After centuries of deforestation and degradation, during the last 200 years Europe's forests have been recovering to cover some 40 per cent of the EU today. They are currently getting growing attention as a provider of wood for the bioeconomy and for energy generation. But they offer many more services...

The goal of the WFAL 2016 is to organise a world forum in 2016 to address the major issues linked to unequal access to land, natural resources. Ten years after the World Forum on Agrarian Reforms (Valencia, Spain, 2004) and the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (Porto Alegre,...

The EU livestock sector - especially pigs dairy, cattle, sheep & goats, poultry & eggs - is being hit by increasing challenges ranging from upcoming climate change policy, health issues, animal welfare constraints, trade issues, with a decline in EU meat consumption expected by 2025. Yet eating beef, veal, lamb,...

Traditional international agriculture exhibition “Ka pasesi… 2016” will take place at Aleksandras Stulginskis University (Akademija, Kaunas dist., Lithuania) on March 31 – April 2, 2016.

The Scandinavian kingdom has cut food waste by 25% in just five years, thanks to a new approach to damaged and out-of-date food. he Danes have successfully changed the way they look at out of date produce. In doing so, they have reduced the amount of food they throw away by...

The French AMAP movement is 15 years old, and accounts for over 2,000 groups and 250,000 consumers nation-wide. Even with such a long background, the debates between “Amapians” are almost as passionate as they were when the first AMAP groups were founded in May 2001 in the Provence Region.

Almost a decade after the first Congress, IFOAM EU is celebrating its 10th European Organic Congress in the Netherlands this April 2016. The theme of this year’s Congress is transforming food and farming through organics. We want to look at how organic and agro-ecological approaches can really lead future agri-food...

The EU has played an active role throughout the process and is committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs within the EU and in development cooperation with partner countries. The Agenda reflects many of the EU's priorities for sustainable development, as set out in our...

While global changes affect each single agricultural area, we wonder to what extent Geographical Indications can sustain the typicity of terroir products? To tackle this question, we investigated the factors influencing the quality of Corsican clementine under a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) by using a multi-level approach, from the farmer's...

Job creation is a challenge everywhere in Europe, including in fisheries areas, whether coastal or inland. Nevertheless, many fisheries areas have specific opportunities they can exploit, within but also outside of traditional fishing activities, and often linked to the attractiveness of the areas concerned. A challenge, however, is to broaden...

The agri-food sector is at the crossroads between huge opportunities and massive pressure. Every single decision needs to be informed by a wide range of factors, where citizen expectations, breakthrough technologies and consumption patterns in developed but also in developing countries are only the tip of the iceberg.  To cope with...

The official policy of the present Norwegian government is to encourage fewer, bigger farms. With only 3% of the land suitable for farming, Norwegian agricultural production is limited and most of the food comes from abroad. In the fjords, there are big salmon farms largely for export, and Norway still...

Current situation in European agriculture has to meet new challenges due to volatile agricultural markets and uncertain political situation in neighbouring countries. Past events have shown various bottlenecks in contemporary food production and trade. In order to provide for global food security, it is necessary to intensify agriculture, boost production,...

Forests are vital to achieving the SDGs and the aims of the Paris Agreement. Without action to protect forests, the problems posed by poverty and climate change will only get worse, 

The fish in the sea are a public resource and provide not only a vital source of protein and nutrients for billions of people globally but also 60 million jobs in the primary sector, 90% of them in small scale fishing and 15% of them women. Closer to home, the European...

Lone Andersen is an organic dairy farmer from the west of Denmark. Along with her husband, she has been working with robotic technology since 2009 and she says “it has not only improved welfare for the cows, but also for us as farmers!” 

Les activités agricoles génèrent, parallèlement à la production de biens agricoles, des externalités négatives (coûts sociaux) ou positives (bénéfices ou aménités) non pris en compte par le marché. La réduction des externalités négatives et l’accroissement des externalités positives représentent des atouts pour la collectivité, qui peuvent justifier un soutien financier de la société....

The United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) was established in June 2013 through a Resolution by the UN General Assembly as the main forum for sustainable development issues within the UN framework. Its establishment is one the main outcomes of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development...

This document discusses the process of structural change in the agricultural sectors of the western Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU). Conventional agro-political discourse and scientific theory (especially agricultural economics) generally understands structural change as being a uni-directional process that involves the gradual disappearance of small farms and...

Mediterranean grasslands (including rangelands, pastures, meadows, fodder crops) are important resources covering up to 48% of the whole region. Although these ecosystems are a key element in the production of high quality animal products and in the livelihoods of producers, they provide a range of ecosystem services besides forage production,...