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. […]
The European Commission published its Communication on A long-Term Vision for the EUâs rural areas on Wednesday June 30th. There is much thatâs worth recognising and lauding in this, including a new âRural Pactâ. However there are serious gaps and significant blind spots. In particular, the how and when elements – strategy and immediacy – are conspicuous in their absence. […]
The Common Market Organization (CMO), insufficient grazing subsidies and eco-schemes. An explainer about how EU dairy exports could increase rural unemployment and food poverty in Japan. […]
A year on from the launch of the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, the Good Food Good Farming coalition is running an exciting social media campaign to raise citizensâ awareness of the problems of industrial agriculture and illustrate a path towards a better future for food and farming. […]
In March 2021, the German Agriculture Ministers’ Conference and the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture agreed on important cornerstones for the country’s CAP Strategic Plan. In his preliminary assessment, Sebastian Lackner shows that while the resolutions have opened the door for a more ambitious CAP in Germany, it remains to be seen whether the federal and state governments will seize the opportunity when they decide on details still to be negotiated. […]
This paper, written by Marjorie Jouen of the Jacques Delors Institute, has benefitted from inputs and reflections of Marion Eckardt, Maria JosĂ© Murciano-Sanchez, Michael Schmitz, Francesco Mantino and Hannes Lorenzen expressing themselves in their personal capacity. […]
Climate striker Sommer Ackerman became active in protests for a better CAP in October 2020. She combines activism at EU level in the WithdrawTheCAP campaign with activism at national level to make agri-food policy change in Finland. […]
The factory farm system used by global agribusiness firms is a major source of the greenhouse gas methane. Ben Lilliston and Shefali Sharma of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) highlight that the push for appropriate regulation of factory farms’ methane emissions in the U.S. should coincide with EU efforts to regulate these emissions. […]
A newly published paper seeks to reposition legumes as protagonists in policy debates and encourage us to identify policies that would better support the transformation of European food- and feed-systems to a new norm, with greatly increased production and consumption of homegrown legumes and homegrown legume-based products. A savoury account of legume policy by lead author BĂĄlint BalĂĄzs. […]
There are âstrong links between politics and the biggest beneficiaries of the subsidies” in five Central and East European member states of the EU. That’s according to a new in-depth study âWhere does the money goâ, which examines the implementation of the EU agriculture funds in Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. The study, which was commissioned by the Greens/EFA political group in the European Parliament, sheds a stark light on how the CAP is not only funding degradation of biodiversity but also degrading democracy. Hans van Scharen reports. […]
Questioning unlimited growth in demand and emphasising the impact of societal pressures on productivity and yield, a new OECD report argues for more coherent and holistic farm and food policies. âAs in other sectors, the economic interests pursued by food and beverage companies are not necessarily aligned with public interestsâ the report states. Hans Wetzels has more. […]
The EU spends a lot on CAP â almost 40% of its annual budget. But are these billions of euros delivering results? In a new report, the European Court of Auditors find the Commission is âoverly optimisticâ on the performance of CAP spending and needs to focus on the real impacts. It also confirms that 80% of direct payments are going to 20% of beneficiaries. Louise Kelleher reports. […]
The lack of funds by international donors and European countries towards agroecology is a blocking factor for the transformation needed in our food systems. […]
A group of EIPs – European Innovation Partnerships – has come together in Ireland to argue the case for this environmentally engaged form of farming. So what’s next – will some of the methods and approaches used in these EIPs become templates for other farming regions in Ireland, or for the design of CAP schemes, or for more market-orientated approaches such as PDO and PGI? Here we publish a joint letter by a number of EIPs from Ireland to help stimulate this debate. […]
The new EU organic regulation, to be implemented in 2022, promises new opportunities especially for young farmers to regain control and knowledge of local conservation, breeding, sustainable use and marketing of seeds fit for organic production. As part of the team that negotiated the new EU organic regulation, ARC2020 President Hannes Lorenzen is curious about how the new less restrictive conditions for organic seed production and marketing will impact breeders and farmers. He spoke to an organic plant breeder and a young farmer about their ideas on the future of seeds. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention