It never ceases to amaze me why it’s so difficult to buy locally produced food that is tasty, seasonal, fresh and chemical-free directly from farmers. Why do government policies and programmes always seem to favour big agro-business and supermarket culture? It’s Thursday. I’m on my way to collect this week’s food...

Small farms are a key component of the EU rural economy. In fact, over three quarters of farms in the EU are classified as small with holding sizes below 10 hectares, and a large proportion of these small farms are below five hectares in size. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)...

 In the context of the ‘‘European Green Deal”, the European Commission adopted a comprehensive Farm to Fork Strategy, which recognises the inextricable links between healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet and aims to address comprehensively the challenges of sustainable food systems.  During the last decades the EU has...

MIXED is a project funded by the EU Horizon2020 programme. MIXED will explore the benefits of mixed farming and agroforestry systems (MiFAS) to climate, environment and society in general and support the further development of such systems. MIXED explores different types of MIFAS. The assumption is that MiFAS have the...

Documenting and analyzing the development of agroecology in different countries and context is important to enhance up and out-scaling of agroecology at the European level. Based on the AE4EU project (Agroecology for Europe https://www.ae4eu.eu), a mapping of agroecology in Austria and Germany in its different dimensions was achieved to provide...

Welcome to the Agroecology Europe Summer Newsletter 2022 where we share with you our recent actions,  news and upcoming events. On the agenda this summer: The registration is open for the Agroecology Europe Youth Forum, News from Brussels with policy updates, the methodological guide of the OASIS evaluation tool is available,...

On 27 July 2022, in the frame of Biofach 2022, the international organic trade fair and congress, FiBL Europe organised a session related to the European project ALL-Ready to discuss how organic and agroecology can positively influence each other and to understand the role of organic agriculture in the future...

While global food chains, market competition, industrial processes and increasing productivity have turned agriculture into a profitable economic sector, it is also one of the biggest contributors to environmental and sustainability challenges in Europe and worldwide. In tandem, the COVID-19 pandemic, recent geopolitical developments in Europe and socio-economic trends have...

The report describes the outcome of a Commission’s two-year project looking at Member States’ approach to ensuring animal welfare on farm. The project explored their use of quality management systems for official controls, their use of animal welfare indicators for measuring the extent and seriousness of animal welfare problems and...

Sustainable, ecological approaches to European farming, the heart of the European Green Deal, are needed to safeguard food supplies for EU citizens and protect the long-term livelihoods of rural communities. The emergence of more support for organic systems as a form of agro-ecological production can help address these policy challenges...

This manual presents the second version of the EU-wide individual farm level model IFM-CAP which has been developed to assess the economics and environmental impacts of the CAP and related policies, such as the Strategies embedded in the European Green Deal. The rationale for such a farm-level model is based...

The Sámi people inhabit the region of Sámi, which incorporates most of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as parts of North-western Russia. The Sámi have their own traditional food culture which was not well known to the public kitchens of Sweden’s Sámi region, where many Sámi live and...

Nearly half of Europeans think that securing a stable supply of food in the EU at all times should be a main objective of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) according to the latest Eurobarometer on agriculture and the CAP published today. In addition, more than half of respondents (55%) think...

This document is the second of two. It explains the methodology of the indicator system in detail and guides the evaluator on how to assign a value to each criterion, conduct the assessment and interpret the results. The first document introduces the system of indicators and describes its principles.

This study presents the concepts and methods of farm certification schemes and provides information on the main existing schemes in the EU and in third countries. It analyses how these schemes can help the EU reach its sustainability objectives in the farming sector and be instrumental in the implementation and...

In Cuba, food security is still a challenge after years of wars to fight against colonialism, imperialism and climate change. Yet, the island is far beyond the European Green Deal objectives, having largely achieved most of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity targets that the EU aspires to attain by 2030....

Food systems require urgent and profound transformation to become sustainable, both in Europe and worldwide. Social innovation plays a pivotal role in transforming today’s food systems into ones that are economically and socially feasible, and sustainable within planetary boundaries. This briefing presents the results of a systematic examination of emerging...

Ireland’s agricultural sector has specialised towards the export of dairy products and beef, mainly to the UK and the EU. At the same time, domestic consumers are now reliant on food imports. Recent global events have nonetheless raised the question of whether Ireland should be producing more foods for the domestic...

Carbon farming refers to sequestering and storing carbon and/or reducing greenhouse gas emissions at farm level. It offers significant but uncertain mitigation potential in the EU, can deliver co-benefits to farmers and society, but also carries risks that need to be managed. The report identifies opportunities and constraints for carbon...

Kat Sharp from Achpopuli Farm shares her experience as a participant in a farmer-led project focussing on anthelmintic use reduction. Find out more about worm control without anthelmintics : https://www.soilassociation.org/farme... Part of our work with RELACS EU, looking at reducing contentious inputs in organic farming. Music: "Little idea" from Bensound.com...