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ARC2020 and Rural Europe in times of Covid-19

May 10, 2020 ARC

It is difficult to grasp the scale of the situation we face with covid-19. People’s lives change fundamentally. So do our societies and economies. We face massive reductions: less mobility, no physical meetings, no open markets, no cultural events. We are living in isolation. How can we, how can our societies adjust to this new reality? How can we as ARC2020, as European network, research community, news provider and advocacy platform contribute to keeping civic movements alive and active around sustainable farming, food supply and transition towards better farming, food supply and ago-environmental practices? […]

Solidarity from Brandenburg Farmers in Times of Corona

May 3, 2020 ARC

There is a simple explanation why I am writing as a farmer: when we as a society come under such enormous pressure that it raises existential questions, like the spread of the COVID-19 pathogen is doing, we have to reflect on what we really need in such a crisis […]

Coping with Covid19 – Disruption, Protectionism and a People’s Agroecology

April 20, 2020 ARC

While it can feel undeniably overwhelming at times, its also important to remain informed and focused on how we can achieve better food, farming and a rural space – even in our new context. Much of the last month has been rightly focused on going back to basics – food, shelter, medicine. If we must go back to basics, and refocus on primary production, so be it. So what does this mean? […]

Tweets of the Week – 16/2020

April 16, 2020 ARC

Our weekly Twitter round up of great content from our kindred network: a Friday treat for your weekend reading pleasure. Enjoy what we’ve found for you on twitter. […]

What will the World be like after Coronavirus? Four Possible Futures

April 13, 2020 ARC

Where will we be in six months, a year, ten years from now? I lie awake at night wondering what the future holds for my loved ones. My vulnerable friends and relatives. I wonder what will happen to my job, even though I’m luckier than many: I get good sick pay and can work remotely. I am writing this from the UK, where I still have self-employed friends who are staring down the barrel of months without pay, friends who have already lost jobs. The contract that pays 80% of my salary runs out in December. Coronavirus is hitting the economy badly. Will anyone be hiring when I need work? […]

CAP Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Framework: What’s Cooking?

April 6, 2020 Matteo Metta

The new Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (PMEF) of the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation (SPR) is composed of a set of elements, including common objectives for both CAP Pillar I and II, common indicators, quantified targets and milestones, data management and reporting activities, and incentive mechanisms for good performance and to address deviations. […]

Effects of Coronavirus on Agricultural Production – a First Approximation (part 2)

April 6, 2020 Sebastian Lakner

Agricultural production is on track for this year, and the EU is self-sufficient in most areas. Despite the challenges of the coronavirus crisis we have little reason to worry about food supply in the EU. This was Sebastian Lakner’s tentative conclusion in part 1 of his review of the available data. But his findings come with some major caveats. Trade in commodities must continue to flow to guarantee food supply in the context of the EU’s interconnected agribusiness model. Here in part 2 Sebastian Lakner examines another critical factor: labour and seasonal migrant workers. […]

Coping with Covid19 – Commoning as a Pandemic Survival Strategy

March 29, 2020 ARC

The pandemic now sweeping the planet is one of those historic events that will change many basic premises of modern life. Let us act swiftly to deal with the emergencies, but let us also seize the opportunity to think about long-term system change. If there is one thing that the pandemic confirms (in tandem with climate change), it is that our modern economic and political systems must change in some profound ways. […]

Poking Holes in Farm to Fork: Small Farmers have Solutions

March 28, 2020 Hans Wetzels

Farm to Fork is the European Commission’s strategy to support an EU-wide transition to sustainable food production. The Roadmap for the new strategy was open for public consultation until last week. In the final instalment in this three-part series covering feedback on Farm to Fork so far, we look at comments from farmers and agricultural organizations. Hans Wetzels reports. […]

Poking Holes in Farm to Fork: Environmental Groups Seek a Coherent Vision

March 24, 2020 Louise Kelleher

Healthy ecosystems are the foundation for food production, but they are pushed to breaking point by the current system. In the face of existential threats, Farm to Fork needs a coherent vision. Friends of the Earth Europe, WWF, Birdlife Europe, Greenpeace, ClientEarth and Pesticides Action Network weigh in on the European Commission’s Roadmap to food sustainability. […]

Nothing “mini” about U.S. Plan to Unravel Europe’s Precautionary Principle

March 12, 2020 Sharon Anglin Treat

The real goal of the United States and European Union’s so-called “mini-deal” on trade is unambiguous and goes to the heart of Europe’s way of life and approach to the rule of law. U.S. trade negotiators, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and American farm interests have all been crystal clear: the precautionary principle must go, and now is the time to finally axe it. […]

Where Soya has Scale – Ukraine, Big Ag and Land Concentration

March 2, 2020 Hans Wetzels

The FAO expects former Soviet countries like Ukraine to play an important role in feeding the world the coming decades. But questions remain about who will benefit from the oncoming agricultural gold rush. […]

Commission’s Dodgy Calculations Improve CAP’s Climate Impact

February 27, 2020 Louise Kelleher

The “Green Deal” Commission promises big spending on climate. If climate markers are to be believed, the current CAP accounts for 22% of the EU’s climate spending. The post-2020 CAP is poised to take even more climate credit. But the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) claims the Commission’s climate markers miss the mark. In a report released earlier this month the IEEP sounds the alarm on faulty climate accounting and greenwashing of direct payments. […]

Awkward Alignment – How will Green Deal Momentum and the CAP Process Work Together?

February 16, 2020 ARC

There are a number of policy imperatives coming together, all of which related in some way to farming, food and rural Europe. While CAP clanks on, the EU Green Deal and its Farm2Fork component have more ambition and perhaps momentum. But how will these policy proposals work out their differences, with pressure from some many angles bearing down on them? Oliver Moore sketches out the terrain. […]

Book Extract | Of Seeds and Land Seizures in Sicily

February 9, 2020 Helene Schulze

Platforming the dynamic ways rural Europe has responded the key challenges of this time, the new book by Forum Synergies is a call to get stuck in. Read the final chapter on how Sicilian youth have organised access to land for young people, how to confront political uncertainty, why to pay attention to seeds and the value of an experimental spirit. […]