Recent updates Archives - Page 16 of 86 - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Hungary | The Last Smallholders Part I

February 15, 2022 Péter József Bori

In Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, the rural vote will have a crucial role to play in the upcoming April elections. Orbán has been milking farmers’ grievances for over a decade. Have the nation’s smallholders had enough? Revealing the findings of new research, Péter József Bori and Noémi Gonda track the progress of feudal dynamics in the Hungarian countryside. First in a three-part series. […]

New Report, Events to Examine Just Transition & Farm Diversification in Rural Ireland

February 14, 2022 ARC

A new report, co-funded by ARC2020 and the Centre for Co-operative Studies at University College Cork, and set to be published in early April, will aim to unpack just what a just transition will mean for Irish farms and rural communities. It comes ahead of two events taking place at Cloughjordan Ecovillage on 22 April, which will examine practical scenarios for a just transition, and farm diversification, in rural Ireland. […]

Letter From The Farm | Investing In The Future

February 11, 2022 Matthew Hayes

We’re back on Zsámboki Biokert organic market garden in Hungary, where Matthew and Kata Hayes and the team are taking time to plan for the year ahead. January was a time to reflect on the year gone by, and the conscious effort that the farm is making to invest in the next generation, and to encourage young people to think about our food systems. In these uncertain times for micro-scale farmers, and for farming in general, Covid has driven home the need to build and maintain community and common values, writes Matthew. […]

Down to the Ground – Green Medicine for the People!

February 10, 2022 Ursula Billington

Health is a human right, not a privilege. Herbalists Without Borders work to deliver health justice to displaced and disadvantaged people via the powerful medium of herbs. Through valuing indigenous healing wisdom, producing medicine from plants gives vulnerable people a renewed sense of control over their environment and personal health. Herbalism also fosters a renewed connection to the landscape from which everyone can benefit. Ursula Billington has more. […]

Commission’s Pesticide Proposals – what’s in them?

February 8, 2022 Ashley Parsons

Current legislation on pesticide use and data collection is insufficient both for reaching reduction targets, and for assessing whether or not the goal was even reached. Now, a leaked version with new elements of the proposed reform to the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directives (SUD) has escaped into the Brussels bubble. The document outlines options for planned reforms by the EU Commission set for March 23. So what’s in the leak? Ashley Parsons reports. […]

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. […]

Event | Soup and Talk 2022 on January 22nd

January 17, 2022 ARC

The Soup & Talk 2022 good food and good farming slam is happening via Zoom on Saturday, January 22nd from 17:00 to 20:00 CET. The much-loved Soup and Talk event traditionally takes place at the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, Berlin, with inspiring agri-food initiatives and hot soup welcoming hundreds of freezing demonstrators in out of the cold after Europe’s biggest protest for a better food system. […]

Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022 | New Dawn For Solidarity

January 17, 2022 Ursula Billington

After three action-packed days, the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022 ended on a positive note, forging hope from solidarity. With powerful takeaways on diversity and knowledge sharing, there was much to be optimistic about thanks to contributions from a multifarious community of kindred spirits and a vibrant youth element. Ursula Billington reports. […]

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. […]

Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022 | Plenty To Chew On!

December 22, 2021 Ursula Billington

The New Year gets off to an exciting start with the Oxford Real Farming Conference on January 5th-7th 2022. Back online this year, the conference has added social justice strings to its bow with new partners that focus on land rights and equality. As well as the traditional menu of sessions on sustainable farming practices and policy, food sovereignty and supply chains, the event will bring in indigenous perspectives from around the globe. Ursula Billington reports on what not to miss. […]

Undeniable Success of the ECI “Save bees and farmers”

December 21, 2021 ARC

The success of the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save bees and farmers” in 2021 was a historic result in the journey to reduce synthetic pesticides, restore biodiversity on farmland and support farmers to transition to agroecology. If the initiative is accepted by the Commission, the Commission will have to analyse and respond to the citizens’ requests. This article originally appeared in Justice Pesticides’ December newsletter. […]

ARC Launches New Report on CAP as Member States Submit Strategic Plans

December 19, 2021 ARC

Today we launch a report on the CAP Strategic Plans process, as it has unfolded throughout 2021. The full document includes an overview, an analysis of the initial Commission recommendations, analyses of aspects of CAP in Germany (Green Architecture), Bulgaria (High Nature Value) Poland, Italy, precision farming, crop rotations, capping, and finally CAP and EU relations to third countries. […]