Agri-industry Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Rural Europe Takes Action | Much More Than Our Daily Bread

June 1, 2022 ARC

To celebrate the forthcoming launch of the new ARC2020 and Forum Synergies book “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual” we’re sharing extracts of the policy actions it calls for and the stories that underscore the importance of such action. Today we have the story of the Free Bakers Association (Die Freien Bäcker), an independent professional organisation of artisan bakers and confectioners founded in Hanover, Germany in 2011. […]

France, Food Sovereignty and Feed(ing the World)

May 27, 2022 ARC

In a roundup of recent news, Ashley Parsons find that words and personnel can change, but business-as-usual can keep replying on the institutions to bail them out – no strings attached. Whatever the level of exposure and risk, whatever the talk of transitioning away from dependencies on agri-industrial inputs, money, it seems, will always be found for keeping the show on the road, whatever the crises. […]

Graduation then Desertion – French Ag Students Opting for a Different Path

May 19, 2022 Ashley Parsons

Last week, French students at Agro Paris Tech – France’s most prestigious agro-engineering school – staged a “call to desert” during their graduation speech. To desert? Yes, to desert the environmentally destructive engineering positions the university sets them up for after graduation. But these inspiring words and actions of these young people don’t match up to the government’s actions, nor the school’s response. A recap and analysis by Ashley Parsons. […]

EU Institutions – Productivity Now, Environment Maybe Later

March 25, 2022 Oliver Moore

With war in Ukraine, the EU institutions made a concerted effort to shore up its highly exposed agri-industrial food system this week. Emergency money and ecologically protected lands are to be used for food security – as expressed through animal feed and mineral fertilizer supply. Along the way, delays and derailings to greener transition have occurred in pesticides regulation, in environmental elements of CAP, and more. So is the EU Green Deal becoming pie in the sky? Oliver Moore and Ashley Parsons report. […]

A Food, Feed and Fertilizer Crises | Ukraine

March 20, 2022 Stuart Meikle

The agri-food system is very exposed – and was even before the war in Ukraine and its implications. Nitrogen fertilizer has been the bedrock of how farming happens, and its availability has led to a very specific type of food production to flourish. Decisions must be made – about feeding people, about feeding pigs, about how a grass-based system can really function sustainably. Op-Ed from Stuart Meikle. […]

Event | Soup and Talk 2022 on January 22nd

January 17, 2022 ARC

The Soup & Talk 2022 good food and good farming slam is happening via Zoom on Saturday, January 22nd from 17:00 to 20:00 CET. The much-loved Soup and Talk event traditionally takes place at the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Berlin, with inspiring agri-food initiatives and hot soup welcoming hundreds of freezing demonstrators in out of the cold after Europe’s biggest protest for a better food system. […]

A Toxic Multi-Billion-Euro Business Costing Citizens Big Time

November 30, 2021 Hans van Scharen

What is the scale and impact of pesticides in agri-food? Where is power expressed, and what are the costs associated with the use of these agri-industrial inputs? A new concept note and policy brief throws some light on the topic. Op-Ed by Le BASIC – Christophe Alliot, Sylvain Ly CCFD-Terre Solidaire – Maureen Jorand Pollinis – Nicolas Larmaan PAN-Europe – Martin Dermine and CEO – Hans Vanscharen. […]

Meat Atlas 2021 | Abattoirs – Chopping but not Changing

September 21, 2021 ARC

To mark the publication of the Meat Atlas 2021, we are republishing a selection of our favourite articles. In this one, Peter Birke brings attention to poor labour conditions in the global meat industry. The pandemic has put a spotlight on this issue, but it is by no means new. EU food trade unions call for a bloc-wide response. […]

Meat Atlas 2021 – Everyday Food and Luxury Good

September 14, 2021 ARC

To mark the publication of the Meat Atlas 2021, we will republish a selection of our favourite articles. Here, Lisa Tostado introduces the Atlas, with a big picture take on changes in meat production and consumption in recent decades. The MEAT ATLAS 2021 is jointly published by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Berlin, Germany Friends of the Earth Europe, Brussels, Belgium Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz, Berlin, Germany. […]

Dear ECA – an Organic Love Letter to Mildly Misguided Auditors

September 9, 2021 Oliver Moore

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) most recent relevant report on CAP and climate outlines a host of serious issues and a under performances by the policy, while also making some suggestions for big, achievable climate wins. However, we in ARC2020 were a little taken aback by how the paper treated organic farming – funded as it is under CAP – and its climate impact. […]

The True Cost of Britain’s Addiction to Factory-Farmed Chicken

May 14, 2021 ARC

The intensive poultry industry in the UK has expanded in recent decades, becoming more akin to the USA’s mega farms. Investigating how intensive poultry units have multiplied across certain parts of the UK, Alison Caffyn discovered that the poultry industry has taken advantage of weak regulatory and planning regimes to scale up the lucrative business. […]

Pesticides | Neonicotinoids Update Spring 2021

April 20, 2021 ARC

Justice Pesticides is an organisation that compiles a worldwide database of pesticide litigation. Here we share two articles from Justice Pesticides’ March newsletter. The first introduces a recently published brochure on court cases involving neonicotinoid pesticides, and the second outlines the return of neonicotinoids to sugar beet fields in France. […]

Time for US and EU to Regulate Factory Farms’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions

April 12, 2021 Ben Lilliston

The factory farm system used by global agribusiness firms is a major source of the greenhouse gas methane. Ben Lilliston and Shefali Sharma of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) highlight that the push for appropriate regulation of factory farms’ methane emissions in the U.S. should coincide with EU efforts to regulate these emissions. […]

Labour Pains – are Workers Exploited in Ecological Farming?

March 29, 2021 Brendan Ó Conchúir (Brendan Conchuir)

Over 100 organisations including trade unions, NGOs, and organisations representing small farmers have signed an open letter highlighting the need for social conditionality in the next CAP. Unsurprisingly the major farming organisations in Europe have not signed the letter. But how are labour standards on smaller farms at the ecological end of the spectrum? The picture isn’t always rosy, as Brendán Ó Conchúir find out, though there are some tentative solutions emerging. […]

Ireland | Forty Shades Of Greenwashing? – Part 1

March 16, 2021 Alison Brogan

Ireland’s current agri-food strategy places environmental protection and economic competitiveness on an equal footing. But can ambitions for growth be squared with the state’s duty to protect the environment? In the first of a two-part series, Alison Brogan investigates the realities of sustainable growth on the Emerald Isle. […]