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. […]
Soil Scientist Dr. Andrea Beste opens our #SoilMatters debate by telling us about humus, soil structures & the limits of no-till. […]
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! […]
What are the viability and sustainability issues with milk in two parts of Europe quite far from each other – Ireland and Romania? Stuart Miekle has spent many years in both places, working with dairy farmers. Here he gives his perspective. […]
In the USA, there has been a well-documented war on science, allowing product developers to determine the safety of their own new products in nanotechnology and genetic engineering. Recently, the EU has followed suit, despite the obvious implications and conflicts-of-interest.
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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. […]
33,000 citizens – including 160 tractor driving farmers – made their way through the winter streets of Berlin on Saturday to tell the world – food is political! #EssenIstPolitisch […]
There is lots of hype about digitisation in farming. There are important questions too, about ownership and power. What role for agroecology and the commons in this context? Vassilis Gkisakis and colleagues explored this topic at the Agroecology Europe forum in October. Here they outline their discussions. […]
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. […]
Somewhere between convenience, efficiency, cost saving and a comprehensive EU surveillance mega state, the use of drones and other in-the-sky technologies for ensuring CAP compliance represents, as it were, a Brave New World. Helene Schultz unpacks the details. […]
This long read by Frank Armstrong gives a background into what he calls the livestock industrial complex. Part history, part contemporary agri-food overview, part health and environmental case and part personal note, this article is speaks of power and how it operates in different spheres. These include politics, media and nutritional advice, all through the prism of livestock farming in Ireland. […]
Interested in European food, farming and rural policy matters? Do you have great writing skills and an ability to deliver content accurately and on time? Then you could be just what we’re looking for! Find out more here.
Automation and digitisation are rising in farming and the broader agri-food sector. Germany – industrial powerhouse of Europe – seems an obvious place to embrace AGTech. From precision farming and data ownership to embodied energy and cost, what are the opportunities, the impacts and the implications? And how are agroecologists responding? […]
How realistic is the Green Party demand in the current coalition talks for an agricultural turn, including the phase out of factory farming in 20 years? In the land of the near ubiquitous bratwurst, main ingredient in Germany’s’ number one fast food currywurst, how strong is the undercurrent of opposition to factory farmed pork and poultry? […]
Fertilizer, herbicide and GM crops. 24th October 2017 saw not one but three significant votes in the European Parliament on each of these topics. Considering how these plenary votes went, it may be the case that, when it comes to agri-food policy matters, the tide is turning. So what happened, and what’s next? […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention