Conference organised by the European Milk Board, the Koordination der Deutschen Verbände-Plattform zur GAP (Coordination of German organisations-Platform for the CAP) and the ARC-office […]
This week saw an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to push the EU’s proposal to loosen rules on gene editing over the finish line, leaving the plans on ice. Meanwhile, it’s all been Politics with a capital P as Belgium prepares to hand the presidency over to Hungary, while leaders jostle for Brussels’ top jobs and considerations start on redrawing the lines of the European Parliament’s committees – a shake up which could have big impacts on the way agriculture files are handled. Natasha Foote and Oliver Moore bring you the latest from Brussels. […]
In the aftermath of the European Parliamentary Elections 2024, Oliver Moore assesses what happened and what might happen next, with a farming, food and rural lens. […]
The German Farmers’ Association (Deutscher Bauernverband) promises nature conservation, but acts against it. Jost Maurin (Die Tageszeitung, taz) makes the case that this trajectory could serve as a warning for the EU Strategic Dialogue, in which environmental and farmers’ associations are to develop a vision for the future of agriculture. […]
Wouter van de Klippe delves into the recent farmer’s protests, and assesses the role both the agri-lobby Copa-Cogeca, and the Common Agricultural Policy itself, have played. Van de Klippe argues that behind Europe’s farmers protests lie decades of policy failures and a lobby determined to steer the conversation. […]
In this op-ed, Annemarie Botzki of FoodWatch International makes the case, and outlines a vision, for how European farms can to exit pesticides, crop by crop. […]
The good news is that experts think the Green Deal will live on (in some shape or form). The bad news is that they paint a pretty bleak picture when it comes to the legacy of the past 5-year term on the food and farming sector. And while things are fine at the top level, down in the details is where the trouble emerges. ARC2020 digs into the latest Green Deal barometer to see what Europe’s sustainability experts made of the past political cycle – and what they see is next for the EU’s green ambitions. […]
With the European elections just around the corner, civil society is revving up for the next mandate. Ahead of the vote, ARC2020 has compiled a one-stop shop of resources from farming, environmental, and food civil society organisations. Interestingly, there is a lot of overlap between these sectors in what is a fascinating set of tools for action. Let’s have a look at some of them. […]
For months, we have been hearing about the bureaucratic burden that has been pushing EU farmers to the brink. Now, the preliminary results of a Commission survey designed to unpack this are in – so does this administrative load turn out to be heavy enough to justify the hasty re-opening of the EU’s farming subsidy programme? Natasha Foote digs in. […]
Oliver Moore rounds up the state of play as the mandate of the EU institutions completes. Its not been a good finish, but there are amazing things happening on the ground. It is from here – from the ground up – that we must build better policy. […]
Saving seeds and preserving genetic resources goes hand in hand with the crucial question of legacy. In March, Seeds4All visited Welsh farmer, grain lover and peer educator Gerald Miles. Adèle Pautrat reports. […]
The European Parliament has officially backed plans to fast-track changes to the EU’s farming subsidy programme which dismantles its environmental requirements in the process. However civil society is not ready to let the decision go down without a fight, with lawyers gearing up to challenge the move. Natasha Foote reports. […]
Under pressure from farmer protests, upcoming elections and its own cowardice in the face of climate and biodiversity collapse, the political establishment in Brussels and beyond is fast-tracking the evisceration of CAP’s environmental elements. This rush job began on 15th March with a proposal from the Commission, and will likely end Thursday 25th when the last full plenary of the Parliament rubber stamps the proposed regulation. The latest piece of sequencing was confidential legal advice given to the European Parliament on the process. In part one Natasha Foote outlined the proposal and the legal advice. Here Oliver Moore applies a critical analysis to shortcomings therein. […]
It’s back to the future as the EU’s green ambitions face the chopping block, with priorities shifting to security and competition. That’s according to the European Council’s vision for the next 5 years, as revealed in a leaked internal draft of EU leaders’ ‘strategic agenda’. Oliver Moore and Natasha Foote have the details, including the leaked document itself. […]
Sometimes things are simple and sometimes they are complicated. In the Irish midlands, from 21-24th March, people representing dozens of organisations involved in agri-food, came together to work together on how we feed ourselves. here’s sever things I learned at this year’s event. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention