Natasha is currently working as an agrifood and health journalist for the EU media, EURACTIV, where she focuses on EU policy and how this links with issues on the ground. Previously, she worked on a mixed organic farm in the south of France and prior to that Mazi Farm, an agroforestry project in Greece. She holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Bristol and an MA in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, where she worked on food issues and alternative approaches to food production.
Redistributing food waste is surely a win for the environment and for society. So why is it such an uphill struggle? In the Belgian capital, a project called ‘Feed the culture’ helps out workers in the arts sector who are struggling to put food on the table because of the COVID-19 closures. Natasha Foote speaks to the volunteers on the ground in Brussels. […]
The Farm to Fork strategy aspires to fix our broken food systems while advancing the EU’s sustainability goals. In this three-part series we hear what environmental, health and farming organisations have to say about Farm to Fork so far. Here, Natasha Foote reports on some of the key voices in the health sector to bring us their take on the strategy as it currently stands. […]
EU Leaders disagree on CAP, on how it should be funded, and on how that funding should be divided up between different priorities. Meanwhile, there are delays, the parallel farm to fork strategy, talk of transitional arrangements, and now, the global pandemic that is COVID-19 to deal with. Natasha Foote unpacks some of the details. […]
All too often access to land is an insurmountable hurdle for new entrants to farming. The innovative Ecological Land Co-operative tackles this head-on, by developing accessible smallholdings for ecological agriculture and supporting new farmers. […]
The European Court of Auditors examined farmers income stablisation in a recent report. The findings were mixed, with direct payments, insurance, mutual funds all assessed. Many measures have failed to live up to expectations. What’s more, the uptake of these payments was found to be uneven, inefficient and, in some cases, unfair. And in some cases public aid and insurance may even be prolonging unsustainable practices. Natasha Foote has more. […]
Lack of access to affordable land is one they key obstacles to new farming entrants. The sector is suffering from a seriously aging population which puts the future of European small-scale farming at risk. How can we encourage more young people to get into the profession when access to land is so tricky? Natasha Foote talks us through the problem and explores one exciting approach on the vineyards of Southern France. […]
Our Mazi farmer, Natasha Foote, joined the first International Meeting For Living Agriculture in Paris. It aims to forward agroecological transition by facilitating exchanges between people working in this field in diverse ways, in different areas and on all sorts of scales. Here is what she took back to the farm. […]
The idea of support species stems from the observation that in nature, you always find a diversity of species growing together. You can observe different species working together to support and facilitate the growth of others and for the good of the whole system in many complex interactions. […]
We are back in Greece on Mazi Farm with Tash Foote who talks us through the thinking behind the farm design. […]
Welcome indeed to Mazi Farm, a regenerative agroforestry farm run by a team brought together by a common goal – to restore degraded farmland in the Mediterranean. Natasha Foote introduces our next letter from an agroecological farm. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention