Daily updates on whats new on the ARC website and in the CAP debate
Part 2: Land concentration or land grabbing?
Is land concentration just a politically neutered way to say land grabbing? […]
Daily updates on whats new on the ARC website and in the CAP debate
Is land concentration just a politically neutered way to say land grabbing? […]
by Gilles Billen, Luis Lassaletta and Josette Garnier Globalisation is not only a matter of clothing and mobile phones. Long-distance worldwide shipping of food commodities has also increased tremendously over the last few decades. Lassaletta et al.(2014) estimate that one-third of all proteins (a proxy for the nutritive potential of foodstuffs) produced globally are redistributed through international trade. Thus a recent study in France shows that the total volume of long distance commercial exchanges of food commodities, mostly originating from far away, account for over twice the national agricultural production (Le Noé et al., submitted). However, the positive value of a globalised food supply is being actively questioned. In industrialised countries, a citizens’ movement has arisen, sometimes supported by local public authorities, seeking to promote a local food supply. This movement aims to reclaim control of nutrition, re-create social links often destroyed by the extent of mass distribution, and develop the local economy. Developing countries are also attempting to strengthen their local food supply and recover part of their food sovereignty lost by decades of […]
Between 2002-2010, 150,000 small farms disappeared. And this process has continued since then. A new Report on Land Grabbing by Eco Ruralis reveals shocking extent of the practice. […]
As the Parliament instructs the European Commission to replace investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) with another dispute settling entity, we ask – isn’t it just another ISDS anyway? […]
How will sustainable agroecological methods get to get passed on, as peasant farmers age? […]
A documentary launched 14.07.2015 (in German)
For information in English we recommend this study by DG Internal Policies: Risks and Opportunities for the EU Agri-Food Sector (July 2014). […]
Are Gene Banks a solution in a world of agri-biodiversity decline, or museums of seed diversity? | ARC2020 […]
Yet another Trojan Horse has emerged: beware ISDS light. […]
New ARC2020 correspondent Pavlos Georgiadis on Greece, the economic and political crisis and agri-food’s role in it […]
While global issues inevitably influence milk price and dairy farmer viability, the end of the EU’s milk quota regime has made it especially challenging for small to medium sized dairy farmers to survive. Milk prices are below 30 cents per litre in many countries. Small to medium sized producers inevitably suffer with such a sudden price drop. For some, increasing acreage and expanding production by going further into debt is the only solution. But this is only a solution for the few, while also having social, environmental and economic consequences for Europe, and rural Europe in particular. According to the Milk Market Observatory’s milk market bulletin from June 2015 “The weighted EU average farm gate milk price decreased in April 2015 by 0.8% to 31.3 c/kg, which is 18% lower than in April 2014 and 6% lower than the average of the last 5 years.” Developments in China and the Russian food embargo have also shaped the price drop. As the Western Daily Express reported on 10th June, this crisis has an impact on real people. Mark Oliver, […]
Arc2020 has this week updated our briefing notes on TTIP. This means you can be fully informed with all of the major aspects, controversies and issues related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, especially from an agri-food perspective. We explain the background – the spin about jobs and growth, in essence, and then begin to unpack all the main problems we see with this corporate power grab. These notes feature the work and publication of key organisations on both sides of the Atlantic including Friends of the Earth Europe, the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, Corporate Europe Observatory. We unpack the threat of lowered standards and regulations; corporate influence on negotiations especially ‘investor-state dispute settlement’ (ISDS) and similar regulatory chill developments; the relationship between bad diets and trade deals; lack of transparency, and also the good news – the fact that we are making progress. Here are some of the highlights you will find if you pop over to the briefing notes page: Poland had to pay E2 Billion in an ISDS settlement trying […]
A collection of texts and positions was launched by Forum Umwelt und Entwicklung (in German). […]
Hidden costs and extra bureaucracies in a new law have made it more difficult for farmers to sell their own produce, as Eco Ruralis explain. […]
As the French government and Swiss retailers, among many others, start to restrict glyphosate, is time up for the world’s most popular pesticide? […]
As BSE is discovered in Ireland once again, the political momentum is away from Country of Original Labelling. How is this happening? […]
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