In 1989, a disease outbreak left cocoa plants and production in Brazil’s eastern state, Bahia, fully devastated. The land became abandoned until a group of rural farmers, who used to work on those fields, saw the untapped potential and rehabilitated it. Today, the Brazilian short movie “Two rivers – Cocoa...

In light of the dire food security situation and high food prices, after two years of COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the Russian-Ukraine confict, the European Commission is today stepping up its support for the transformation of food systems by actively engaging in eight global Coalitions for Action. These will assist partner...

  Since 2018, European Space Agency Astronaut (ESA) Thomas Pesquet has been working with FAO to advocate for greater food security, the fight against hunger and climate change, and more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems. After officially being nominated an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 2021, he sent a message...

Family farms’ support by legislative measures should be a crucial step for EU countries to ensure food security and a healthy environment in Europe. Therefore, the International conference - Increasing legislative support for family farms in the EU focuses on Family Farm Legislation and family farm policy at the EU member states’ level....

Es un punto de encuentro, de consulta e intercambio, que favorece el debate y transferencia de saberes y prácticas. Se trata de compartir información, experiencias, herramientas, opiniones, recursos, … relacionados con la práctica de la agroecología. Tanto para iniciarse en una huerta de ocio o para el autoconsumo, como el acompañamiento...

On January 14, 2021, the European Commission published a list of agricultural practices that could be supported through the Eco-schemes to be put in place by EU Member States. This list aims to contribute to the debate on the reform of the CAP and its role in achieving the objectives...

Improved technology, organisation and marketing for the production of fruit and vegetables without pesticide residues. Many farms growing fruit and vegetables under conventional farming systems are applying production techniques which reduce, either partially or totally, the application of synthetic pesticides. AgroTrend is a Polish Operational Group which is developing a zero-residue...

Austrian Operational Group looking for alternative, environmentally friendly control methods. Wireworms, the larvae of click beetles, cause major losses in potato production across Europe. The situation in recent years seems to be worsening due to climate change as Johannes Mayer, Austrian potato farmer explains: “Wireworm damage is more significant in drier...

An Operational Group in Bulgaria is developing a national web-based platform to pool resources and knowledge and create a place for different stakeholders from the sheep breeding sector to exchange experiences. Simeon Karakolev from the project “The ‘All for the sheep’ platform features everything you would need to know about...

Peasant agroecology supports life-enriching systems and opposes life-alienating systems. It offers solutions to the major environmental, social, economic and political challenges we are facing today. It is a living practice, as well as a science and a socio-political movement, built and fostered by people over thousands of years. For aeons...

The Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies as part of the European Green Deal objectives set up important targets to improve the sustainability of farming and food systems, among which reducing the overall use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% and the use of more hazardous pesticides by 50%...

This brochure has been produced within the framework of the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI), which was launched by the European Commission to promote innovation in the agricultural and forestry sectors and to improve connections between research and practice. This publication follows up on the work...

EU Partnerships are a new and ambitious instrument in Horizon Europe, the EU’s 9 th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (R&I). With ERA-Nets (including ERA-Net CORE Organic) and JPIs ending in their current format1 , the new partnerships are expected to pool resources of a wide range of public...

This is a special thematic edition of the Innovation, Knowledge Exchange and EIP-AGRI newsletter. This edition focuses on organic farming.

Organic farming seeks to protect the genetic integrity of living organisms, and this is why no GMOs are used in the organic production process. It ensures the availability of enough GMO-free and organically compatible resources. The organic sector commits to meeting consumers’ highest expectations about the genetic resources it is...

In light of the new Organic Action Plan for the EU, which recognises the importance of research and innovation for organic, knowledge exchange on organic farming, and building organic agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS), TP Organics’ study, based on mapping and screening existing cases in Europe, presents seven organic...

Social FARMS is an innovative Strategic Partnership project started in November 2020 and ending in October 2022, granted under the European Union Programme Erasmus+ within the Key Action 2 Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices. The project focuses its priorities on access for disadvantaged, with specific attention...

Did you know that more than half of the world’s fish and other aquatic food for human consumption comes from aquaculture? In fact, the farming of fish and shellfish (aquaculture) has been the fastest growing food production activity in the world in recent decades. This growth is expected to continue.What are the benefits...

With the current conflict in Ukraine and food security now being a major political question (e.g., Aubert et al. 2022, Dankevych 2022a, Dankevych 2022b, Glauber & Laborde 2022), this briefing explains how organic contributes to sustainable food security, summarising the most relevant and recent scientific publications that critically assess the...

On 25 June 2021, the European Union (EU) finalised its negotiations for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that is set to come into power on  1 January 2023 and run until 2027. While this CAP is being championed by its creators as a radical new framework for tackling agricultural and...