Latest from EU Member States Archives - Page 8 of 68 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

France | Change Is In Our Hands – Part 2

February 4, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Far from the stereotype of the solitary farmer, Marion and Benjamin make a conscious effort to get farming out of its bubble. It’s the only way they’ll shift mentalities, they believe. The two farmers, who are associates in a cooperative mixed farm in Brittany, also open up on the thorny issues of unpaid activism, taking holidays as a farmer, and feeding the community versus feeding the world. Part 2 of an interview with Valérie Geslin. […]

Czech Republic | Preparing The Ground For Agroforestry

January 28, 2022 Louise Kelleher

Louise Kelleher speaks to Czech farmer Terezie Daňková about the Kafkaesque barriers to agroforestry in the Czech Republic. Land tenure is a major issue with a disproportionate number of Czech farmers who work on the farm, compared to non-farming landowners. […]

Letter From The Farm | Calving, Lambing – and Timing

January 21, 2022 Shane Casey

We’re back on Shane Casey’s farm in Co. Clare, Ireland, where winter is an active period of herding livestock that are outwintered amidst the limestone pavements of The Burren. There’s decisions to be made about when to bring ewes inside to lamb, and cows home to calve. Considerations of animal welfare, economic viability, and conservation grazing are all factors in determining when the time is right. […]

France | Change Is In Our Hands – Part 1

January 14, 2022 Valérie Geslin

Marion and Benjamin are pig and dairy farmers on a community funded farm in Brittany, France. Agricultural engineers by training, they have reverse engineered the process of farming to make sure they get to take time off and make a decent living. In part 1 of a fascinating conversation, Valérie Geslin, project coordinator for Nos Campagnes en Résilience, unpacks their experiments in rural resilience. […]

2022 – ARC’s Year of the Rose-Ringed Parakeet…and more!

January 10, 2022 ARC

What lessons can we learn from the plucky parakeet? How will we navigate this strange and beautiful world in the year ahead? From Seeds4All to Soup and Talk, from rural action to diverse diversification, ARC has a plan. Come, join in. […]

CAP, Fairness and the Merits of a Unique Beneficiary Code – Matteo Metta on Ireland’s Draft Plan

January 10, 2022 ARC

How has Ireland used the flexibility of the CAP legal framework post-2022 to design a fairer CAP Strategic Plan? A new policy analysis, researched and written by Matteo Metta for the Left group in the European Parliament (GUE), assesses fairness in Ireland’s CAP submission in a number of ways, while making a proposal for a way forward to assess CAP spending with more coherence – a unique beneficiary code for all CAP recipients. […]

We’re Hiring! Call for Paris Correspondent for 2022

December 14, 2021 ARC

The European think tank ARC2020 seeks a freelance Paris Correspondent to cover agricultural, rural and regional policies and discussions in France, at government, regional and CSO level, especially during the French EU presidency. The correspondent will deliver content on socio-ecological transition in agri-food and rural domains, via tools such as news and feature articles, audio visual elements, events and reports. The correspondent will be based in France but will work as part of an international team based around Europe. […]

Position Paper on Soil Carbon Sequestration and its Possible Remuneration through CO2 Certificates

December 14, 2021 ARC

More than 30 organisations and individuals active in the fields of nature conservation, environmental protection, agriculture and science have collectively spoken out against the use of CO2 emissions certificates as a tool for preserving and building humus in soil. In a position paper on soil carbon sequestration, the broad alliance rejects the compensation of greenhouse gas emissions through CO2 emissions certificates. […]

Germany | Farm and Food Policy by Traffic Lights

December 5, 2021 Hannes Lorenzen

A new German government coalition of Socialists, Liberals and Greens – known as the “traffic light coalition” – has put a new farming and food policy on its agenda. ARC2020 President Hannes Lorenzen provides insight into the agreement reached between the coalition parties. […]

Germany | Hitch Up the Wagon it’s Time to Transform Agriculture

November 18, 2021 ARC

Agricultural industry, species extinction, nutrition, climate: If we reform agriculture, we could achieve great things. Such reform should be a priority for the incoming “traffic-light” coalition government in Germany, but will it rise to the task? Tanja Busse has more. […]

Manifesto for Regenerative Agriculture Adopted at Climate Farming Congress

November 17, 2021 ARC

A Manifesto for Regenerative Agriculture was signed by participants of the first Climate Farming Congress which took place in Germany this month. Experts and practitioners came together with the objective of unifying the voice of regenerative agriculture in Europe. […]

Letter From The Farm | A Swiss Shepherdess In Bohemia

November 12, 2021 Louise Kelleher

Jacqueline Frantová was a young Swiss urbanite when she first came to the Czech Republic in the mid-nineties. It was the “Wild East”, a place where anything could happen. Little did she suspect she would become a shepherdess. Today Jacqueline and her Bohemian family raise goats, sheep and cows in the Czech countryside. […]

Letter From The Farm | The Slower Path To Paradigm Change

November 5, 2021 Chiara Garini

We’re back on Chiara Garini’s farm at the foot of the Italian Alps. After her ambitious plans to open an on-farm restaurant, Chiara reflects on the benefits of taking the slower path to paradigm change. Paradoxically this setback serves well her overall vision of agri-food systems as the farm continues to reap the benefits of diversification. Meanwhile in local politics, divisive narratives around farming have led to a disappointing development, leaving Chiara more convinced than ever that agroecology is the way forward. […]

Things will only get worse: Post-Brexit reality is hitting farmers hard

November 1, 2021 Marianne Landzettel

Following Brexit, the four countries that make up the UK will each treat basic payments to farmers differently. For farmers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland payments will remain the same – at least for now. For farmers in England, change is coming faster. With Marianne Landzettel of the Sustainable Food Trust. […]

Letter From The Farm | Meet The New Peasants

October 22, 2021 Isabella Lang

Isabella Lang has been working on her friends’ farm in the Austrian Alps since the spring. After four years in the Brussels bubble, she was keen to get her hands back in the soil. It’s been several months of hard work, long days, amazing food, and a healthy pace of life. In this first letter Isabella introduces us to the farm. Meet the new peasants. […]