Recent updates

Does Food Sovereignty Starve the Poor and Punish the Planet?

by Gilles Billen, Luis Lassaletta and Josette Garnier Globalisation is not only a matter of clothing and mobile phones. Long-distance worldwide shipping of food commodities has also increased tremendously over the last few decades. Lassaletta et al.(2014) estimate that one-third of all proteins (a proxy for the nutritive potential of foodstuffs) produced globally are redistributed through international trade. Thus a recent study in France shows that the total volume of long distance commercial exchanges of food commodities, mostly originating from far away, account for over twice the national agricultural production (Le Noé et al., submitted). However, the positive value of a globalised food supply is being actively questioned. In industrialised countries, a citizens’ movement has arisen, sometimes supported by local public authorities, seeking to promote a local food supply. This movement aims to reclaim control of nutrition, re-create social links often destroyed by the extent of mass distribution, and develop the local economy. Developing countries are also attempting to strengthen their local food supply and recover part of their food sovereignty lost by decades of […]

Recent updates

–Road Map for Good Food – Good Farming and a living countryside

In 2010 ARC2020 launched a “Communication from Civil Society to the European Union Institutions on the Future of Agricultural and Rural Policy” which was elaborated over six months and adopted  by a broad alliance of civil society organisations and networks. The Communication was submitted to the European Commission, to the Council and the Parliament on the same day when the Commission published its first outline for a reform of the CAP. During the following debate and negotiations of the future of agricultural and rural policies ARC2020 has strongly advocated for a paradigm change in agriculture and food systems and for an economic, social and environmental renaissance of rural areas. ARC2020 has become a European Platform for a debate on the future of farming and food. Our #ARC2020 conference – Good Food, Good Farming and a living Countryside –  is an opportunity for renewing our civil society’s agenda for the coming five years. We offer a framework for a  ROAD MAP of goals and activities which ARC2020 and its partners could follow in the coming years, based on […]

Recent updates

–Good Food – Good Farming Conference 2015

Civil Society and grassroots gathering in Brussels 10th – 11th February 2015 Register here. Follow the event live on twitter and facebook. The Agricultural and Rural Convention 2020 (ARC2020), Friends of the Earth Europe and IFOAM EU invite you to a civil society gathering and conference on February 10th and 11th 2015 in Brussels, hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). This event brings together representatives from civil society, grassroots groups, researchers, national and regional authorities and policymakers to: 1. Assess the implementation of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014-2020 and its prospects of agricultural sustainability and of rural renaissance. 2. Identify milestones to support transition of food and agriculture systems based on agroecological approaches. You are invited to participate in the development of a Civil Society roadmap towards good food, good farming and a living countryside! Now is the time for the good food – goods farming movement in Europe to assess where we are, to develop a vision for where we want to be in 2020 and agree on a strategic roadmap how to […]