy and advocacy officer with the Irish Environmental Network – examines the idea of a fair share on emissions within agriculture. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention