solidarity economy Archives - Agricultural and Rural Convention

Feeding Ourselves 2023 | Fertile Ground for System Change

April 5, 2023 Louise Kelleher

Another rural is possible! ARC2020 and friends were in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland on March 25-26 for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering, which takes food and farming as an entry point for moving towards fairer, more caring communities. What are the ingredients to cook up transformative system change? How can we build bridges between islands of practice? Why do we need to keep talking about gender? Louise Kelleher gives us a taste of conversations and connections at Feeding Ourselves 2023. […]

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Another Rural is Possible!

March 6, 2023 Oliver Moore

Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th March 2023, Cloughjordan, Ireland, where ARC2020 and friends come together to work on making another rural Ireland possible! This gathering is designed to facilitate community learning and movement building. It will be an opportunity to celebrate and connect to farming, food, our ecology and community, to learn more about practicing food sovereignty, seed sovereignty, agroecology, best policy and practice, the solidarity economy, rural inclusivity and diversity, and community-supported local food systems. […]

Rural Dialogues | Stochastic System Collapse Part 2 – the Social and Solidarity Economy Alternative

September 5, 2019 ARC

In part one, we outlined just how bad the situation is regarding climate and biodiversity collapse, as well as the people-driven responses to this – from extinction rebellion to the school strikes. Beyond these alarm-raising direct action initiatives, what is there out there to become the system change that’s so clearly needed? Here in part 2 we introduce the social and solidarity economy, and the interesting lessons we can learn from separatist movements from the past and present, from Quebec to Ireland. […]

Rural Dialogues | Stochastic System Collapse Part 1

September 4, 2019 Oliver Moore

Just how bad are the twin climate and biodiversity crises, and what is anyone doing about it? The first of a two parter on the topic from ARC2020’s Oliver Moore. […]

Community Supported Agriculture goes Beyond Borders

November 20, 2018 ARC

More than 300 participants from 40 countries gathered for the 7th international CSA Symposium. The theme of this Symposium was “Beyond Borders” and indeed the movement is working to transgress political, social and economic borders, from Lesvos to China, the US to Palestine. By Natalie Markiefka tell us about it. […]

AgTechTakeback | L’Atelier Paysan on Self-Build Communities in Farming

September 20, 2018 ARC

This is #AgtechTakeback. L’Atelier Paysan is a French cooperative that works with farmers to design machines and buildings adapted to the specific practices of small farm agroecology. In addition to distributing free plans on its website, L’Atelier Paysan organizes winter self-help training sessions, during which farmers train in metalworking and build tools which they can then use on their own farms. […]

Karditsa’s Social Economy – an Ecosystem of Collaboration

June 10, 2017 ARC

An important part of the recent European Rural Sustainability Gathering in Karditsa, Greece, was diverse set of field trips in the agricultural, economic and social spheres. These showcased some of the rural development initiatives in the Karditsa region – and how they are connected via an ecosystem of collaboration. Here we present a snapshot of the day. […]

Bellis | What Role for Rural Cooperation in Greece?

February 23, 2017 Hannes Lorenzen

Hannes Lorenzen spoke with Vassileios Bellis ahead of the European Rural Sustainability Gathering in Thessaly, Greece 17-21st May 2017. Bellis is General Director of the Development Agency of Karditsa. […]