Latest from EU Member States
BTV’s Cost: A Farmer Caught Between the Virus and the System
Marie Halicki, a newly established farmer in the French Alps shares with ARC2020 her fight against the BTV in 2024. […]
Livestock
Latest from EU Member States
Stakeholder Collaboration as the Cornerstone of the Green Transition The Danish Model
Here, Niels Peter Nørring Director of Climate and EU Policy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC) explains what’s in the Green Tripartite Agreement (GTA), which DAFC signed up to on June 25th, with a range of other stakeholders from Danish society. He introduces the Danish tradition of Tripartite agreements, the GTA’s main elements, including its livestock tax and funding, and assesses its applicability to the EU more widely. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Farm to Forms – the Epicness of Trying to Establish and Run a Farm in France
As protests by French farmers continue, we look deeper into the reasons for their frustration. Marie Halicki, a soon-to-be freshly installed farmer in the French Alps, shares her experience wading through the quagmire just to become a farmer. This is translated from French. […]
Main stories
Echoes of Discontent: Understanding the European Farmers’ Protests
In this op-ed, Dr. Jeroen Candel of Wageningen University assesses the varying, sometimes contradictory pressures which have led to the current wave of farmers’ protests. In a context of short-term concessions and political expediency, of populism and polarities, he nevertheless sees new opportunities for farming in an ecological transition. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Missing Targets and Making Partnerships – Denmark and Climate Change
When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, there is a dynamic tension between the ambitious aims of the EU and its member states on the one hand, and the realities of embedded, entrenched elements of the economy such as agri-food on the other. The European Union set target in 2021: a 50% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) by 2030. Progress remains however, slow. Progress is especially slow in agriculture. Rasmus Larsen unpacks the situation in one of Europe’s intensive agriculture strongholds, Denmark, where, after faltering misfires, a new three way partnership has been proposed. What is this, and will it work? […]
Latest from Brussels
Leak – No Live Export Ban to non-EU Countries in Animal Welfare Overhaul
The European Commission will not ban the export of live animals to non-EU countries in its forthcoming proposal on the protection of animals during transport, according to a leaked draft, instead opting to double down on reduced journey times and on space allowances. Natasha Foote has the scoop. […]
Latest from Brussels
EU-Australia Trade Deal Goes Down Under in Osaka – Why?
After years working towards clinching a free trade deal between Australia and the EU, talks went ‘down under’ on Sunday (29 October) in Osaka after the two sides beefed over market access for agricultural products. So what happened – what’s the beef between these two? – and what does the UK have to do with the dramatic turn of events? Natasha Foote reports […]
Latest from Brussels
CAP, the Commission and Livestock Supports – Money Matters
There is a perception that, when it comes to the farming end of the agri-food system, CAP is primarily about supporting land owners and family farms. Is this the case? And even if so, does the Commission sometimes use the basic underpinnings of CAP to gloss over what are in fact significant, embedded supports for the most intensive end of the farming systems, including livestock? What does this mean for other producers? We attended a webinar on livestock recently, and these questions came to the fore. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Part 4 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland’s own food security
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. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Ireland | Intensive Farms Must Pull their Weight for a Just Transition
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. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Part 3 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Is Ireland Feeding Food?
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. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Part 2 | Ireland, Food Security & Feed(ing the World) – Ireland and the Archipelago
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. […]
Latest from EU Member States
Op-Ed | Europe Eats the World
“Europe feeds the world” is a line often heard in EU policy debates and the media. A line often used to sideline calls to lower the impacts of European agriculture and to place “providing food” as the highest political priority. But is this line really true? In this op-ed lead author, Jabier Ruiz, of the WWF European Policy Office, summarises the main pieces of evidence gathered, which show that, far from feeding the world, Europe consumes more than its fair share. […]
Main stories
Wallonia’s Observation Letter: A plan that fails to address climate and biodiversity crises
Here you’ll find the Observation Letter to Wallonia’s CAP Strategic Plan which ARC2020 has obtained. In no less than 210 points, the Commission exposes a lack of strategy towards healthy, sustainable and economically viable food systems for farmers, as well as incompatibilities and serious shortcomings in the measures proposed to deal with the climate and environmental crises. The Walloon government must review its copy by September 30th and obtain validation from the Commission so that the plan can enter into force on January 1st 2023. […]
Main stories
CAP Strategic Plans and Food Security: Fallow Lands, Feeds, and Transitioning the Livestock Industry
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has sparked a debate on food security in Europe. Here, we set things straight on the derogation to allow production on fallow land, analyse the state of grain production and use as feed in Europe and reflect on what it entails for the future of the livestock sector. […]