Earlier this week BBC’s Newsnight aired an extended feature on how overseas farmers are bringing the investment that’s transforming Ukraine’s agriculture into vast arable mega-farms. There is no doubt that Ukraine, with its vast expanses of fertile land, has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the global supply of food. Let’s hope they avoid the mistakes made in industrial monoculture farming elsewhere in the world. And that some of the profits that are being made end up in the hands of ordinary Ukrainians.
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EU farmers drive Ukraine’s agricultural revolution
Earlier this week BBC’s Newsnight aired an extended feature on how overseas farmers are bringing the investment that’s transforming Ukraine’s agriculture into vast arable mega-farms. There is no doubt that Ukraine, with its vast expanses of fertile land, has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the global supply of food. Let’s hope they avoid the mistakes made in industrial monoculture farming elsewhere in the world. And that some of the profits that are being made end up in the hands of ordinary Ukrainians.
Timetable for the next 'truly big' CAP reform
Roger Waite, one of the sharpest analysts of EU farm policy writes at farmpolicy.com on the timetable for the next CAP reform. Definitely worth reading.
“Analysis from Brussels”- by Roger Waite- Towards the Next, Truly Big CAP Reform- The Timetable … Read the rest
Timetable for the next ‘truly big’ CAP reform
Roger Waite, one of the sharpest analysts of EU farm policy writes at farmpolicy.com on the timetable for the next CAP reform. Definitely worth reading.
“Analysis from Brussels”- by Roger Waite- Towards the Next, Truly Big CAP Reform- The Timetable … Read the rest
Tackling the new (old) productivism
This afternoon I did a pre-recorded interview with BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme. The subject was the House of Lords report on the 2010 EU budget, which says too much money is being spent on agriculture. The first question I was asked by the presenter shows how deeply the new (old) productivism has taken root over the past year. I was asked something along the lines of “Given the fears about food security, don’t we need a well-funded agriculture sector?”.… Read the rest
New BBC documentary series: The Future of Food
Last night, BBC2 screened the first of six hour-long episodes in a new documentary series, The Future of Food.
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Friday fun quiz: What is a public good?
Anyone who has followed the CAP debate this past few years will have observed how the term ‘public good’ has been adopted by almost everyone seeking to advance their own vision of the CAP, from the dinosaurs of COPA-COGECA, to the more moderate National Farmers Union to the José Bové’s Via Campesina, organic farmers like the Soil Association, food policy wonks like Sustain and the Food Ethics Council, and of course the various environmental groups from where the public goods idea orignally hailed.… Read the rest
Franco-German combine to set future path of the CAP?
Euractiv reports on the creation of a new Franco-German working group to frame reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. France has a new Agriculture Minister in Bruno Le Maire, who wasted no time in setting out his stall in meetings with Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.… Read the rest
Podcast: Roger Waite's Brussels update
Roger Waite, editor of Agra Facts and journalism fellow of the German Marshall Fund (GMF) joins Jack Thurston (GMF Transatlatic Fellow) for a discussion of the current top issues in agriculture policy in Brussels: protests by European dairy farmers, the future of direct payments, what’s in store in the EU budget review and will Mariann Fischer Boel serve a second term as EU Agriculture Commissioner.
Roger Waite’s Brussels update… Read the rest
Podcast: Roger Waite’s Brussels update
Roger Waite, editor of Agra Facts and journalism fellow of the German Marshall Fund (GMF) joins Jack Thurston (GMF Transatlatic Fellow) for a discussion of the current top issues in agriculture policy in Brussels: protests by European dairy farmers, the future of direct payments, what’s in store in the EU budget review and will Mariann Fischer Boel serve a second term as EU Agriculture Commissioner.