Top 6 what ARC2020 wants for 2014

As 2014 cranks into gear, what  are the key priorities and issues for the weeks and months ahead? Here is ARC2020.eu’s top six, in no particular order…

Polish Organic farmers at previous #wearefedup demo 2013

 1: A small farmer, gardener, resilience and biodiversity friendly seed regulation. Those sneaky regulators keep trying to make traditional seed saving more difficult, let’s keep our collective eyes on them and make sure that we can all save the great range of seeds that are available to the planet.

2: Member States of the EU to do better than the EU has done with CAP reform. They can adequately support, including financially, Pillar II of the CAP through modulation, but also match funding. They can also be creative in what they do within the CAP, such as using the EIP to develop agro-ecology initiatives.

3:  The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to be radically adjusted or scrapped. In particular, Investor State Dispute Resolution mechanisms must now water down years of European socio-environmental progress. We do now want the lowest global common denominator to be our baseline.

4: Our favourite bee killers – Syngenta, Bayer and BASF –  to win the public eye awards! See here to vote, before 22nd January! Also, concurrently, these bee killers can fail in their legal efforts to halt the partial ban on neonicotinoid pesticides.

5: No pesticides in Ecological Focus Areas! Technically part of the CAP, this deserves a point all to itself. It may seem bizarre, but its actually true. Almost all member states’ agri ministers have come together to try to allow pesticides, of all things, in what are supposed to be nature refuges. One of the few bright lights in the CAP so called reform has the creation of EFAs – ecological focus areas – and yet, in the stage when the final legislation is being written up, agri-ministers have been tried to change the legislation to allow insect and plant killing sprays to be used in these areas that are suppored to be left for nature to regenerate. So that’s dedicated parts of farms for nature – with pesticides. What do they think the ‘icide’ bit in the word pesticide means?!?!

Here’s specifically what “icide” means:

“-cide, usually written -icide

Source: French -aide; Latin clda or cidum according as the sense is *^a

slayer” or “a killing.” “

So that’s that then: slaying or killing,  in this case, plants and insects.

6: A massive noisy turnout for the #wearefedup demo on 18th January in Berlin! We are fed up with agribusiness! Good Food, Good Farming for all! See you on the 18th!

A special request: Let’s all try to use the hashtag #wearefedup – especially on the day of the demo itself – let’s all tweet that hashtag during the demo, to get the phrase trending, and to draw attention to our causes of better food farming and environment policies for rural Europe. Imagine the effect of tens of thousands of people all using the smartphones in their pockets to dominate twitter for a few hours, with our messages? Use #wearefedup and your favourite apt farming, food environment phrase, one that explains why you have made the effort to get to the demo. eg “#wearefedup with industrial farming” “#wearefedup with pesticides in ecological focus areas #CAP” or “#wearefedup with #antibiotics in our meat” “#wearefedup with #TTIP @arc2020.eu” and so on…be creative and use the opportunity this demo offers up to tell the world what you think about how our food happens.

So what do you want for 2014? Join the debate with us on facebook, twitter or even in the comments below.

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About Oliver Moore 216 Articles

Dr. Oliver Moore is the communications director and editor-in-chief with ARC2020. He has a PhD in the sociology of farming and food, where he specialised in organics and direct sales. He is published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology and the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. A weekly columnist and contributor with Irish Examiner, he is a regular on Countrywide (Irish farm radio show on the national broadcaster RTE 1) and engages in other communications work around agri-food and rural issues, such as with the soil, permaculture, climate change adaptation and citizen science initiative Grow Observatory . He lectures part time in the Centre for Co-operative Studies UCC.

A propos d'Oliver Moore
Oliver voyage beaucoup moins qu’auparavant, pour ce qui concerne son activité professionnelle. Il peut néanmoins admirer par la fenêtre de son bureau les mésanges charbonnières et les corbeaux perchés au sommet du saule dans le jardin de sa maison au cœur de l’écovillage de Cloughjordan, en Irlande. L’écovillage est un site de 67 acres dans le nord du Tipperary. Il comprend d’espaces boisés, des paysages comestibles, des lieux de vie, d’habitation et de travail, ainsi qu’une ferme appartenant à la communauté. Les jours où il travaille dans le bureau du centre d’entreprise communautaire, il profite d’une vue sur les chevaux, les panneaux solaires, les toilettes sèches et les jardins familiaux. 

Ce bureau au sein de l’écovillage constitue en effet un tiers-lieu de travail accueillant également des collaborateurs des associations Cultivate et Ecolise, ainsi qu’un laboratoire de fabrication (« fab lab »). 

Oliver est membre du conseil d’administration de la ferme communautaire (pour la seconde fois !) et donne également des cours sur le Master en coopératives, agroalimentaire et développement durable à l’University College Cork. Il a une formation en sociologie rurale : son doctorat et les articles qu’il publie dans des journaux scientifiques portent sur ce domaine au sens large.

Il consacre la majorité de son temps de travail à l’ARC 2020. Il collabore avec ARC depuis 2013, date à laquelle l’Irlande a assuré la présidence de l’UE pendant six mois. C’est là qu’il a pu constater l’importance de la politique agroalimentaire et rurale grâce à sa chronique hebdomadaire sur le site d’ARC. Après six mois, il est nommé rédacteur en chef et responsable de la communication, poste qu’il occupe toujours aujourd’hui. Oliver supervise le contenu du site web et des médias sociaux, aide à définir l’orientation de l’organisation et parfois même rédige un article pour le site web. 

À l’époque où on voyageait davantage, il a eu la chance de passer du temps sous les tropiques, où il a aidé des ONG irlandaises de commerce équitable – au Ghana, au Kenya, au Mali, en Inde et au Salvador – à raconter leur histoire.

Il se peut que ces jours-là reviennent. Pour son compte Oliver continuera de préférer naviguer en Europe par bateau, puis en train. Après tout, la France n’est qu’à une nuit de navigation. En attendant, il y a toujours de nombreuses possibilités de bénévolat dans la communauté dans les campagnes du centre de l’Irlande.