International Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Upland Farmers Face Harsh Realities in Post-Brexit England | Part 1

September 6, 2023 Marianne Landzettel

In July 2023, Marianne Landzettel travelled to Northumberland, England to meet and interview four farm families. The resulting story portrays the difficulties upland farmers face as they navigate compounding crises. The phasing out of EU direct payments and their replacement with a system based on ‘public money for public goods’, combine with high input costs, extreme weather events, and increased market competition to threaten farm futures. […]

3rd Balkan Rural Parliament and Food Summit in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

June 9, 2023 ARC

June 12 – 15th 2023 will see the 3rd Balkan Rural Parliament and Balkan Food Summit take place in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Organised by the Balkan Rural Development Network and the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group in South Eastern Europe, with the support of GIZ (the German Society for International Cooperation) […]

Post-Brexit Farm Policy – Outlook Across Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

March 9, 2023 Ursula Billington

What’s on the cards for farm policy in the UK nations post-Brexit and post-CAP? In the first part of this series, Ursula Billington reported on the state of play for England’s small-scale farmers and horticulturists. In Part 2, she talks to representatives from the Landworkers Alliance in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to gauge the situation in the devolved nations. […]

Post-Brexit Farm Policy – Where Do England’s Smallholdings and Horticulture Sector Stand?

February 22, 2023 Ursula Billington

In the UK, farm policy is a devolved responsibility, so the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are each working at their own pace and to their own vision of post-Brexit agricultural reform. In this article, the first of a two-part series, Ursula Billington presents the state of play in England, the nation so far taking the most novel approach. […]

Winds of Change at COP27? Agri-climate news round

November 10, 2022 Ashley Parsons

The winds of winter are blowing into Europe, over in Egypt is a different wind gathering force? A wind of change? Until the 18th of November, COP27 is taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Last year’s COP in Glasgow has largely been viewed by the international community as underwhelming. So what’s going on in COP and in agri-climate news? Sometimes it’s important to follow the money… […]

Who’s Afraid of Nature? Restoration Law Under Pressure

November 7, 2022 Ashley Parsons

The Nature Restoration Law, tasked with creating legally binding targets and national plans for the restoration of different ecosystems for every Member State, is facing pushback. A look at how it is being challenged in Ireland and the Netherlands. […]

Rural Japan | Agroecology, Diversification and Digitalisation on Hashimoto Family Farm

November 1, 2022 Matteo Metta

While Japan continues to drive the high-tech smartification of agriculture, what is the role of digitalisation for a diversified, agroecological family farm in a rural part of Hyogo Prefecture? Matteo Metta writes this report from Hashimoto Farm in Ichijimachō […]

Rural Japan | Diversification and Digitalisation on a Dairy Family Farm

October 26, 2022 ARC

What does digitalisation mean from the perspectives of a diversified, dairy family farm in rural Japan? For more than three generations, the Sudo Family has adapted their farm to the challenges and opportunities of working and living in the southern tip of the Bōsō Peninsula of Japan, Chiba Prefecture. […]

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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Main stories

Latin America | Agroecology and the Solidarity Economy

October 11, 2022 Les Levidow

An alternative to the dominant agri-food system approach, ‘EcoSol-agroecology’ denotes a convergence of solidarity economy and agroecology movements. In Latin America, agroecology has been linked to the solidarity economy since the 1990s. […]

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. […]

West Balkans – Accession, Agriculture and a Greener Agenda

April 8, 2022 Hannes Lorenzen

War in Ukraine has sharpened the EU’s focus on food security, farm and trade policies and the EU Green Deal. This war has also spotlighted progressive engagement with the Western Balkans, a region with its own simmering political tensions not unrelated to the wider conflict. Agricultural ministers meet this week to engage, to connect to EU institutions, but also to help lead on a greener farming agenda for Europe. Hannes Lorenzen, who participated in the meeting, has more. […]

Western Balkans | Balkan Rural Parliament Adopts Declaration

July 12, 2021 ARC

The second Balkan Rural Parliament took place last month in Ohrid, North Macedonia. The Declaration of the 2nd Balkan Rural Parliament is the major output of the forum which was organised by the Balkan Rural Development Network. […]

Western Balkans | Reviving Rural Areas & Moving Towards EU Integration

June 17, 2021 ARC

This week the second Balkan Rural Parliament took place in Ohrid, North Macedonia. Organised by the Balkan Rural Development Network, the Balkan Rural Parliament gives a voice to rural communities in the making of rural development policy for the Western Balkans. For EU accession countries, rural development is a key driver to accelerate the process of EU integration. The Parliament highlighted the need to strengthen mutual trust on every level between people and national institutions, as well as between the Western Balkans and the EU to build equal partnerships, writes Aleksandra Todorovska. […]

The True Cost of Britain’s Addiction to Factory-Farmed Chicken

May 14, 2021 ARC

The intensive poultry industry in the UK has expanded in recent decades, becoming more akin to the USA’s mega farms. Investigating how intensive poultry units have multiplied across certain parts of the UK, Alison Caffyn discovered that the poultry industry has taken advantage of weak regulatory and planning regimes to scale up the lucrative business. […]