CAP

Latest from EU Member States

UK online-only basic payments deadline approaches…

February 8, 2015 Peter Crosskey

The UK parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee (EFRA) this week published its findings on the provision of rural broadband, warning that until there is completely reliable broadband coverage in the UK, “…there will be those who, through lack of online access, are disadvantaged through no fault of their own.” The committee heard that at present one in 10 CAP applicants either do not have a computer or do not use broadband. Last year, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) wrote to 18,000 farmers in England who would no longer qualify for Pillar I area-based support, leaving some 90,000 registrations that need to be completed by the May 15 deadline. With fewer than 100 days to go, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is reporting that just over 22,500 farm businesses have registered. This means that registration levels will need to top 700 farms/day to meet the deadline requirements. The union has been emailing and texting members to remind them of the need to register. The RPA has set up 50 help centres across England, where […]

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–Road Map for Good Food – Good Farming and a living countryside

February 5, 2015 ARC

In 2010 ARC2020 launched a “Communication from Civil Society to the European Union Institutions on the Future of Agricultural and Rural Policy” which was elaborated over six months and adopted  by a broad alliance of civil society organisations and networks. The Communication was submitted to the European Commission, to the Council and the Parliament on the same day when the Commission published its first outline for a reform of the CAP. During the following debate and negotiations of the future of agricultural and rural policies ARC2020 has strongly advocated for a paradigm change in agriculture and food systems and for an economic, social and environmental renaissance of rural areas. ARC2020 has become a European Platform for a debate on the future of farming and food. Our #ARC2020 conference – Good Food, Good Farming and a living Countryside –  is an opportunity for renewing our civil society’s agenda for the coming five years. We offer a framework for a  ROAD MAP of goals and activities which ARC2020 and its partners could follow in the coming years, based on […]

Latest from EU Member States

“Peasant” is not a bad word … but what does it mean?!

January 29, 2015 ARC

Written By:  Derek Freitas, Food Chains Campaign Coordinator for Eco Ruralis   General Context The word “peasant” is used in all sorts of ways to mean different things by many groups of people across the world. It is indeed very hard to define. This is particularly problematic due to the fact that the majority of decision-makers related to establishing agricultural policy at the national, EU and global levels don’t have an accepted reference point for understanding one another in a basic sense. Often, the only time when self-ascribed “peasants” feel that they are accurately portrayed is when they explain what that word means to them. But, again, even they disagree based on cultural, historical, geographical and individual differences.   Global Context The international peasant movement, La Via Campesina, calls for an International Convention on the Rights of Peasants and states the following in Article I of its own “Declaration on the Rights of Peasants – Women and Men”: “A peasant is a man or woman of the land, who has a direct and special relationship […]