Latest from Brussels

European Farmers are Angry: Addressing Root Causes Would Overcome Polarisation

On Wednesday February 1, Tomaso Ferrando stood side-by-side with the farmers who had taken over Place Luxembourg and the streets adjacent to the European Parliament in Brussels. On my way, long lines of tractors with Belgian, French and Dutch plates could be seen almost a kilometre away from the square. As he drew closer to the scene, the sound of their horns and the smell of burned tires saturated my ears and nose. Here he outlines his thoughts on the farmers’ protests and what they mean. […]

Latest from Brussels

Brussels Round up – Mirror Clauses, Mixed Messages & Farm to Facts

Farmers’ protests continue unabated across the bloc on the back of growing calls for the resignation of the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner. Meanwhile, a new report paints a stark picture of the failures of the Farm to Fork strategy, and Belgium has weighed in on the thorny issue of reciprocal standards in the Mercosur trade deal. Natasha Foote brings you up to speed in the latest goings on in the EU agrifood sector.  […]

Latest from Brussels

Blame the System, Not the Farmers 

These ongoing farmer protests in Europe indicate that there is something fundamentally wrong with the European agricultural system. However, many journalists and politicians do not see the wood for the trees and link the protests to a specific policy or event. In this opinion piece, Natalia Mamonova discusses the farmer protests as indicators of the systemic crisis of the neoliberal agricultural model that has failed farmers and the planet. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Missing Targets and Making Partnerships – Denmark and Climate Change

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, there is a dynamic tension between the ambitious aims of the EU and its member states on the one hand, and the realities of embedded, entrenched elements of the economy such as agri-food on the other. The European Union set target in 2021: a 50% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) by 2030. Progress remains however, slow. Progress is especially slow in agriculture. Rasmus Larsen unpacks the situation in one of Europe’s intensive agriculture strongholds, Denmark, where, after faltering misfires, a new three way partnership has been proposed. What is this, and will it work? […]

Latest from key partners

Remote Control and Peasant Intelligence – excerpt

“Remote Control and Peasant Intelligence – on automating decisions, suppressing knowledges and transforming ways of knowing” takes a critical perspective on new developments in the farming sphere. It focuses on the impact on peasant farming of digitisation, data gathering and management, technologisation, automation, approaches to regulation and corporate control. It also puts forward a food sovereignty and peasant agroecology perspective on digital technologies. […]

Latest from key partners

We Can’t Eat Promises! Good Food Good Farming month culminates in Brussels protest

“We can’t eat promises!” – The slogan of the Good Food Good Farming protest for a better food system, which took place in Brussels on November 8, 2023. The protest was the culmination of the Good Food Good Farming October Action Days, and highlighted the urgent need for transformative agri-food policies to realise key aspects of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. […]

Latest from Brussels

Sustainable Food Systems Law – EU Food Policy Coalition’s Recommendations for a Meaningful Transition

 As the European Commission prepares for the launch of its proposal on the Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) Legislative Framework in late September, the EU Food Policy Coalition has published a joint report laying out clear policy recommendations for the SFS Law to ensure a meaningful transition to sustainable food systems across the European Union. Summary and report to download here. […]

Main stories

Ukraine Joining the EU – An Elephant in the Room

If Ukraine joins the European Union, and the current Common Agricultural Policy system of per hectare payments remains untransformed, oligarch-run conglomerates could become eligible for tens of millions of euros in taxpayer money. But this is not the only possible agricultural reality in an enlarged EU. There are farmers, researchers, civic initiatives and officials – like the delegates of Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region who visited Low Saxony in March 2023 – exploring ways to rebuild and reorient the country’s farming and food system in times of war. […]

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CAP, the Commission and Livestock Supports – Money Matters

There is a perception that, when it comes to the farming end of the agri-food system, CAP is primarily about supporting land owners and family farms. Is this the case? And even if so, does the Commission sometimes use the basic underpinnings of CAP to gloss over what are in fact significant, embedded supports for the most intensive end of the farming systems, including livestock? What does this mean for other producers? We attended a webinar on livestock recently, and these questions came to the fore.  […]

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Excerpt | Arche Noah report on EU Seed Marketing Reform

In preparation of the Commission’s expected proposal for a new seed marketing legislation on June 7th, here we republish with permission an excerpt from the recent Arche Noah report called EU reform of seeds marketing rules: Which seeds for a just transition to agroecological and sustainable food systems? Th e full report delves into the details on the legislative process; here we introduce the general content with an excerpt on diverse seeds and on the EU seed market as it is.  […]

Latest from EU Member States

France | Pesticides, PDOs & Plenty of Spin at Salon de l’Agriculture 2023

Running since 1964, the Salon International de l’Agriculture in Paris is a microcosm of the knotted landscape around French agriculture. Visiting it for one day gives just a flavour of the much larger diversity, longer history, and deeper issues of this sector so important for French identities in France and Europe. We visited the 2023 opening day, curious to meet people, understand what is exhibited and what is not, and how. Here are our main takeaways. Photo reportage by Matteo Metta. […]