places Archives - Page 10 of 14 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

UK | Chapter 2 : Minimising Net GHG Emissions from Food Systems

April 14, 2019 Stuart Meikle

What role does – or can – farming and food play in mitigating climate change? Retaining and storing carbon in the soils should be an obvious climate-change mitigation, improving soil fertility through the natural processes of grazing, returning animal manures, and using legumes to fix atmospheric nitrogen has the indirect benefit of reducing the farmer’s reliance on artificial nitrogen fertilisers manufactured using fossil fuels. […]

“Exploit all available tools” – German platform on the Eco-Schemes

April 12, 2019 Helene Schulze

German agriculture will need a shake up to meet environmental targets and challenges. Here the platform of 20 food and farming organisations share their response to the proposed eco-schemes in the post-2020 CAP. […]

UK | Chapter 1: Robust Food Production Systems

April 10, 2019 Stuart Meikle

The food security of the British population and its following generations cannot be simplified into a policy founded on the erroneous principle that the global market will always provide. It is vital for the food security of the British people that a sizeable proportion of the nation’s food comes from accessible and reliable sources operating regenerative food systems. Chapter 1 by Stuart Meikle. […]

United States | The Real Future of Agriculture

April 5, 2019 Ben Lilliston

The US ambassador to the UK has called American farming “the future of agriculture” to encourage the opening of European markets to US products. But what does this food system actually look like? What are its implications on public health, the environment and rural communities? Our partners at IATP report from the states. […]

Brussels | Cooking Up A Local Food Strategy

April 3, 2019 ARC

With the recent election of a mayor keen to strengthen local democracy and serve up healthy, local food for all, Ixelles, in Brussels, is laying the groundwork for an exciting local food strategy. ARC2020’s Hannes Lorenzen is involved. […]

Book Serialisation | Creating a New British Farming Food and Rural Policy

March 25, 2019 Stuart Meikle

CAP has had a massive influence on British agriculture. No other industry will have been so greatly impacted by the United Kingdom’s EU membership, and no other industry will be as affected as Britain leaves the European Union. Leaving the EU now offers the UK the opportunity to create a new food and farming policy. […]

Letter from the Farm | Spring Update from Greece’s Mazi Farm

March 13, 2019 Natasha Foote

The idea of support species stems from the observation that in nature, you always find a diversity of species growing together. You can observe different species working together to support and facilitate the growth of others and for the good of the whole system in many complex interactions. […]

Letter from a Farm | Starting the Soil Health Journey in Ireland

March 7, 2019 Kieran Sullivan

Kieran Sullivan, our Man in Muddy Boots, is keen to regenerate the soil on his sheep farm in Ireland. Here he reports on his journey to understanding the soil and implementing some measures to improve soil health. This is no small feat, he finds out. […]

CAP | Poland: In a Triangle of Tension?

March 5, 2019 ARC

Hans Wetzels gets to grips with CAP and Poland, in particular how Polish farmers and Polish policy makers will adapt to likely changes, including a lower overall CAP budget. How the Nationalist party wins hearts and minds, Poland relates to EU subsidies and other EU countries, in particular France and Germany, and finally differences of opinion on organic farming’s productivity, feature in the final in this series. […]

Bhutan | An Economy for Food Sovereignty and Organic Farming

February 18, 2019 Hannes Lorenzen

In the final part of this short series on Bhutan, Hannes Lorenzen teams up with Adrian von Bernstorff to examine how the Bhutanese economy is increasingly geared toward supporting food sovereignty and organic agriculture. […]

CAP | Poland: What Options for Small and Organic Producers?

February 17, 2019 Hans Wetzels

As a major agricultural nation in the east, Poland has a significant interest in how CAP will unfold in the current reform process. We have commissioned journalist Hans Wetzels to get to grips with CAP and Poland. Here we introduce part four, which focuses on smaller producers and how they cope with (or without) CAP supports. […]

Czech Mate for Roundup?

February 14, 2019 Louise Kelleher

The use of glyphosate has been curtailed in the Czech Republic with a new ban on desiccating crops for human consumption that came into effect on January 1, 2019. Grains and rapeseed are the main food crops affected by the new regulations. But the Ministry of Agriculture has been accused of making a U-turn on a blanket ban on glyphosate previously announced in September 2018. How far will the Czech Republic go in calling time’s up on Roundup? […]

CAP | Poland: small farms, big farms & EU relations

February 10, 2019 Hans Wetzels

As a major agricultural nation in the east, Poland has a significant interest in how CAP will unfold in the current reform process. While not all regions or sectors are the same in this large country, there are some common considerations. Hans Wetzels to get to grips with CAP and Poland, in particular how Polish farmers and Polish policy makers will adapt to likely changes, including a lower overall CAP budget, greater environmental focus and the new delivery model. Part 3. […]

France to Use CAP for Agroecological Transition?

February 6, 2019 ARC

Back in December, the French government published a position paper on the proposed CAP reform. This document included some of the expected, cautious remarks but also took some unexpected turns – for one promoting an agroecological transition. We pick out the key takeaways here. […]

Letter from a Farm | A Stormy Winter in Italy

February 5, 2019 Chiara Garini

Winter and the fierce storms that came with it were a blow for our budding agroforestry farm in Italy. We hear from farmer Chiara Garini about how she dealt with the extreme weather events, how she plans to prepare for more such events in future and how she’s prepping for the year ahead. […]