The starkness of the IPCC’s most recent climate change warnings – of 12 year window before runaway impacts – has focused the minds of many. What role – if any – for livestock in this brave new herd? […]
The “Ten Years for Agroecology in Europe” (TYFA) scenario developed jointly by IDDRI and the consultancy firm AScA, in collaboration with a scientific council composed of leading researchers, shows that a fully agro-ecological Europe, free from synthetic inputs and based on the redeployment of natural grasslands and the extension of agro-ecological infrastructures (hedges, trees, ponds, stony habitats), could sustainably feed 530 million Europeans by 2050. […]
Across the continent, farmers, environmentalists, pastoralists, fishers are grabbing their pots and spoons to call for a more socially and environmentally just European food system. We want to see policy which supports small farmers and rural livelihoods, protects our soil, water, ecosystems and biodiversity and provides healthy food for all. On the 27th and 28th October, let’s make sure we are heard! […]
How will border and mobility restrictions as well as the drafting of new trade deals under the current Brexit plan impact UK food and farming? In this final entry, Sharon Treat explores the potential risks of the Brexit deal. […]
What are the implications of the new Brexit plan on UK and EU food and farming? In this second part, Sharon Treat from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) talks us through inadequate environmental and animal welfare protection as well as weakened biotechnology regulations. […]
What Brexit will mean for the future of UK and EU food and farming has been the topic of much debate and much uncertainty in the past few months. As the Brexit withdrawal plan is becoming more concrete, so too are the potential opportunities and concerns for the food system. Sharon Treat from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) talks us through five key risks. […]
Country girl becomes city girl with a background in climate change and environmental activism – and then becomes a cattle farmer? How did that happen? Meet Sineád from Mayo…… […]
Cian Blaix tells us about the benefits that weeds and field margins provide in agriculture. These ecosystem services provides by weeds can be divided into three categories: cultural services, provisioning services, and regulating and maintenance services. […]
MFF | CAP may loose cash in the EU’s 2021-2027 plans for financial restructuring. And everybody is annoyed it seems, though for different reasons. Report and reactions from Copa, Farm Europe, Greenpeace, Birdlife, WWF. […]
Capping CAP payments at E60,000, a specific compulsory payment to small farmers, adjustment of basic income to basic income support “for sustainability”, changes in young farmer supports, and a move from rural development over to risk management via insurance are just some of the proposals in freshly leaked CAP proposals. Read on for document to download and ARC analysis. […]
Kieran Sullivan is a part-time sheep farmer in south-east Ireland. How does CAP relate to his way of farming and his plans? Pillar 1 Pillar 2, bureaucracy and vested interests all play a part in his story. […]
The Greens EFA group in the European Parliament launched their policy paper n CAP at an event on the 12th April. Land use, crop rotations and fair incomes were the main focus areas of the day long. Harriet Clayton has more. […]
Traci Birge argues that the best way to conserve the biodiversity and other values of traditional rural biotopes is through appropriate grazing and fodder collection. A results-based model, especially a progressive payment model that gives farmers new goals to aim for in their management, might work. […]
Greening measures found to be ineffective in enhancing the CAPs environmental performance, a report by the European Court of Auditors finds. As well as critique of the current greening measures, the ECA report provided a set of recommendations to improve environmental performance in the upcoming CAP reform. […]
What are the implications – on the farm, in the region, the EU and globally – of the ever-increasing production milk production in the EU? Stuart Miekle explores. […]
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