food system Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Seeds, New GMOs & Food Policy Councils – Diversity Event Comes to Dublin

October 31, 2023 Oliver Moore

The 12th Forum of the European Coordination of Let’s Liberate Diversity, held in the Irish capital, drew over 100 participants from all over Europe and beyond, including Minister of State at the Irish Department of Agriculture, Pippa Hackett. The importance of agrobiodiversity, of food policy councils and the risks of the proposed European seed marketing proposal emerged as key themes from a vibrant event held in Dublin last week. […]

A Sustainable Food Systems Law – Important for People & Planet, Stalled by the Commission

October 17, 2023 Mathieu Willard

The Sustainable Food System Framework (SFS) was promised, and it must be upheld. As it appears that the SFS is losing its place in the commission’s legislative priorities, this two-part series aims to reaffirm the vital role this law could – and should – play. We are advocating for the SFS, which, in our view, forms the cornerstone of the Farm to Fork strategy. It represents the Commission’s first real opportunity to deliver a fully comprehensive food policy and could serve as the catalyst for a substantial reform of the CAP. Part 1 of two from Mathieu Willard. […]

EU Fails to Deliver on Food System Transformation in Face of Environmental Collapse

October 10, 2023 Jeroen Candel

In this op-ed, Dr. Jeroen Candel, associate professor of food and agricultural policy, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, points to the failures of EU institutions to deliver on the Farm to Fork strategy, despite the impacts of worsening climate and biodiversity collapse. […]

Sustainable Food Systems – Taking Action on the Ground in Germany

October 5, 2023 ARC

ARC is proud to be part of the European Action Gathering for Sustainable Food Systems, to be held in Marburg, Germany in early November. This is because, while there is a somewhat stagnant process at EU and member state levels, throughout Europe there is action on the ground, with communities coming together to improve access to healthy, affordable and ecologically produced food. Find out more about our Marburg gathering. […]

France | Cultivating Food Justice – It Takes A Village

June 2, 2023 Valérie Geslin

Au Maquis is a food justice non-profit based in the small Provençal village of Lauris. Under the shade of a cabana, we sat down with Fanny and Maud who run the farm. The association has a total of eight staff and 1,800 members, including over 100 volunteers, who come together to grow and eat, to build community and to hold space. It takes a village to cultivate food justice. […]

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

April 25, 2023 ARC

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. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 | Fertile Ground for System Change

April 5, 2023 Louise Kelleher

Another rural is possible! ARC2020 and friends were in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland on March 25-26 for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering, which takes food and farming as an entry point for moving towards fairer, more caring communities. What are the ingredients to cook up transformative system change? How can we build bridges between islands of practice? Why do we need to keep talking about gender? Louise Kelleher gives us a taste of conversations and connections at Feeding Ourselves 2023. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Another Rural is Possible!

March 6, 2023 Oliver Moore

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th March 2023, Cloughjordan, Ireland, where ARC2020 and friends come together to work on making another rural Ireland possible! This gathering is designed to facilitate community learning and movement building. It will be an opportunity to celebrate and connect to farming, food, our ecology and community, to learn more about practicing food sovereignty, seed sovereignty, agroecology, best policy and practice, the solidarity economy, rural inclusivity and diversity, and community-supported local food systems. […]

“CAP is an Aberration in terms of Climate & Environmental Impact of Ag”

February 27, 2023 Hannes Lorenzen

This weekend the Salon de l’Agriculture kicked off in Paris. Beyond the romanticised picture of farming presented at big agri-food fairs like this, the food and farming system shows no sign of change. So it is with the new CAP, which locks in unsustainable agricultural practices while eroding European cohesion. Carbon farming, offered as a solution, will change nothing in substance. Plus ça change, argues ARC2020 President Hannes Lorenzen in an Op-Ed for Le Monde. […]

soup and talk meeting about agri-food Berlin

Five Talks to Catch at Soup & Talk 2023 – this Saturday 21st January

January 18, 2023 ARC

Soup & Talk – an event that celebrates food and farming changemakers all over the world – takes place on Saturday, January 21 from 4 – 7 pm CET. People working for fair and ecological food systems will present their successes, struggles and ideas in 5-minute interventions at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin. In person and livesteam options. So what’s happening? […]

CAP’s Value, Public Canteens and Cutting Pesticide Use – EU Roundup

October 20, 2022 Ashley Parsons

CAP budget cuts? No, that’s just inflation. An EU Roundup on CAP financing, on pesticide’s – exposure to them, citizen action, facts and figures from a new Pesticide Atlas – and a vision and an action for the canteens of tomorrow. With Ashley Parsons
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Op Ed | Hunger Games and Locked in Pesticides

September 20, 2022 ARC

In this op-ed, Matthias Wolfschmidt of Foodwatch International unpacks the EU’s food system, its reliance on cheap imports, its generation of food waste, the power of lobby groups and Europe’s subsequent reliance on damaging pesticides and fertilizers. In this context, Wolfschmidt considers how the weaponisation of hunger embeds a lock in of problematic agri-industrial inputs, while also pointing to a way out of this bind within 15 years. […]

France | Meet The Farmer-Bakers Proving Their Skills

September 2, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Sébastien loves bread. Shaped by a farming background, he was drawn to cooking, but experience taught him that the reality in the kitchen was very far from his ideals. Fabienne studied accounting and worked a corporate job in the city. She was happy to team up with her husband Sébastien on the farm in the West of France. Here in their on-farm bakery, between batches of bread, they share their views on life as farmer-bakers. […]

Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – part 1

July 5, 2022 Stuart Meikle

In these challenging times ‘food security’ has returned to the agenda in what was assumed to be the well-fed countries of the World. That includes in Ireland, even though it is ranked first in the Economist’s Global Food Security Index. To inform this debate ARC2020 will present an article series – an extended op-ed – from Stuart Meikle. […]

Food Security versus Sustainability in Europe during the war in Ukraine

June 30, 2022 Natalia Mamonova

The war in Ukraine has intensified the debates about the future of agriculture in the EU. As the majority of member states scale back their ambitions for environment-friendly reforms to increase food production, Natalia Mamonova discusses whether sustainability will be sacrificed. […]