Its Earth Day Monday 22nd and to celebrate we’ve selected our twenty favourite, most appropriate, most thought-provoking and compelling reads to get in the mood. From rewilding to climate change, pesticides bans to the role of livestock in climate-friendly farming, and a gripping personal account of front line action in the Paris COP 21 climate change talks….it’s all here! […]
Biodiversity must exist across all British farmland. Farming must be about food production, stewardship of the environment and our landscapes. Food and farming policy must promote a mutually beneficial approach to produce wholesome food, enhance farmland biodiversity while preserving Britain’s landscapes. […]
With insect Armageddon and biodiversity collapse making the headlines, pesticides are public enemy No. 1. Scientists are now naming and shaming pesticides as a key driver of biodiversity loss. Even the European Parliament has caught the bug. MEPs insist that the new CAP must do more to shrug off our dependency on agrochemicals. Meanwhile farmers are showing that – with the right supports – instead of scapegoats for biodiversity loss, they can be part of the solution. […]
We are back on Brindusa’s farm in Romania as she reflects on what worked in 2018 and what she will work on in the coming year. Not to be underestimated: the importance of steady, reliable relationships to consumers keen for larger quantities. […]
Swiss farmer Ernst Götsch has developed a variant of agroforestry called syntropic farming. So what is it – what’s different about it – and can it be part of the regenerative agriculture movement? Julia Ruff attended a workshop in Spain with Götsch and tells us about it. […]
Magdalene Trapp and Sebastian Lakner simulated the potential effects of a CAP reform more oriented towards environment and biodiversity, in Bulgaria. They tested six scenarios on eight farm types, and analysed the income impact for farmers. So what did they find? […]
Here we round up some recent perspectives on the Commission’s CAP proposal. This includes a summary of the 18 months of work that went into the document(s), concern over capping backsliding, a briefing on conditionality, which member states want to keep the cash as it was, and an Urgenci (CSA) and Birdlife perspective. […]
Cian Blaix tells us about the benefits that weeds and field margins provide in agriculture. These ecosystem services provides by weeds can be divided into three categories: cultural services, provisioning services, and regulating and maintenance services. […]
With Ireland edging towards reopening its organic farming scheme – closed since 2015 to new entrants, and closed in 2014 for a year too too – the context of organic farming within the overall agri-food sector is worth exploring. What would it mean for Irish agriculture in general to have a bigger, more vibrant organic sector? Particular attention is paid to the public goods of biodiversity and water quality. […]
Ireland’s Maynooth University hosted the 2018 Festival of Food Sovereignty mid-April. The intention was to connect activists, scholars, practitioners and social movements from around the world interested in creating a food system rooted in principles of justice, ethical production and consumption, sustainability and democracy. […]
How can biodiversity loss and ecosystem services be valued? What are the implications of putting a monetary value on nature? Ian Fitzpatrick investigates current research on ecosystem service valuation. […]
what amounts to a mini CAP reform has just passed a crucial stage towards becoming law. There is but a single plenary (all MEPs) vote in the Parliament left, most likely in December. So what was agreed and what does it mean?
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Three quarters of all flying insects in Germany have disappeared in just 27 years, according to a study published in one of the world’s leading scientific journals, PLoS One. What are the details are what may be to blame? […]
Four new policy instruments have been proposed by the EEB – the European Environmental Bureau – for a future CAP. These instruments are put forward for use in the areas of ecosystems, rural development, healthy food and sustainable farming. […]
How can farmers, researchers and administrators work together to really preserve mountain grasslands, which are threatened with scrub encroachment and land abandonment? Dr. Ika Darnhofer outlines some findings from a recent paper Darnhofer and colleagues published. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention