Welcome to ARC’s Ideas Hub, where we develop our thinking on key and emerging topics in food, farming and rural transformation. Here you can discover what we and our kindred network are thinking about, and developing some outputs on.
Our first topic in the ARC Ideas Hub is the linking of agricultural subsidies to labour rather than land. This is not a new topic, but it ebbs and flows. Having lost traction, it was recently reignited by the social conditionality push in the CAP debate. We think now is the time to delve in deeper.
Responses from four experts to the question ‘Should Agricultural Subsidies Go To Labour Not Land’ are presented in our short report on labour-based payments which is published in this section.
The report points to an ambiguity in the CAP’s objective – as stated in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU – to support the “agricultural community” when, with its heavy focus on the per-hectare payment, it can fail to provide adequate support for workers and small farmers.
One key finding of the report is the need to integrate social and ecological dimensions in tackling unfair food and farming systems and rural issues; after all, there is no justice in organic vegetables picked and processed by exploited workers. Working conditions and social change must be central to the socio-ecological transition.
Get Involved
Exploring in the required detail the possibilities of genuine socio-ecological transition – including its scope and limits – is central to the ARC Ideas Hub. We are also interested in developing new ways of thinking and acting both in policy and on-the-ground. The Feeding Ourselves Policy report available below is an example of how we – environmentalists, farmers, rural actors, policy experts and more – can collectively endeavour to build agri-food and rural policy that is in keeping with planetary boundaries.
The Ideas Hub is a participatory space. We want to hear from you! What are YOUR ideas to move forward food, farming and rural policy & practice in the coming years? Send your ideas and feedback to research@arc2020.eu .
