Alan Matthews points out that given the pivotal importance of Germany in shaping the future CAP, it is worth paying attention to what the CDU/CSU coalition have to say about agriculture in its just announced programme for government for the German elections in September. […]
Progress is being made towards land access – and against land concentration – in the EU, with a consultation by the Finance Directorate General.You can read the DG FISMA consultation document and submit your own feedback. Closing date for submissions is very soon – the 7th July. […]
The global food system has been operating in post-truth mode for decades. Having constructed food scarcity as a justification for a second Green Revolution, Big Agriculture now employs its unethical marketing tactics to selling farmers “climate-smart” agriculture in the form of soils, seeds and chemicals. […]
A preliminary agreement has been reached after 20 months of trilogue negotiations between EU Commission, Council of Ministers and European Parliament for a new organic regulation. The main outstanding issues, which delayed agreement for so long have either been settled or deferred. Here’s what this means. […]
Below we highlight the summary of the Committee of the Regions position on CAP as written by Euromontana – the European Association of Mountainous Regions. Fairness and solidarity emerge as key themes, with a strong emphasis on the rural. […]
The UK is about to go into Brexit negotiations with a political maverick, Brexiteer Michael Gove, in charge of DEFRA. Here are are a few of his predecessors’ contributions to posterity: […]
Michael Gove has taken over in the UK ministry which covers agricultural, food, rural affairs and the environment. He was central to the Brexit push and has links to US Neocons including the Tea Party – so he doesn’t seem too keen on environmental regulations. By Miles King. […]
On Wednesday, the European Parliament agreed with the European Commission that agricultural land designated for the preservation of biodiversity must not be treated with pesticides. […]
It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organised creatures. Which creatures – and who said this? Read on….. […]
A vote in the European Parliament this coming Wednesday 14th June will be crucial in deciding whether pesticides will be banned from Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs). It is a simple majority vote by MEPs, and it is likely to be tight. Here we outline what you can do, make the case for keeping pesticides out of EFAs, and myth bust some common misconceptions on pesticides and EFAs. […]
An important part of the recent European Rural Sustainability Gathering in Karditsa, Greece, was diverse set of field trips in the agricultural, economic and social spheres. These showcased some of the rural development initiatives in the Karditsa region – and how they are connected via an ecosystem of collaboration. Here we present a snapshot of the day. […]
MEPs on the Agriculture Committee (COMAGRI) have rejected a proposal by the EU Commission to ban pesticides from Ecological Focus Areas. The proposal was part of a simplification initiative by the EU Commission, whereby a bundle of 14 changes in CAP greening rules were put forward. […]
Catch crops (68%), fallow land (16.2%) and nitrogen fixing crops (11.8%) dominated ecological focus areas (EFAs) in Germany in 2015. Why is this? What influences farmers’ decisions on EFAs? One of the authors of a new peer reviewed publication on this topic, ARC2020 regular Sebastian Lackner, summarises the paper, in which he and colleagues interviewed a range of experts on the matter. […]
ARC2020’s Communications Director spend a week on the road in rural Greece recently, with force of nature Pavlos Georgiadis – farmer, food producer, film maker, campaigner, social innovator and community manager with the exciting new GROW Observatory. Here’s a snapshot of their trip. […]
Without farming, Britain’s countryside would be drastically different. Imagine walking through landscapes un-tilled, un-sown, un-fertilised and un-treated, nor grazed by cattle or sheep. Land abandonment or tropic rewilding? […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention