First look – Rural Europe Takes Action e-book

Hello dear readers. Today we have something special for you.  Another rural Europe is possible – and its happening. Today, we launch Rural Europe Takes Action – no more business as usual. We’ve spent many months working with our friends in Forum Synergies to bring an inspirational yet practical set of examples and proposals, of visions and strategies, together into one handy, approachable text. 

And here it is – a digital version we’ve made available, today, for you of Rural Europe Takes Action!

Click on the image below, or on the link to read our e-book version of Rural Europe Takes Action – no more business as usual and here is the PDF (5mb) version: Rural Europe Takes Action – no more business as usual  


This week in the European Parliament, CAP’s 60th birthday is being celebrated. Well, retirement should come soon dear friend, and we have a new proposal. So today in Strasbourg we present our book, and a brand new unwritten regulation. This Integrated Rural Agricultural and Food Policy for Europe presents a provocation, a creative challenge, to MEPs, to Dacian Ciolos (MEP and Former European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development), to Frans Timmermans (Vice President of the European Commission), to Roberta Metsola (President of the European Parliament), to Isabel Estrada Carvalhais (AGRI Rapporteur for the own-initiative report on a long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas) all of whom will address what we’ve brought together in these near 180 pages in a room in the European Parliament in Strasbourg today.

We have dozens of contributors from 25 different places, from North Macedonia to North Friesland, from Armenia to Austria. Our seven clouds of rural resilience cover local and circular; cohesion and democracy, lifting borders and making peace, learning and vitality, seeds and systems, land access and land stewardship. Within this, all manner of movements and meanings, of action and traction emerge – seeds and beans, people and places, ideas and practices.

Rural Europe Takes Action is, however, about more than inspiring ideas and nice case studies – its a compendium for how to.

Over the weekend, a massive grain store was blown up in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, further stressing global food supplies. This is deadly serious stuff. Millions of people have moved from their homes in Ukraine, thousands are dead, lives have been turned upside down.  Crises land upon crises. How we welcome and restructure, how we transition and use our capabilities, our capacities, will define us and our Europe. it will not be easy, but we must redouble our efforts. 

Take this book, devour it, draw inspiration yes but also build upon it. Let’s make new policies and enable better practices. Let’s come together, let’s strategise, let’s make another rural Europe  – an inclusive, vibrant, resilient Europe, in these tough times, our new reality.  

Oliver Moore

Editor-in-Chief and Communications Director ARC2020

More

Rural Europe Takes Action | Creative Municipalities

Rural Europe Takes Action | Much More Than Our Daily Bread

Rural Europe Takes Action | For Resilience and Peace – Political Action Now!

Rural Europe Takes Action – Book Launch and Draft EU-Regulation