Latest from Brussels

IPES Food Launch a Common Food Policy

A Common Food Policy will help address “climate change, halt biodiversity loss, curb obesity, and make farming viable for the next generation” according to the new IPES Food report. More, including full report to download, in this article. […]

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Why Is the Local Food Economy in Ireland So Weak?

Ireland’s weak local food economy is not simply a modern oversight or the result of consumer preferences. Instead, it is deeply rooted in historical and structural forces—chief among them, colonial extractivism. The foundations for this vulnerability were laid centuries ago, and they have laid down tramlines of extractivism which still operate today. Analysis by Oliver Moore.  […]

Latest from key partners

Rise for Food Justice – Join the European Days of Action 2025!

October is just around the corner – and so are the European Days of Action! Since 2018, the #GoodFoodGoodFarming movement has united thousands across Europe to demand just food systems. This year’s focus is Food Justice: recognising food as a human right, not just a commodity. Today’s system puts profit before people, but this October citizens can take action and call on EU leaders to ensure safe, healthy and affordable food for all. Good Food Good Farming tells us more. […]

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When Policy Fails, People Step Up – Inside ARC’s Rural Resilience Project

Rural Resilience is ARC2020’s strategic initiative to strengthen civil society’s role in shaping the future of rural Europe. In a moment of democratic fragility, land inequality, and ecological breakdown, we’re working with partners across the continent who fill the gaps left by failing policies — to imagine, together, what rural transformation can look like from the ground up. Coordinator Ashley Parsons presents the project. […]

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Does EU Policy Have An Appetite For Local Food?

Across Europe, small-scale farmers are essential actors in local food provisioning, yet they face structural barriers to accessing public support. While industrial agriculture continues to receive the lion’s share of EU subsidies, the scaffolding meant to support local food systems often proves patchy or inaccessible. What EU policy supports are there for smaller farmers to supply food locally? Oliver Moore and Ashley Parsons chew over the options. […]

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Rural Europe Takes Action – Food System Lessons from Marburg

What happened when we set out to identify and nurture the ingredients of local food system transformation in Marburg, Germany? This was the aim of the Rural Europe Takes Action – Germany project (2023-2025), through which ARC2020 partnered with kollektiv von MORGEN and AbL Hessen – supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung – to connect the dots from the local to the European level.  […]

Latest from Brussels

A Not So Common Agricultural Policy and A Mega MF(F)ing Fund – What’s Cooking in the New CAP?

We promised a budgetary bombshell, and that’s exactly what dropped in Brussels last week. With a (not so) ‘Common’ Agricultural Policy, the Commission has juddered into a new direction  — and if you’re wondering what in the MF(F)-ing hell just happened, you’re certainly not the only one. Here Natasha Foote unpacks some first takeaways and why it has so far gone down like a sack of manure.  […]

Latest from Brussels

Op-Ed | From Declaration to Action – Rethinking Rural Power in EU Policymaking

Rural voices still seem to go unheard in EU policymaking. The Rural Pact Coordination Group proposes a new tool for rural stakeholders to take the power back: the Declaration on the Future of Rural Areas and Rural Development Policy in the European Union. After a recent test drive, Edina Ocsko unpacks why rural voices struggle to shape policy and identifies some concrete next steps. Op-ed by Edina Ocsko. […]

Latest from Brussels

Fund the Future of Food & Farming: A United Call from Across Europe

The Good Food Good Farming (GFGF) movement is in Brussels with a clear message from 15 countries: the EU must stop enabling industrial agriculture and instead support a just agroecological transition. As decision-makers decide the future of EU funding, GFGF present a new position paper and grassroots demands as part of a united EU-wide call to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). […]