Main stories

Responsible Digital Agroecology – from Farm to Fork

How can innovations in digital agriculture ensure inclusion and equity for all actors in the value chain? What are the examples of digital innovations in agriculture that have already or will have a real impact on farmers’ work, quality of life and on sustainability? And how can we develop the relevant policies to foster the development of digital technologies and services that would ensure inclusion and equity for all actors in the value chain? Here, Véronique Bellon Maurel addresses these questions, […]

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Diversifying Europe’s Rural Economy | SHERPA

As rural Europe deals with its challenges and embraces its opportunities, what role for production change and diversification? And what are the key factors involved? SHERPA -Sustainable Hub for Engaging into Rural Policies with Actors – a Horizon 2020 project,  addresses this topic. Key areas highlighted that can lead the process of diversification include entrepeneurship, digitalisation, bioeconomy and the food chain.   […]

Latest from EU Member States

The Influence of EU Policies in National Rural Digitalisation

Digitalisation is progressing in rural areas around Europe in different ways. There are a number of reasons for variability in style and substance, as María Alonso-Roldán and Mar Delgado-Serrano of the DESIRA project show. The pair have engaged with experts in 15 countries. Here’s what they’ve found.  […]

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Ireland’s Our Rural Future – a rural digitisation gold standard? 

Broadband for all, even in the most remote regions; smart, revitalised villages and towns with hundreds of remote working hubs; a rural youth assembly, significant numbers of public and private workers for rural areas; Local Digital Strategies in administrative regions; and all done in a well-planned way to optimize synergies and transition towards carbon neutrality –  it sound like a sustainable rural digitalisation dream. So is it?  […]

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CAP, European Green Deal and the Digital Transformation of Agriculture

The European Green Deal and CAP emphasise digitalisation for ecological transition and sustainable growth. However, as Gianluca Brunori argues, we need to understand digitalisation as a process of social transformation, which takes place both as an effect and as a driver of technological change. A careful analysis of needs, opportunities and threats, including at the local level, add the necessary nuance for appropriate digitalisation. […]

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Regional Rural Responses – Reimagined.

As the pandemic collides with inequality and the ecological emergencies, fresh approaches to building resilient local food economies are emerging. Innovative communities are experimenting with ways to shorten, amplify and democratise supply chains. ARC2020, Cultivate and Forum Synergies came together to organise a webinar where pioneering community-led initiatives operating at the regional level, with the aim of encouraging the replication, scaling up and scaling across of these approaches.  […]

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ARC2020 Event | Local Food – Reimagining Regional Responses

Join us on December 9th at 17:00 CET for a participatory web conference on ‘Local Food – Reimagining Regional Responses’.  In partnership with Forum Synergies and Cultivate, ARC2020 is co-organising this online event which will present collaborative approaches to building rural resilience, and consider how we can progress agri-food movements from the local level to the regional. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Italy – Digitalisation, Diverse Farms and Rural Resilience

Digital tools that suit the complexity of diversified farms and meet their specific needs, can bring new challenges but, once these are overcome, they can contribute to farm resilience and viability. Meet two Italian farm enterprises and see how their stories and narratives show that digitalisation means not only access to connectivity, but also capacity to use, manage and control technologies. […]

Main stories

A Vision for Rural Europe – Civil Society asks Questions

ARC2020 brought together a wide range of civil society participants for the A Vision for Rural Europe event. This web conference was organised by the Renew Europe political group, was hosted in the European Parliament distributed all over Europe via web conference streaming services. In advance of the event, we asked civil society for their key questions to bring to the discussion, and to help in the building of a vision and strategy for rural Europe.   […]