A new package of supports and a first year review of CAP greening are two of the key items on the agenda for the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on Monday 18th July in Brussels. […]
By Shefali Sharma, European Director IATP, 12.07.2016 The Institute for Trade Policy’s European Office, along with international group Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), German member of Via Campesina—Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft e.V. (AbL) and PowerShift launched their new report Selling Off the Farm: Corporate Meat’s Takeover through TTIP with a panel discussion and a press briefing at the European Parliament on the 12th July. Some key findings from the report: Many new agricultural and food technologies are being developed or already utilized with limited or no regulation. TTIP will make rulemaking in the public interest much more difficult in the future for technologies such as gene editing and cloning. Labour and environmental regulations related to the meat industry are inadequate on both sides of the Atlantic and need to be strengthened. Trade unions and environmental campaigns have achieved incremental gains; however, TTIP is likely to make it difficult to improve regulations. The chilling effect of TTIP’s (de)regulatory cooperation provisions will make it increasingly challenging in the future to effectively regulate impacts of the meat industry on climate change […]
Having announced its intention to try to approve The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement – CETA – with Canada today, 5th July, the Commission has back tracked. Approval will now be sought from Member States’ national parliaments, though there are still caveats and concerns for campaigners. […]
An Urgenci report on Community Supported Agriculture in Europe reveals rapid growth of this dynamic concept across the Continent. Participants from 22 countries came together to collaboratively produce the vibrant, colourful and very positive document. […]
Errors of a previous administration, a billion euro dispute between France and the Commission, even bigger borrowing on the international markets, late payments to farmers – its a financial cap-tastrophe in France. Peter Crosskey untangles the mess. […]
A report from Friends of the Earth Europe points to serious concerns for EU farming and food due to the ongoing – and now under severe pressure TTIP talks. […]
Food activists, curious eaters, harried, hurried producers and many more came together in Ireland to have food sovereignty proclamation meals. This date – 24th April – was also the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising – the start of Ireland’s independence movement, and the day the Irish proclamation of Independence was read out. So what happened? […]
With the political parties releasing their manifestos, Nourish Scotland tell us what is really needed to make Scotland a Good Food Nation. Hint – its about more than legislation! […]
The EU is being asked to give up a lot in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), especially its relatively higher standards on food and chemical safety. It’s also asking for a lot in return, including the massive opening of U.S. public procurement to bids by EU firms. A new leaked memo from the European Commission shows just how much they want to open up those markets. It’s a bad tradeoff for both sides. […]
“Ecological focus areas should be established, in particular, in order to safeguard and improve biodiversity on farms“. So say the official EU documents. And yet for these EFAs, Member States are choosing ‘productive options’ – in particular catch crops and nitrogen fixing crops – over biodiversity. Using newly released data, Sebastian Lakner shows us just how ineffective and poorly targeted EFAs are, in Germany and beyond. […]
The European Commission should renew the EU market approval for glyphosate for another 7 years only instead of 15 as originally proposed, says the non-binding resolution. Improved and more transparent evidence are also called for. […]
Analysis from German finds that Ecological Focus Areas – a core part of the ‘greening’ of the Pillar 1 of the CAP – are having little positive impact on biodiversity. Farmers use the full set of options, but with a strong emphasis on the production options. Guest post Sebastian Lanker. […]
In this series, our authors and readers have approached the livestock debate from many perspectives – climate, animal ethics, economic and more. So what have we learned? […]
EU removes food waste targets and lessons ambitions in Circular Economy Package – its rubbish! But we’ve got some suggestions…. […]
Shefali Sharma from IATP exposes how big meat corporations work to keep the game rigged towards business-as-usual – an as-usual that is running us into a climate change catastrophe #LivestockDebate final contribution before round up. […]
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