ABOUT THE PROJECT
Rural Resilience: Building a Thriving Countryside
Rural resilience starts on the ground, with farmers, local communities, and changemakers shaping a sustainable countryside. But it is also forged at regional, national, and transnational levels, where policies, funding, and governance shape the conditions for rural life. As social, economic, and environmental crises intensify, strengthening these foundations has never been more urgent. Through collaboration, advocacy, and grassroots innovation, we aim to ensure that rural communities do more than survive. They can thrive—creating a countryside that is vibrant, sustainable, and fair.
2025-2026: Strengthening Networks, Shaping Policy, Changing the Narrative
The next two years of the Rural Resilience project will focus on deepening connections between rural actors and European policy frameworks. Strengthening rural networks, fostering peer learning, and amplifying grassroots innovations are key to this phase. Farmers, policymakers, and civil society will exchange knowledge through initiatives during annual themed working Gatherings, and events throughout the year.
At the same time, we will share policy analysis and co-develop proposals on food sovereignty and systems, land access, and biodiversity. Through advocacy, storytelling, and deep listening exercises, we will challenge misconceptions about rural life, ensuring that the diversity and dynamism of the countryside are reflected in European policy discussions.
2020-2024: Laying the Foundations
The first phases of Rural Resilience built strong networks in France and across Europe. We connected with rural communities and highlighted innovative socio-ecological transitions.
These foundations expanded to Germany, Poland, and other regions, linking grassroots action with policy engagement and strengthening transnational solidarity.
Check out some of that work in our reports from phase 1 and phase 2 of the project.
Join the Movement
Rural Resilience is a collective adventure. It is open to all who want to shape the future of rural Europe. Farmers, policymakers, researchers, and engaged citizens each have a role to play.
Follow us on Bluesky, LinkedIn and Instagram, or reach out to collaborate.
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During the short end of November days, the annual European Rural Gathering in Grzybów, Poland, co-organised by ARC2020 and a rich ecosystem of partners, marked another stop of our rural caravan from France to Germany [...] -
Martino Newcombe runs a small farm in Co. Galway in the west of Ireland. Biodiversity is a central focus of his work. He practices conservation grazing on marshy terrain with Kerry cattle, a hardy ancient [...] -
As part of the transnational LEADER project “Our Common Future” in which LEADER networks came together to conceptualise the future of the LEADER approach, Robert Lukesch brings us a broad retrospective on the wider context [...] -
Geopolitics, geography and geometry can sometimes come together as a force for good. A gathering of people from European rural and urban civil society in the Polish village of Grzybów was one such moment. The [...] -
Marie Halicki, a newly established farmer in the French Alps shares with ARC2020 her fight against the BTV in 2024. […] -
A rural European gathering is a special moment. A time for those working on the ground in different territories and regions to compare notes on common challenges at local level, and reflect on European solutions. [...] -
On 28 November – 1 December, in the rural village of Grzybów, Poland, ARC2020 is co-organising a European gathering of sustainable rural initiatives to take stock of a new political situation of Europe and to [...] -
Europe’s mounting crises present an opportunity to redesign our food systems. We need a comprehensive food policy framework that ensures resilience, sustainability and inclusivity – and promotes cooperation over competition. The new EU commission must [...] -
France’s territorial food programmes are an exciting example of what can happen when local communities have a say in their food systems. An open letter signed by a collective of more than 120 French mayors [...] -
Negotiations on future policy options at the EU level are ongoing, setting the basic framework for future rural development policy. In this op-ed, Edina Ocsko of Smart Village Network Services / E40, who is Vice-Chair [...] -
Last week the new crop of wannabe Commissioners faced the first round of questioning from the European Parliament. Meanwhile, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council signs off (sort of) on a “farmer-focused” CAP post-2027. Plus we [...] -
The European Commission has been quietly weighing up options to radically overhaul its budget. This could see all of its 500+ biggest money pots merged into one mega money pot, divided out based on plans [...] -
Michael Dower (1937-2022) has inspired rural Europe for decades. Co-founder of the European AgriCultural Convention (EAC), which later became ARC2020, he was a phenomenal agent of change. Launching today, the Michael Dower Award for Rural [...] -
In this op-ed, Hans Van Sharen of Corporate Europe Observatory argues that Bayer, a German agrochemical giant, exerts vast political and economic influence globally, often harming public health, biodiversity, and democracy in the process. The [...] -
A new study from the Greenpeace European Unit – Go Big or go Bust shows just how rapidly farming in Europe is going in a particular trajectory. Simply put, small farm are disappearing, and large [...] -
The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) is an independent, farmer-led coordination and political advocacy organization of the movement of regenerative agriculture at the European level. EARA is striving to enable the transformation of our [...] -
Every October, farmers, consumers, activists and citizens come together to celebrate food and farming – and demand political change! For the seventh year in a row, the European Days of Action are happening. Mia Mancini and [...] -
NGOs and governmental institutions have many proposals for approaches to pesticide reduction in Europe. Almost all exclude nutrient management. But if we want to reduce pesticides, that is where we need to start, argues Andrea [...] -
“Food from Somewhere” is a recent report from IPES-Food on territorial markets – localised food systems and chains. So what’s in it? This report finds a disaster prone, not fit-for-purpose food system being propped up [...] -
A master gardener and co-founder of the SEED association for the preservation and use of the region’s traditional seed varieties, Frank Adams has long been involved in the legislative battle waged by seed savers to [...] -
