ARC2020 exclusive: Olivier De Schutter of IPES Food suggests “A ‘Common Food Policy’ for the EU offers a Plan B – a way to circumvent the limitations of the CAP debate and keep sight of the bigger picture: an urgently needed transition to sustainable food and farming policies.” […]
Four new policy instruments have been proposed by the EEB – the European Environmental Bureau – for a future CAP. These instruments are put forward for use in the areas of ecosystems, rural development, healthy food and sustainable farming. […]
Who’s got the power in the food system? A process is in motion to better understand and potentially change power relations and unfair trading practices in the production, distribution and consumption of food in the EU.You can contribute. For more, read on… […]
A silver lining in the Brexit cloud is that people can radically rethink how food, farming and the rural space operate in the UK. What will this mean for direct payments, for environmental regulations, for food security – and who will do the hard work of farming? Finally, is some of this blue sky thinking of interest to the rest of Europe? […]
Over 130 European CSOs and NGOs, including ARC2020, have today come together to demand better food and farming policies for Europe. The joint action, in the form of a Common Statement, coincides with a CAP consultation and the Agricultural and Fisheries Council meeting which starts at 10AM Monday 06/03/2017. […]
The Paris agreement reached Saturday 12 December at the COP negotiations has been hailed as historic. Is it? And what will it mean for farming and food? […]
Following terrorist attacks and retaliatory bombings, read Understanding the Nature of Peace. A joint article by Hannes Lorenzen (ARC2020) and Juliette Majot (IATP) which places these awful occurrences in a rural, farming and food context. […]
ARC2020’s 2000m² project at the TEDx conference in Berlin: How much arable land do you spend on your food? Watch the TEDx Talk here. […]
The Eastern European entrance of Lidl and Kaufland, supermarket retail chains owned by a German corporate group, were financed with loans from public money. According to an investigation by The Guardian, almost 900 million Euro of public funds coming from the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) were injected to develop hundreds of supermarkets packed with cheap, imported food. This leaves peasants and other local food producers, largely ignored by these retailers, unable to compete. These public institutions, funded by taxpayers and owned by governments, have explicit mandates to increase local development in the countries where they spend their money. The World Bank also has an additional, specific mandate to reduce global poverty. An International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that 1,000 World Bank projects approved between 2004 and 2013 forced 3.4 million people from their homes, grabbed their land, or damaged their livelihood. The banks claim that their funding for Lidl and Kaufland would create jobs, opening new markets for local producers and bringing “good quality, affordable food” to poor […]
A report on the key ideas and outcomes from this civil society gathering held in Brussels 10-11th February […]
Watch out for business-as-usual agri-buiness solutions, even very well meaning ones…. […]
Local food systems are emerging in Romania, Ulysse le Goff of Eco Ruralis tells us – real green shoots! […]
The Trussell Trust has faced barbed criticism from parliamentarians for its campaigning work to help families that are struggling to feed themselves. […]
The FAO European Regional Conference gave a perfect opportunity for debate as the major topic was “Food losses and waste in Europe and Central Asia”. […]
How our convoluted food system destroys food sovereignty […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention