Part 2 of our Russia series aims to shed a light on the Russian agricultural industry and changes that lie ahead. Alia Yakupova and Hannes Lorenzen walk us through a brief history of Russia and the potential impact of recent developments on global agriculture and food. […]
The lack of funds by international donors and European countries towards agroecology is a blocking factor for the transformation needed in our food systems. […]
A critical new book released today (24th September) by United Nations’ World Agriculture Report (IAASTD) members calls for an accelerated transformation of our food systems. The authors, including ARC2020’s Benny Haerlin, point to the need for a paradigm shift in the perception of the global food system, incorporating agroecology. Here we feature an op-ed by Katharine Earley. […]
The post 2020 reform promised to deliver a fairer CAP: better targeting and distribution of resources. At the core of a fairer CAP, the Commission introduced mandatory capping – upper limits to payments – and degressivity – progressive reduction of payments above a certain level – to address a skewed distribution of around 80% of direct payments to only 20% of European farms. […]
It’s now easier than ever to use international tools to fight for access to land. By crafting a strategy and tooling up with the right legislation, social movements and civil society organisations can achieve wins for land rights — as we can learn from the Sami people’s historic victory earlier this year, write Astrid Bouchedor, Attila Szocs, Philip Seufert, and Fernando García-Dory. […]
With big farms gobbling up nearly half of the CAP pie, direct payments are exacerbating income inequality among farmers – whilst fuelling the destruction of the very environment upon which farming depends, finds a new study by Murray Scown, Kimberly Nicholas and Mark Brady. […]
12 national coalitions, representing over 400 organisations from a wide range of interests, have come together to demand radical reform in CAP. Releasing a co-signed letter to coincide with the informal AGRIFISH meeting Monday 31st August to Tuesday 1st September, the letter is pulls no punches in calling out CAP. […]
After almost five days of intense meetings, EU Leaders agreed on a seven year budget and recovery package yesterday. This includes the MFF (multiannual financial framework, or typical EU budget) of E1.07 Trillion, plus a specific pandemic recovery package of E750 billion, split almost evenly between grants (E390bn) and loans (E360bn). How is CAP impacted? […]
ARC2020 brought together a wide range of civil society participants for the A Vision for Rural Europe event. This web conference was organised by the Renew Europe political group, was hosted in the European Parliament distributed all over Europe via web conference streaming services. In advance of the event, we asked civil society for their key questions to bring to the discussion, and to help in the building of a vision and strategy for rural Europe. […]
At last week’s A Vision for Rural Europe web conference, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an EU wide public consultation on the future of rural areas. This consultation is expected to begin in the Autumn. Here we summarise the core civil society contributions to the event, which ARC2020 mobilised, and give some background info on the process – formal and less formal, for the upcoming rural consultation. […]
With farms increasingly forced to go big or go broke, corporate interests are stepping in to shape agriculture. More transparency, participative decision-making, and CAP reform are among the tools that can be leveraged to combat the scourge of financialisation, write Robert Levesque, Tanguy Martin and Véronique Rioufol. […]
Big Dairy’s greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, but the corporations responsible are not being held to account. Meanwhile consolidation in the dairy industry is squeezing smaller operators and hurting rural communities. It’s time to hold agribusiness accountable for its climate footprint, argues Shefali Sharma in a new report from the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy. […]
The latest effort at CAP reform from the Commission was supposed to focus on a new delivery model, more environmental ambition, and a performance and monitoring evaluation framework. As the Croatian presidency ends, little progress has been made. In fact, as our CAP Strategic Plans project shows, in many cases, things have gone towards another direction. Matteo Metta reports. […]
How can grassroots organisations tackle the issue of land access? What strategies and legal tools are available to them, and what real-life examples have worked? In this excerpt from the comprehensive toolkit recently published by Nyéléni Europe and Central Asia platform for Food Sovereignty, the authors note that despite the challenges, resistance is fertile – and present a range of tools that land activists can use to fight for a fairer world. […]
Toilet paper was at a premium, wine was scarce, but the Covid-19 crisis was not a threat to food security. Meanwhile a more insidious threat persists beyond the pandemic, as CAP payments – intended to buy food security for the EU – continue to sponsor the destruction of the environment in which our food grows. It’s time to dump the food security narrative, argue Guy Pe’er and Sebastian Lakner. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention