The European Parliament has officially backed plans to fast-track changes to the EU’s farming subsidy programme which dismantles its environmental requirements in the process. However civil society is not ready to let the decision go down without a fight, with lawyers gearing up to challenge the move. Natasha Foote reports. […]
Local communities in rural and urban areas can be powerful changemakers when it comes to food system transformation, even when national and EU policies fall way short. At Feeding Ourselves 2024, a roundtable on Bottom-Up Approaches to Sustainable Food Systems brought together actors engaged in the development of fair & ecological food systems in Germany, France and Ireland. ARC2020 was joined by Ann-Marie Weber of kollektiv von MORGEN (DE), Henrik Maas of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (DE), Thierry Lohr, elected representative in the Municipality of Plessé (FR), and Fergal Anderson of Talamh Beo (IE). […]
Under pressure from farmer protests, upcoming elections and its own cowardice in the face of climate and biodiversity collapse, the political establishment in Brussels and beyond is fast-tracking the evisceration of CAP’s environmental elements. This rush job began on 15th March with a proposal from the Commission, and will likely end Thursday 25th when the last full plenary of the Parliament rubber stamps the proposed regulation. The latest piece of sequencing was confidential legal advice given to the European Parliament on the process. In part one Natasha Foote outlined the proposal and the legal advice. Here Oliver Moore applies a critical analysis to shortcomings therein. […]
When the Commission proposed re-opening the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy in efforts to placate protesting farmers, stakeholders were quick to question the legitimacy of the process, with some even labelling the move “unlawful”. Now, the European Parliament’s legal service has weighed in on the process. So what is the verdict? And what does it mean for the future direction of the policy process? Natasha Foote digs in. […]
We’re back on Cortijo El Manzano in Campotéjar, Spain, with a third and final letter from rural Andalusia. Though committed, this agroecological farm, under pressure from all sides, has little bandwidth to invest in digital tools. Reflections by Matteo Metta. […]
A new regime of border checks for imports to Britain from the EU will come into force at the end of April. Meat, dairy, seeds and other items classified as medium or high-risk will be the first subject to the controls. What does this entail and what is at stake? […]
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. […]
The European Parliament has given its blessing to a fast-track approval process to push through a proposal aimed at simplifying the EU’s farming subsidy programme, which effectively guts the policy of its environmental requirements. Natasha Foote reports. […]
It’s back to the future as the EU’s green ambitions face the chopping block, with priorities shifting to security and competition. That’s according to the European Council’s vision for the next 5 years, as revealed in a leaked internal draft of EU leaders’ ‘strategic agenda’. Oliver Moore and Natasha Foote have the details, including the leaked document itself. […]
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. […]
Sometimes things are simple and sometimes they are complicated. In the Irish midlands, from 21-24th March, people representing dozens of organisations involved in agri-food, came together to work together on how we feed ourselves. here’s sever things I learned at this year’s event. […]
Can the EU achieve the urgently needed re-construction of the CAP? ARC2020’s president Hannes Lorenzen, on the causes of European farmers’ protests, the EU’s panic deconstruction of farm policies, and why civil society must deliver now.
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The EU’s Nature Restoration Law has suffered yet another set back after a number of EU countries refused to greenlight the final shape of the negotiated law – something that both the Commission and campaign groups warn risks undermining the EU’s international credibility. Natasha Foote reports. […]
Jean-Marc Desfilhes and Hannes Lorenzen present a history of French farmers’ associations and social alliances in light of the recent demonstrations and associated political reactions. They propose: Now is the time to mobilise love and protest to stop the current agricultural policy rollback. […]
The European Commission has officially put forward plans to slash environmental measures in the EU’s farming subsidy programme and offer up more power to member states in deciding the future course of the policy. Natasha Foote reports. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention