Capping CAP payments at E60,000, a specific compulsory payment to small farmers, adjustment of basic income to basic income support “for sustainability”, changes in young farmer supports, and a move from rural development over to risk management via insurance are just some of the proposals in freshly leaked CAP proposals. Read on for document to download and ARC analysis. […]
Kieran Sullivan is a part-time sheep farmer in south-east Ireland. How does CAP relate to his way of farming and his plans? Pillar 1 Pillar 2, bureaucracy and vested interests all play a part in his story. […]
The Greens EFA group in the European Parliament launched their policy paper n CAP at an event on the 12th April. Land use, crop rotations and fair incomes were the main focus areas of the day long. Harriet Clayton has more. […]
Traci Birge argues that the best way to conserve the biodiversity and other values of traditional rural biotopes is through appropriate grazing and fodder collection. A results-based model, especially a progressive payment model that gives farmers new goals to aim for in their management, might work. […]
Greening measures found to be ineffective in enhancing the CAPs environmental performance, a report by the European Court of Auditors finds. As well as critique of the current greening measures, the ECA report provided a set of recommendations to improve environmental performance in the upcoming CAP reform. […]
What are the implications – on the farm, in the region, the EU and globally – of the ever-increasing production milk production in the EU? Stuart Miekle explores. […]
Through the co-operative, Values-Based Supply Chain model, family farms can increase revenue, resulting in enhanced viability, sustainability and resilience. This in turn can help to preserve the pivotal contribution of family farms to rural economy, society and environment. […]
A positive globe trot to the places where smaller farmers of an ecological mind are tending to their land. Farmerama takes you there. Have a listen. […]
An exciting happening in rural Ireland, which ARC2020 is very happy to be involved with, is on 26th and 27th May. This event focuses on – and celebrates – the may ways people can come together to make rural spaces better through food and farming. […]
What does quantum superposition have to do with the Irish Department of Agriculture’s attitude to the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS)? Find out in this article! […]
After the recent suggestion that there should be a tax levied on GHG emissions from agriculture, will a proposal to tax nitrogen fertilizers be next? Stuart Miekle outlines the pros and cons. […]
The platform Pour une autre PAC (For Another Common Agricultural Policy) is a French inter-association body created for a common reflection and action on CAP reform. This article explains and critiques the French Agricultural Minister’s position on CAP. […]
Agroecology is commonly understood as a science, a movement, and a practice, jointly transforming agroecosystems to less fossil fuel dependent, more autonomous and more resilient farming systems. Agroecologic practices and research have evolved and are being applied around the globe. What unites these movements, what separates them? How is it different in Europe compared to Latin America? Is there a universal approach to agroecology? […]
Here Frank Armstrong ponders how different the rural west of Ireland was – and can be again – through the medium of food production. Family excursions, a mid century self-help co-op movement, which used horticulture as a vehicle for change, and the future of food production all feature. […]
‘Grass-fed’ is now widely used across the global market place for bovine products. It is loosely defined and can mean anything from 51% of the animal’s diet coming from grazed grass and forages to 100% fed on grass. ‘Grass-fed’ is now so common place that one must ask whether it retains any great value as product differentiation. Has ‘grass-fed’ seen its day? And how should sustainable food move forward? […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention