The German summer 2018 will be remembered for one of the hottest and driest. A long lasting high pressure brought high temperature records combined with extremely low rainfalls. Sebastian Lakner explains the state aids for farmers in Germany amounting to 370 Mio. EUR. […]
Disappointed at the inability of their respective agriculture ministers to produce a joint statement on the future of CAP, an alliance of French and German organisations has stepped in. Addressing their ministers, here are their propositions for the upcoming reform. […]
ARC wants to know where the key NGOs and civil society groups stand on the particularly pertinent CAP questions of the moment. It’s all in here: Capping, young farmers, budget shortfalls, agri-environmental schemes, co-financing, risk management and subsidiarity. […]
A number of NGOs, farmer and consumer organisations have issued a joint statement in French and German, calling for a fundamental CAP reform. Read our exclusive translation. […]
Sebastian Lakner examines what the new German coalition government has in store for agricultural and rural policy – is it a coherent document, or simply all things to all people? […]
Germany has a new coalition government, and it has set some ambitious targets in the food and farming sphere – especially for organic farming. Oliver Moore has more. […]
Agroecology is commonly understood as a science, a movement, and a practice, jointly transforming agroecosystems to less fossil fuel dependent, more autonomous and more resilient farming systems. Agroecologic practices and research have evolved and are being applied around the globe. What unites these movements, what separates them? How is it different in Europe compared to Latin America? Is there a universal approach to agroecology? […]
Automation and digitisation are rising in farming and the broader agri-food sector. Germany – industrial powerhouse of Europe – seems an obvious place to embrace AGTech. From precision farming and data ownership to embodied energy and cost, what are the opportunities, the impacts and the implications? And how are agroecologists responding? […]
How realistic is the Green Party demand in the current coalition talks for an agricultural turn, including the phase out of factory farming in 20 years? In the land of the near ubiquitous bratwurst, main ingredient in Germany’s’ number one fast food currywurst, how strong is the undercurrent of opposition to factory farmed pork and poultry? […]
Three quarters of all flying insects in Germany have disappeared in just 27 years, according to a study published in one of the world’s leading scientific journals, PLoS One. What are the details are what may be to blame? […]
Alan Matthews points out that given the pivotal importance of Germany in shaping the future CAP, it is worth paying attention to what the CDU/CSU coalition have to say about agriculture in its just announced programme for government for the German elections in September. […]
Catch crops (68%), fallow land (16.2%) and nitrogen fixing crops (11.8%) dominated ecological focus areas (EFAs) in Germany in 2015. Why is this? What influences farmers’ decisions on EFAs? One of the authors of a new peer reviewed publication on this topic, ARC2020 regular Sebastian Lackner, summarises the paper, in which he and colleagues interviewed a range of experts on the matter. […]
A number of organisations made submissions to the CAP consultation, which closed last week. Here we outline three differing ones – one from public health, one from farming and one, which we devote more space to, from a platform bringing a number of organisations together in Germany. 1 Public Health Organisation (EPHA) The EPHA European Public Health Association point out that agriculture and health policies are not aligned, despite Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) mandates that “a high level of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities.” Like many others, the organisation argues against land based payments and for more policy coherence. Specifically, they point to three key changes: Removing health-harmful subsidies Moving from hectare payments to performance incentives Fostering sustainable healthy diets The EPHA’s submission intro can be found HERE the full response can be found HERE and the annex HERE. 1 Farmer Organisation (EMB) The European Milk Board prioritised coordinated approach to price and market stability, as well as […]
The CAP consultation is complete, and the results are in. So who participated, and how representative was the process? Here ARC2020 presents the top three key insights from the information available so far. […]
New data from Lower Saxony on the registration of ecological focus area (EFA) for 2016 are published. The data shows almost no changes: The EFA is still an expensive measure for taxpayers with little positive impact on biodiversity. Sebastian Lanker gives ARC2020 this exclusive on the topic. […]
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