There are some big and pressing topics in agri-food and for rural places. Some of these are ongoing – rural and farming depopulation, land access, agroecology, economic and ecological disparities in the Common Agricultural Policy – and others are new. So what’s new – and what’s worth covering in debate form? […]
How can we get young people back onto the land, into rural areas and contributing to local culture and the local economy? There are many routes. Here’s one approach a couple who make cheese have taken in Brittany. […]
Farms have to be viable economically to survive and indeed thrive. Nevertheless, as the years pass, it’s worth thinking about how the farming life is lived. Stress, workload, debt – how do these impact on wellbeing? […]
In part three of this exclusive three parter on Spain’s internal CAP debate, Marta Zygadlo puts forward the dissenting positions from Spain’s CAP consultation position. The positions of two regions – Aragon and Navarre – and NGOs including Birdlife and WWF are put forward […]
Mainstream UK media have presented Brexit minister David Davis (left, without negotiating papers) as the public face of the country’s progress with Brexit talks. However, the press has studiously overlooked the back-room activities of the international trade minister Liam Fox, who has been rolling up his sleeves and starting to size up Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) held by the European Union at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In an extraordinarily wide-reaching plan described as a “Technical Rectification”, Fox is planning to unilaterally carve out what he judges to be the UK’s share of TRQ tonnages for third country imports such as New Zealand sheepmeat and register the results with the WTO. The story emerged thanks to Sky News journalist Faisal Islam, but only because the TV chain was filming Fox in action at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. In the past, technical rectifications have been more limited in scope, but this editing is on an industrial scale: Fox is not waiting for Davis to get round to discussing trade with the European Commission before trying […]
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. […]
In this exclusive interview, ARC2020 President Hannes Lorenzen and Olivier De Schutter discuss CAP, policy coherence, innovations changing the agri-food system – and why we need a common food policy. […]
18,000 people took to the streets of Berlin on 21 January 2017. Together they demonstrated for healthy food, a more rural and ecological farming and fair trade. Farmers from all across Germany joined the demonstration. […]
Hannes Lorenzen tells us about war, peace, regulations, EU relations and rural ways in this letter from Ukraine. […]
Le secteur laitier biologique en France présente de différences importantes – mais aussi quelques points communs – par rapport au secteur laitier conventionnel. La demande croissante des consommateurs, les organisations de producteurs et l’offre régionale de cultures fourragères figurent parmi les différences – tout comme le découplage des prix biologiques et conventionnels. Article de Biolait, la première coopérative laitière biologique en France. […]
The EU has recently experienced several digressions from its official line on sanctions against Russia. The growing frustration of European farmers with the sanction regime has prompted national politicians to undermine the EU’s position on Russia, whilst presenting no consistent solutions of their own. […]
AGRIFISH Council Meeting Increases Diary Intervention and Introduces State Aid of E15000 per farmer. […]
Europe’s strongest economy is seeing its farming sector decimated. At an incredibly rapid rate, both the number of farmers and the income of those left farming is nose diving. Why is this happening and what can – or will – be done? […]
NewsFlash August-September 2015 […]
German Peasant Farmer Organisation AbL plus 87 others make up “TTIP Unfairhandelbar” a national German network to oppose CETA & TTIP. Here’s why they oppose these dodgy deals. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention