Daily updates on whats new on the ARC website and in the CAP debate
More than 300 participants from 40 countries gathered for the 7th international CSA Symposium. The theme of this Symposium was “Beyond Borders” and indeed the movement is working to transgress political, social and economic borders, from Lesvos to China, the US to Palestine. By Natalie Markiefka tell us about it. […]
The month of October saw a total of 69 events in 19 different countries contribute the Good Food Good Farming Campaign. From street demonstrations and meetings with ministers to film festivals and farmers markets, the actions were diverse and colourful. Here are some events you might have missed. […]
ARC2020 Newsflash September 2018
New technological advances in digital agriculture are poised to further transform the business and science of growing crops. But technology comes at a cost, and it is worth considering the impact of farm debt on farmers’ ability to innovate and to transition towards agroecological practices.With Laura Skove in Paris. […]
Cancer is an emotive topic, so when a team of French researchers say a higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer people will inevitably take note – and try to take apart the study. Meanwhile, Roundup, a tool of conventional farming and land management is in the dock – and loosing – over it relationship with cancer. Oliver Moore reports, adding some broader and historical context. […]
The starkness of the IPCC’s most recent climate change warnings – of 12 year window before runaway impacts – has focused the minds of many. What role – if any – for livestock in this brave new herd? […]
A farm hack movement has emerged to really take the power back on the land in rural areas. In France this is especially developed, with L’Atelier Paysan empower farmers, using participatory methods, to devleop appropriate, affordable open sourced tools of the trade, machines and even buildings. Plus they throw great parties. Julien Reynier tells us more. […]
In the dreary drizzle several hundred gathered this Sunday for the Good Food March in London’s Parliament Square calling for an ambitious UK Agriculture Bill. They wound up for tea and talks at the We Feed the World exhibition, a photography project which celebrates small farmers the world over. […]
A totally new understanding of bacteria as a realm that we must live within, from which it is foolhardy to think we can escape, is needed. An important step in that direction is describing the destructive ways of thinking about bacteria that have stepped in between us and these necessary cohabitants of our planet. […]
Why did fair food and food sovereignty votes fail in Switzerland – and what are the lessons to learn? […]
The position of farmers and other suppliers in the agri-food chain received a boost on Monday, when the Agriculture Committee in the European Parliament approved new draft rules against unfair trading practices (UTPs). The text was approved in by 38 votes in favour to four votes against, with two abstentions. […]
How was the first growing season for Chiara and her forest mushrooms? What worked and what didn’t work? And how sustainable – in ‘blue economy’ terms – is the whole thing anyway? […]
‘Farm land could work as carbon sinks,’ said Dr Jan Mumme, an agricultural engineer at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. ‘This probably wouldn’t work with intensive livestock farming, but sustainable crop production and integrated farm systems (a balance between crops and livestock) could do it – and biochar is one way to help.’ […]
This is #AgtechTakeback. L’Atelier Paysan is a French cooperative that works with farmers to design machines and buildings adapted to the specific practices of small farm agroecology. In addition to distributing free plans on its website, L’Atelier Paysan organizes winter self-help training sessions, during which farmers train in metalworking and build tools which they can then use on their own farms. […]
CAP should better support all of those who work the land and produce food, while helping develop agroecological practices. Read extracts from two European Coordination of Via Campesina (ECVC) documents on the Future of CAP. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention