Ireland Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

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 – A Food Revolution Starts With Seed!

April 16, 2024 Adèle Pautrat

Our Seeds4All project was back in Ireland in March to be part of Feeding Ourselves 2024. We are inheritors of a genetic commons that we have to protect. While working on the ground we need to be vigilant about what is happening at legal level – and work together. In partnership with the Irish Seed Savers Association, Seeds4All brought a European perspective to Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary. Adèle Pautrat reports. […]

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. […]

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. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Building Bridges for Rural Resilience

July 7, 2023 Alison Brogan

ARC2020’s Rural Resilience project explores the possibilities for Europe’s territories to become more resilient from the ground up, so we were keen to visit Ireland in March 2023 to support the Feeding Ourselves gathering in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. Alison Brogan shares the rich learnings for rural infrastructure gleaned from this weekend in the Irish midlands. […]

Letter From The Farm | Restoring Nature, Improving Productivity

June 23, 2023 Shane Casey

We’re back with Shane Casey in The Burren, where it’s been a good Spring. Family and farm are thriving. For Shane, nature conservation and productivity go hand in hand. As the debate rages around the EU Nature Restoration Law, he is sympathetic to the farmers who are being asked to undo a lifetime of ‘improvements’ to make space for nature. […]

Irish Tour part 1 – Agrobiodiversity as a Key Driver for Rural Revolution

May 13, 2023 Adèle Pautrat

From re-enchanting pride for local crops and know-how to real world solutions to help relocate historical production sectors, Adèle explored from different angles how best to instil self-sufficiency and resilience in rural territories. Throughout the journey, one common thread emerged: the crucial role that agrobiodiversity plays in driving territorial transitions and rural revolutions. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Diversified Diversification in Action

April 6, 2023 Oliver Moore

It’s good to be specific. It’s also good to be diverse. To be mixed and sometimes messy, to embed in a multiverse, a pluriverse, of things and people, of places and actions, of enabling infrastructure and strategic purpose. When it comes to making vibrant rural spaces, within our social and planetary boundaries, while living well, together…there’s a lot to be said for diversity – in its many, myriad forms. Welcome to Feeding Ourselves 2023 – a diversity love story. Words by Oliver Moore. […]

Part 4 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland’s own food security

July 27, 2022 ARC

In the final of his four part series, Stuart Meikle considers what Ireland could produce for local on-island consumption. Infrastructure, climate, consumer sentiment all play a part. […]

Ireland | Intensive Farms Must Pull their Weight for a Just Transition

July 26, 2022 ARC

Not all agri-sectors have the same impact. As the debate in Ireland over greenhouse gas emissions cuts for economic sectors intensifies, who is thinking about the fair share within sectors? Here we republish an article from Rural Ireland on the Move, our report from April this year. In it, Fintan Kelly – agriculture and land use policy and advocacy officer with the Irish Environmental Network – examines the idea of a fair share on emissions within agriculture. […]

Part 3 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Is Ireland Feeding Food?

July 25, 2022 Stuart Meikle

A common criticism of ‘animal agriculture’ is that it uses human-grade food as a feedstock. It is also heard in Ireland, a country with a significant livestock population by European standards. To what extent is it true that animal agriculture uses human-grade food? Stuart Meikle with part 3 of his series on Ireland, Food Security and Feeding the World. […]

Letter From The Farm | Watching, Waiting and Knowing When To Help

July 15, 2022 Shane Casey

We’re back on Shane Casey’s farm in The Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland, where he has another busy spring of lambing and calving behind him. There’s only so much you can do to prepare – after that, it’s a question of watching carefully for the telltale signs in the ewes and cows. Shane’s father was an early adopter of livestream technology that makes the night watch a little easier. But successful lambing and calving depends on the farmer’s expertise as well as patience. Knowing if and when to intervene, whether to call the vet, and how to help the newborns find their feet. […]

Part 2 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland and the Archipelago

July 14, 2022 Stuart Meikle

Part two of four from Stuart Meikle on Ireland, food security and feed(ing) the world delves into the relationship Britain and Ireland have with each other – the two main islands of the archipelago referred to in the article’s title. Part one (see below) focused on Ireland, food security and nitrogen supply. Here, trade, animal feed, meats, durable forms of diary all feature. […]

Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – part 1

July 5, 2022 Stuart Meikle

In these challenging times ‘food security’ has returned to the agenda in what was assumed to be the well-fed countries of the World. That includes in Ireland, even though it is ranked first in the Economist’s Global Food Security Index. To inform this debate ARC2020 will present an article series – an extended op-ed – from Stuart Meikle. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2022 – Crises Compound, Food Sovereignty Movement Mobilises

May 18, 2022 ARC

In a context of crises compounding, the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering in Cloughjordan took on a renewed urgency this year. So how are the strands of people from food sovereignty, cooperative and environmental areas coming together to amplify their collective work? Oscar Mooney reports. […]