Latest from EU Member States Archives - Page 5 of 68 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Four Takeaways From our Rural Resilience Gathering in North West France

October 8, 2022 Oliver Moore

A recent rural resilience gathering in the Loire-Atlantique, France saw farmers, cooks, elected officials, analysts, rural activists, volunteers and more meet to work on the future of the socio-ecological transition. Organised by ARC’s team on the ground in France via the Nos Campagne en Resilience team, and other partners such as the region’s Cooks Alliance, many fruitful talks and experiences were had. So what unfolded? Oliver Moore has some personal observations on his time there. […]

Has the 5th European Rural Parliament Something to Declare?

September 28, 2022 ARC

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? […]

France | Meet The Farmer-Bakers Proving Their Skills

September 2, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Sébastien loves bread. Shaped by a farming background, he was drawn to cooking, but experience taught him that the reality in the kitchen was very far from his ideals. Fabienne studied accounting and worked a corporate job in the city. She was happy to team up with her husband Sébastien on the farm in the West of France. Here in their on-farm bakery, between batches of bread, they share their views on life as farmer-bakers. […]

Rural Europe Takes Action | Regenerative Governance in Rural Spain

August 3, 2022 ARC

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. […]

Part 4 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland’s own food security

July 27, 2022 ARC

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. […]

Ireland | Intensive Farms Must Pull their Weight for a Just Transition

July 26, 2022 ARC

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. […]

Rural Europe Takes Action | Creating Alternatives, Creating Community

July 25, 2022 ARC

In June 2022, together with Forum Synergies, ARC2020 launched a book: “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual”. We’re spotlighting its stories of rural action and key messages for policymakers through a series of extracts.

In this extract, we are introduced to Cargonomia, a cargo bike delivery service and community collective based in Budapest. […]

Part 3 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Is Ireland Feeding Food?

July 25, 2022 Stuart Meikle

A common criticism of ‘animal agriculture’ is that it uses human-grade food as a feedstock. It is also heard in Ireland, a country with a significant livestock population by European standards. To what extent is it true that animal agriculture uses human-grade food? Stuart Meikle with part 3 of his series on Ireland, Food Security and Feeding the World. […]

Rural Europe Takes Action | Seeds of Collaboration

July 22, 2022 ARC

“Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual”, a policy guide for rural Europe by ARC2020 and Forum Synergies, launched in June 2022. Today’s extract from Rural Europe Takes Action tells the story of the Balkan Seeds Network, a network of scientists and seed savers’ organisations tapping into the rich biodiversity and agricultural heritage of South Eastern Europe to stimulate resilient food systems, and establishing a paradigm of collaboration for the Balkan region. […]

What France Can Teach Us About Rural Resilience

July 20, 2022 ARC

In the past two years, ARC2020 has been listening closely to voices on the ground in the French countryside. What have we learned? What do the participants have to say? And what’s next for the Nos Campagnes en Résilience project? The key themes emerging from the research so far were presented to the project participants at an online gathering in June, when a lively discussion helped to collectively shape the direction for the future. Report by the Nos Campagnes en Résilience team. […]

Letter From The Farm | Watching, Waiting and Knowing When To Help

July 15, 2022 Shane Casey

We’re back on Shane Casey’s farm in The Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland, where he has another busy spring of lambing and calving behind him. There’s only so much you can do to prepare – after that, it’s a question of watching carefully for the telltale signs in the ewes and cows. Shane’s father was an early adopter of livestream technology that makes the night watch a little easier. But successful lambing and calving depends on the farmer’s expertise as well as patience. Knowing if and when to intervene, whether to call the vet, and how to help the newborns find their feet. […]

Part 2 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland and the Archipelago

July 14, 2022 Stuart Meikle

Part two of four from Stuart Meikle on Ireland, food security and feed(ing) the world delves into the relationship Britain and Ireland have with each other – the two main islands of the archipelago referred to in the article’s title. Part one (see below) focused on Ireland, food security and nitrogen supply. Here, trade, animal feed, meats, durable forms of diary all feature. […]

Rain-Czech for the Environment | Spectacularly Unambitious 6 Month Presidency announced

July 6, 2022 ARC

On July 1 the Czech Republic took over the EU presidency until the end of the year. So what are the priorities? Reading between the lines, Ashley Parsons offers a quick analysis of the agriculture program and what to expect. […]

Op-Ed | Europe Eats the World

June 18, 2022 Jabier Ruiz

“Europe feeds the world” is a line often heard in EU policy debates and the media. A line often used to sideline calls to lower the impacts of European agriculture and to place “providing food” as the highest political priority. But is this line really true? In this op-ed lead author, Jabier Ruiz, of the WWF European Policy Office, summarises the main pieces of evidence gathered, which show that, far from feeding the world, Europe consumes more than its fair share. […]

Denmark | Re-Scaling the Rural

June 16, 2022 Louise Kelleher

ARC2020’s Louise Kelleher and Matteo Metta were among the speakers at “AlterRurality 6: Re-Scaling the Rural”, a conference held last month in a small Danish coastal village. The interdisciplinary conference aimed to initiate a critical investigation of past, current, and what may become future concepts and interpretations of rural life. Report. […]