Latest from EU Member States

Updates from EU Member States, including reports from ARC Web Correspondents

Latest from EU Member States

25 years of LEADER – What impacts?

July 17, 2024 Robert Lukesch

The Austrian Local Action Group (LAG) Styrian Volcanic Land (Steirisches Vulkanland) wanted to know the impacts of its local development efforts over the last quarter-century. To find out, they entrusted a team from ÖAR consultancy, assisted by students from the University of Vienna, to conduct an impact study.* Here co-author Robert Lukesch gives an insight into the background, process and findings of this pioneering research. […]

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Letter From A Future Farmer | Rethinking The Farm From The Ground Up

July 12, 2024 Matthew Hayes

For Matthew Hayes, a flying visit to Groundswell 2024, the UK annual festival for regenerative agriculture, provides a brief period off the farm in mid-season, and a moment for reflection. There he visits his son Kristof, who is forging his own path in the regen ag space. It’s a solid grounding in shared values that led this farmer’s son to give agriculture another go – on his own terms. A father and son letter by Kristof and Matthew Hayes […]

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Germany | A Modern Subsistence Farm in a Postcard Landscape

July 5, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Cycling through this beauty of soft hills, yellow-green meadows, scattered forests, small lakes, finely carpentered wooden houses, small villages with cows and horses grazing side by side, onion-crowned church-towers and cosy guest houses, you may believe that Upper Bavaria is one of those remaining paradise places where rural culture and small peasantry has survived. Letter from die Ötz farm by Hannes Lorenzen. […]

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True Bread – the Restorative work of Farmers, Millers & Bakers in Hungary

July 4, 2024 ARC

The Hungarian Environmental Social Science Research Group (ESSRG) reports on the renewed interest – and importance – of short and local distribution channels, which are better able to meet the growing demand for alternative grains in Europe. And introducing True Bread, produced by ESSRG, a beautiful documentary to tell the story of small-scale farmers, millers, and bakers in Hungary gathering to restore coherent collaboration. […]

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Impact and Opportunities of the 2023-27 CAP Reform in Denmark

June 12, 2024 ARC

In the report that accompanies this article, CONCITO analyses the implementation of the 2023-27 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform after its first year of implementation, using Denmark as a case study. The focus lies on examining the new components of the reform, namely the New Delivery Model (NDM), the enhanced conditionality, and the eco-schemes, and their contribution towards both the European Union (EU) and national objectives concerning climate, biodiversity, and the environment. Recommendations are also made for improved delivery. […]

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Letter From The Farm | Strong Roots for a Surer Future

May 17, 2024 Hannes Lorenzen

Investing in a small family farm is much more than an economic consideration: it can help to revitalise an entire village. In the Greek village of Trikorfo (Τρίκορφο), father and son Vasilis and Lukas Mylonas are two generations of olive farmers who are honouring their roots while looking to the future for their community. Hannes Lorenzen reports from his visit to the farm in May. […]

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The Case for a Land Observatory in Ireland

May 1, 2024 Daniel Long

Quite quickly, Ireland has seen the kind of land concentration more familiar in other parts of Europe. Various pressures are coming to bare on access to land, including the desires of the very wealthy to build up an asset bank. Daniel Long is a young dairy farmer from south Tipperary, which has seen hugely inflated prices paid by billionaires for land. What impact does this have, including on how young people and their future in farming? Long also outlines the beginnings of a campaign to draw attention to this issue, while making the case for a Land Observatory in Ireland.          […]

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Feeding Ourselves 2024 – A Food Revolution Starts With Seed!

April 16, 2024 Adèle Pautrat

Our Seeds4All project was back in Ireland in March to be part of Feeding Ourselves 2024. We are inheritors of a genetic commons that we have to protect. While working on the ground we need to be vigilant about what is happening at legal level – and work together. In partnership with the Irish Seed Savers Association, Seeds4All brought a European perspective to Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary. Adèle Pautrat reports. […]

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Feeding Ourselves 2024 – Unlocking Local Food Economies

April 4, 2024 Oliver Moore

The Feeding Ourselves gathering 2024 saw a diverse range of people and topics over four days in the Irish midlands. From policy analysis to deep listening, tactile workshops to building bridges the four days were a full spectrum of experiences. Here we summarise Friday, a local food economies experience for activists, enablers and organisers in this area. So what’s needed, and what can be done to help embed and amplify agroecological local food provisioning by communities, for communities?  Oliver Moore reports. […]