Food Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

WHES | “We Must Continue” – Determined Farmers & Friends Will March On

January 30, 2025 Claudia Schievelbein

As Germany’s election season plays out, agriculture and environmental issues are notably absent from campaign agendas. Nonetheless, at Berlin’s annual Wir haben es satt protest, farmers and activists marched – without the usual tractors – demanding a food system that protects the climate, nature, animal welfare and rural communities. Hours earlier, the alliance held a final meeting with outgoing Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir. Claudia Schievelbein reports. […]

From Local Roots to Global Vision: ARC2020 President Welcomes 2025

January 13, 2025 Hannes Lorenzen

From rural resilience to democratic revival, ARC2025 charts a transformative path for Europe. At first glance it may sound just like a wishful dream. But in fact it is an invitation to take action. Europe will be challenged this year by those who do not want to see it united and strong. But old nationalism and new geopolitical confrontations from East and West will also stimulate our civic courage. We see so many pioneering local initiatives leading the way across Europe setting up new farming and food systems: Farmers, local businesses and leaders of change, including researchers and forward-thinking politicians. Have a dream! It helps against sleepwalking into a nightmare. Taking action with others will make the dream, however big, a reality! […]

Marburg Food Dialogue – Putting more regional produce on the menu

July 8, 2024 ARC

How can restaurants serve more regional produce? A networking event at the Creativity and Social Innovation Hub Marburg (CIM) brought together local restaurant operators, suppliers, civil society actors and employees of the city and district to discuss this question. […]

The Civil Society Guide to Avoiding Electile Disfunction

May 17, 2024 ARC

With the European elections just around the corner, civil society is revving up for the next mandate. Ahead of the vote, ARC2020 has compiled a one-stop shop of resources from farming, environmental, and food civil society organisations. Interestingly, there is a lot of overlap between these sectors in what is a fascinating set of tools for action. Let’s have a look at some of them. […]

Sustainable Food Systems | Feeding Ourselves Across Europe

April 24, 2024 Alison Brogan

Local communities in rural and urban areas can be powerful changemakers when it comes to food system transformation, even when national and EU policies fall way short. At Feeding Ourselves 2024, a roundtable on Bottom-Up Approaches to Sustainable Food Systems brought together actors engaged in the development of fair & ecological food systems in Germany, France and Ireland. ARC2020 was joined by Ann-Marie Weber of kollektiv von MORGEN (DE), Henrik Maas of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (DE), Thierry Lohr, elected representative in the Municipality of Plessé (FR), and Fergal Anderson of Talamh Beo (IE). […]

Feeding Ourselves 2024 – Unlocking Local Food Economies

April 4, 2024 Oliver Moore

The Feeding Ourselves gathering 2024 saw a diverse range of people and topics over four days in the Irish midlands. From policy analysis to deep listening, tactile workshops to building bridges the four days were a full spectrum of experiences. Here we summarise Friday, a local food economies experience for activists, enablers and organisers in this area. So what’s needed, and what can be done to help embed and amplify agroecological local food provisioning by communities, for communities? Oliver Moore reports. […]

Seven things I learned at Feeding Ourselves 2024

April 2, 2024 Oliver Moore

Sometimes things are simple and sometimes they are complicated. In the Irish midlands, from 21-24th March, people representing dozens of organisations involved in agri-food, came together to work together on how we feed ourselves. here’s sever things I learned at this year’s event. […]

Sustainable Food Systems | Public Canteens – A Tool for Regional Resilience

March 19, 2024 ARC

Manger Demain (Eating Tomorrow) is a strategy and an organisation in Wallonia, Belgium aiming to coordinate, link and facilitate local and regional initiatives engaged in sustainable food. The work of Manger Demain was one of many inspiring examples presented at the Marburg Sustainable Food Systems gathering co-hosted by ARC2020, kollektiv von MORGEN and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bauerliche Landwirtschaft last November as part of the Rural Europe Takes Action – Germany project […]

Feeding Ourselves 2024 – Unpacking Protest, Agroecology and Local Food Economies in Ireland

March 1, 2024 ARC

From March 21st – 24th, Feeding Ourselves is an opportunity for people and organisations working to strengthen local food economies and build a movement for agroecology, food sovereignty and rural resilience to convene and collaborate. […]

Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe – A Call for Action from Marburg

February 22, 2024 ARC

ARC2020 together with kollektiv von MORGEN and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft bauerliche Landwirtschaft presents the “Marburg Action Plan for Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe”. […]

Parliament greenlights plans to loosen EU rules on new GMOs – but with key conditions

February 8, 2024 Natasha Foote

The European Parliament has given its blessing to the EU’s plan to loosen rules on new genetic technologies, but added key conditions on labelling requirements and a ban on patents – the latter of which could prove a key sticking point for moving forward with negotiations. Natasha Foote brings you up to speed on all you need to know. […]

Marburg Gathering | Building Bridges for Future-Proof Food Systems

December 14, 2023 Louise Kelleher

In early November, the Rural Resilience project was proud to support the European Action-Gathering for Sustainable Food Systems. This meeting of over 100 food systems actors working at local, regional, national and European levels was co-organised by ARC2020 and local partners Kollektiv von Morgen and AbL in Marburg, Germany. Report by Louise Kelleher of the Rural Resilience project. […]

Mind The Gap! Sustainable Food Systems Need Intergenerational Cooperation

November 29, 2023 ARC

Generations have different perceptions of time. While the elder generation looks back at their achievements, failures and lessons learnt, the younger generation projects their ambitions into the future and tries to grasp the unknown. Understanding each other’s needs and qualities is therefore often lost in non-communication, but it’s needed more than ever. […]

We Can’t Eat Promises! Good Food Good Farming month culminates in Brussels protest

November 20, 2023 ARC

“We can’t eat promises!” – The slogan of the Good Food Good Farming protest for a better food system, which took place in Brussels on November 8, 2023. The protest was the culmination of the Good Food Good Farming October Action Days, and highlighted the urgent need for transformative agri-food policies to realise key aspects of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. […]

Sustainable Food Systems cannot be postponed! – From the Marburg Gathering

November 20, 2023 ARC

Photo essay reporting back from the Marburg Rural Action Gathering in November. While the eagerly awaited Marburg Action Plan for Future-proof Food Systems is in the works, here’s a glimpse into the achievements made during this dynamic event. […]