Here Frank Armstrong ponders how different the rural west of Ireland was – and can be again – through the medium of food production. Family excursions, a mid century self-help co-op movement, which used horticulture as a vehicle for change, and the future of food production all feature. […]
Mainstream UK media have presented Brexit minister David Davis (left, without negotiating papers) as the public face of the country’s progress with Brexit talks. However, the press has studiously overlooked the back-room activities of the international trade minister Liam Fox, who has been rolling up his sleeves and starting to size up Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) held by the European Union at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In an extraordinarily wide-reaching plan described as a “Technical Rectification”, Fox is planning to unilaterally carve out what he judges to be the UK’s share of TRQ tonnages for third country imports such as New Zealand sheepmeat and register the results with the WTO. The story emerged thanks to Sky News journalist Faisal Islam, but only because the TV chain was filming Fox in action at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. In the past, technical rectifications have been more limited in scope, but this editing is on an industrial scale: Fox is not waiting for Davis to get round to discussing trade with the European Commission before trying […]
An upcoming EU seminar on the potential for results-based agri-environment schemes – or High Nature Value farmland – is happening Thursday, 30th March. In advance, Dolores Byrne outlines the case for HNVf.
Barry Finnegan of ATTAC Ireland explains how Ireland’s upper house voted – by a single ballot – against CETA last week. He also points to the wider implications of this (albeit) non-binding vote – the first of its kind in an EU member state parliament. […]
As part of CAP simplification, the European Commission is attempting to bring in some changes to greening. However a group of 18 Member States oppose three of the new, clear simple rules which happen to be stricter than the current rules. […]
Part two of a two part series on mechanical and other non-chemical weed management techniques. By Oliver Moore […]
A report from Friends of the Earth Europe points to serious concerns for EU farming and food due to the ongoing – and now under severe pressure TTIP talks. […]
Food activists, curious eaters, harried, hurried producers and many more came together in Ireland to have food sovereignty proclamation meals. This date – 24th April – was also the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising – the start of Ireland’s independence movement, and the day the Irish proclamation of Independence was read out. So what happened? […]
On April 24th, Ireland marks the actual date its independence movement started in earnest. Irish citizens have come together to make April 24th 2016 – the real date that marks the Easter Rising – Ireland’s food sovereignty proclamation day. And they plan to eat and tweet about it. Here’s the why and how. […]
CAP ‘greening’, ties up farmers in bureaucracy, uses up valuable public money and still fails to protect nature or the incomes of farmers in marginalised areas adequately. Ireland is no exception. […]
Our most environmentally valuable farmland is condemned to a slow death by a combination of EU bureaucracy and national decisions. CAP’s so called greening ties up farmers in bureaucracy, uses valuable public money and still fails to protect nature or the incomes of farmers in marginalised areas adequately. There are however solutions. […]
Agroforestry – saving the world with meat and sport | ARC2020 […]
Protests about the milk crisis in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and even New Zealand. Via European Milk Board. #MilkCrisis […]
In this UN International Year of the Soil, let’s take a longer look at some of the myriad issues around soil […]
The end of milk quota was greeted with glee in Ireland: that’s changing as prices slump. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention