digitalisation

Latest from key partners

Regional Rural Responses – Reimagined.

December 14, 2020 Alison Brogan

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.  […]

Latest from key partners

ARC2020 Event | Local Food – Reimagining Regional Responses

November 20, 2020 Alison Brogan

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

July 30, 2020 Matteo Metta

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

July 17, 2020 ARC

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.   […]

Latest from EU Member States

Europe’s Agroecology Movement – Stepping up in Times of Covid19

June 22, 2020 Alison Brogan

Four innovative and committed agroecology initiatives showed how they stepped up in times of Covid19 at a webinar organised by Forum Synergies and ARC2020 last week. And dozens, from all over Europe and beyond, got involved in the conversation. Alison Brogan tells us about this event which provided a moment to reflect, some key contemporary learnings, and which sowed the seeds of further action. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Germany | Islanders Go Digital

June 18, 2020 Hannes Lorenzen

If remote rural communities want to be part of the conversations that will shape their futures, the ability to connect with other projects and stakeholders is a crucial skill. For one island community, the coronavirus crisis was a crash course in online networking. Hannes Lorenzen reports on Eco-Week 2020 and the digital leap forward on his home island of Pellworm, Germany. […]

Events

Webinar | Growing Food Resilience in Covid19 times – New Tools and Approaches for Agroecology

June 11, 2020 ARC

At this Webinar we will learn about new tools and approaches agroecological communities have developed since Covid-19. In the face of an extra, massive challenge, communities all over Europe have stepped up and developed creative responses for distributing good food. A number of examples will be presented and discussed with the practitioners themselves, while there will be a real focus on co-learning and next steps for deepening our collective food resilience. […]

Latest from the ARC network

The Myth of Climate Smart Agriculture – Why Less Bad Isn’t Good

June 1, 2020 Andrea Beste

The “modern” intensive agricultural system does the climate more harm than good. That’s a fact, no matter how much Big Data or precision farming you throw at it. We need to look outside that system for solutions. In this excerpt from an evidence-based study commissioned by Martin Häusling MEP, Dr Andrea Beste and Dr Anita Idel question the climate potential of precision agriculture and the demonization of cattle, and make the case for grazing animals, organic farming, agroforestry and permaculture. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Ireland | Remote Work Could Rejuvenate Rural Communities

May 22, 2020 Luke Kent

We don’t know yet what the “new normal” will look like, but we do know that remote work can work – with the right supports. In Ireland, the pull of jobs in the city and abroad has hollowed out rural areas, and young graduates have little incentive to return home after completing their studies in Dublin. Many young graduates from rural areas would jump at the chance to stay put and pursue their careers remotely, rather than facing crippling rents in Dublin, or a crippling commute. Now is the time for a paradigm shift in working life to rejuvenate rural communities, argues Luke Kent. […]

Latest from key partners

Coping with Covid19 – the Open Food Network and the New Digital Order(s)

March 25, 2020 Oliver Moore

With Covid19, aka the coronavirus, come restrictions on people’s outdoor movements and gathering. This means that, while supermarkets are considered essential, it seems to be case by case for other food markets: instantly,  farmers markets are shutting all over Europe with serious consequences for small producers. Digital food platforms have never been more urgent. Open Food Network is perhaps the best example of a good food network that’s digitised, cooperative, open source, not for profit and ready for your community.  […]

Latest from key partners

Rural Dialogues | The Three Conditions of Sustainable Rural Digitalisation

October 24, 2019 Gianluca Brunori

Gianluca Brunori argues that access, design and complexity are three conditions that define how rural digitalisation is unfolding, and if rural digitalisation is in line with the sustainable development goals. Building on this base, through Responsible Research and Innovation the DESIRA project will help society and political bodies respond to the challenges digitalisation generates in rural areas, agriculture and forestry.   […]