There’s a lot of new faces in new places this week in Brussels as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has finally revealed her picks and priorities for her new team of Commissioners over this [...] -
The EU strategic dialogue on agriculture has finally spoken – and plenty has emerged. After 7 months of talks, this group of agrifood stakeholders presented a hefty 100+ page document including recommendations for the future [...] -
Time waits for nobody – but it seems to travel quickly or slowly depending on circumstance. Organic breeding techniques have a different relationship to time and place than genetic engineering methods; other aspects of being [...] -
For Matthew Hayes, a flying visit to Groundswell 2024, the UK annual festival for regenerative agriculture, provides a brief period off the farm in mid-season, and a moment for reflection. There he visits his son [...] -
Cycling through this beauty of soft hills, yellow-green meadows, scattered forests, small lakes, finely carpentered wooden houses, small villages with cows and horses grazing side by side, onion-crowned church-towers and cosy guest houses, you may [...] -
In Marburg, Germany kollektiv von MORGEN (the collective of TOMORROW) is working with food education activists and other food system stakeholders to develop regional communication strategies around sustainable food. Building on ideas formulated at the [...] -
This week saw an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to push the EU’s proposal to loosen rules on gene editing over the finish line, leaving the plans on ice. Meanwhile, it’s all been Politics with a capital [...] -
Last minute political manoeuvres, coalition collapse and legal challenges – the Nature Restoration Law’s dramatic final showdown proved every bit as tumultuous as the rest of its path to adoption. But could the final seal [...] -
Welcome to the gardens of St John’s monastery in the village of Anatoli, Thessaly, Greece. We bring you a heartwarming story of sharing and sufficiency, in a letter from a visit to the farm by [...] -
Wouter van de Klippe delves into the recent farmer’s protests, and assesses the role both the agri-lobby Copa-Cogeca, and the Common Agricultural Policy itself, have played. Van de Klippe argues that behind Europe’s farmers protests [...] -
In this op-ed, Annemarie Botzki of FoodWatch International makes the case, and outlines a vision, for how European farms can to exit pesticides, crop by crop. […] -
Investing in a small family farm is much more than an economic consideration: it can help to revitalise an entire village. In the Greek village of Trikorfo (Τρίκορφο), father and son Vasilis and Lukas Mylonas [...] -
For months, we have been hearing about the bureaucratic burden that has been pushing EU farmers to the brink. Now, the preliminary results of a Commission survey designed to unpack this are in – so [...] -
Oliver Moore rounds up the state of play as the mandate of the EU institutions completes. Its not been a good finish, but there are amazing things happening on the ground. It is from here [...] -
Quite quickly, Ireland has seen the kind of land concentration more familiar in other parts of Europe. Various pressures are coming to bare on access to land, including the desires of the very wealthy to [...] -
The ongoing farmer protests are the longest and most impactful of all the farmer protests in the history of the European Union and have led to dangerous changes in EU environmental policy and triggered a [...] -
Local communities in rural and urban areas can be powerful changemakers when it comes to food system transformation, even when national and EU policies fall way short. At Feeding Ourselves 2024, a roundtable on Bottom-Up [...] -
We’re back on Cortijo El Manzano in Campotéjar, Spain, with a third and final letter from rural Andalusia. Though committed, this agroecological farm, under pressure from all sides, has little bandwidth to invest in digital [...] -
Our Seeds4All project was back in Ireland in March to be part of Feeding Ourselves 2024. We are inheritors of a genetic commons that we have to protect. While working on the ground we need [...] -
It’s back to the future as the EU’s green ambitions face the chopping block, with priorities shifting to security and competition. That’s according to the European Council’s vision for the next 5 years, as revealed [...] -
The Feeding Ourselves gathering 2024 saw a diverse range of people and topics over four days in the Irish midlands. From policy analysis to deep listening, tactile workshops to building bridges the four days were [...] -
Sometimes things are simple and sometimes they are complicated. In the Irish midlands, from 21-24th March, people representing dozens of organisations involved in agri-food, came together to work together on how we feed ourselves. here’s sever [...] -
Can the EU achieve the urgently needed re-construction of the CAP? ARC2020’s president Hannes Lorenzen, on the causes of European farmers’ protests, the EU’s panic deconstruction of farm policies, and why civil society must deliver [...] -
Jean-Marc Desfilhes and Hannes Lorenzen present a history of French farmers’ associations and social alliances in light of the recent demonstrations and associated political reactions. They propose: Now is the time to mobilise love and [...] -
Manger Demain (Eating Tomorrow) is a strategy and an organisation in Wallonia, Belgium aiming to coordinate, link and facilitate local and regional initiatives engaged in sustainable food. The work of Manger Demain was one of [...] -
We’re back on Cortijo El Manzano in Campotéjar, rural Andalusia, with another letter from ARC2020’s Matteo Metta. This agroecological farm has been building resilience collectively since 1986. After his experience living and volunteering on the [...] -
In February, ARC2020’s Matteo Metta visited and worked on El Manzano, a farm deeply rooted in the living history of rural Andalusia, so rich in nuances, contrasts, and emotions, as expressed in the notes of [...] -
“Given the technical, economic and social uncertainties identified in this report and the controversies raised by the development of NTG-derived plants, the Working Group recommends that a system be set up to monitor NTG plants [...] -
The issue of water shortages underscores the urgent need to make a success of agroecological transition. It is the dominant agricultural model that must change. Comparing the state of play in Germany and France, this [...] -
Agroecology favours the resilience of agricultural systems. Yet it is being embraced to varying extents by France, Germany and other Member States. Sustainable water management at territorial level is key, as shown by this comparison [...]