agriculture policy News
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Common Agricultural Policy reform – reducing the impact of farming
Today, the European Commission launched its proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. The key objective is ‘to strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability and permanence of agriculture throughout the EU in order to secure for European citizens a healthy and high-quality source of food, preserve the environment and develop rural areas’. The proposals tie ...
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Belgium donates €9.2 million to fight poverty, aid governance
Belgium has announced its full support of the renewed FAO Strategic Framework through direct funding to the FAO budget. Belgium will donate €9.2 million over the three-year period 2013-2015 towards FAO programmes that focus on hunger eradication and malnutrition, sustainable production and also poverty eradication in rural areas as well as better governance for food and agriculture in ...
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Farm to fork’ strategy must serve up fairer and greener farming – NGOs respond to Green Deal
The European Commission has answered people’s demands for much more action to address the climate emergency, nature loss, pollution, and inequality with its flagship Green Deal – but how does it fare when it comes to food and farming? Greenhouse gases from agriculture continue to rise – and this climate-unfriendly farming system is subsidised by the Common Agricultural Policy ...
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Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. Adds Senior Government Affairs Counsel, John H. Thorne, Ph.D., to Its Public Policy Practice
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C) and its consulting affiliates, B&C Consortia Management, L.L.C. (BCCM) and The Acta Group, L.L.C. (Acta), are pleased to announce that John H. Thorne, Ph.D., has joined our public policy practice as Senior Government Affairs Counsel for B&C and Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs for Acta. Dr. Thorne is a leader in the areas of ...
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Europe can improve decision making by better monitoring of agriculture
The greening and cross-compliance measures that have been introduced in Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pose challenges to policy evaluators. Policy makers lack good data to monitor if their measures are effective and efficient. In a large pilot a consortium of researchers with 1,100 farmers from nine European countries have showed that it is possible to collect indicators on ...
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The common agricultural policy (CAP) and agriculture in Europe – Frequently asked questions
Farming in Europe – an overview How rural is the EU? Over 77% of the EU's territory is classified as rural (47% is farm land and 30% forest) and is home to around half its population (farming communities and other residents). How many farmers are there in the EU? 12 million (full-time). Overall, agriculture and the agri-foods industry - which is heavily dependent on the agricultural ...
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Populations of grassland butterflies decline almost 50 % over two decades
Grassland butterflies have declined dramatically between 1990 and 2011. This has been caused by intensifying agriculture and a failure to properly manage grassland ecosystems, according to a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). The fall in grassland butterfly numbers is particularly worrying, according to the report, because these butterflies are considered to be representative ...
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CAP post 2013 - last call for sustainability?
On September 23rd an informal Agriculture Council meeting will be held in Annecy, dedicated to the future of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013. BirdLife International, EEB and Pesticide Action Network warned Ministers that the issue of food and energy security - and prices - can only be addressed effectively through a new model of agriculture that emits less greenhouse gases, ...
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Adoption of a further 24 Rural Development Programmes to boost the EU farming sector and our countryside
The European Commission has today approved a further 24 Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) aimed at improving the competitiveness of the EU farming sector, caring for the countryside and climate, and strengthening the economic and social fabric of rural communities in the period until 2020. The programmes adopted today are expected to create over 40 000 jobs in rural areas and about 700 000 ...
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EU study on bee-killing pesticides increases pressure for ban expansion
A study by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has linked the spraying of three neonicotinoid pesticides to harmful effects on bees, increasing the pressure on the European Commission to expand a current EU-wide ban to all uses and crops, said Greenpeace. EFSA assessed the safety of pesticides thiamethoxam (produced by Syngenta), clothianidin and imidacloprid (both produced by Bayer) when ...
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Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. Adds Senior Government Affairs Counsel, John H. Thorne, Ph.D., to Its Public Policy Practice
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C) and its consulting affiliates, B&C Consortia Management, L.L.C. (BCCM) and The Acta Group, L.L.C. (Acta), are pleased to announce that John H. Thorne, Ph.D., has joined our public policy practice as Senior Government Affairs Counsel for B&C and Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs for Acta. Dr. Thorne is a leader in the areas of ...
By Acta Group
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When biofuels and biosecurity meet
“New agricultural non-food crops, especially those developed to meet the growing demand for biofuels and other renewable industrial needs in the 21st Century, will have to meet triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – criteria,” says CSIRO Entomology’s Dr Andy Sheppard. “Sustainable management of pests in new crops and minimisation of any invasive threats these crops pose to the environment ...
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Towards a better use of our Genetic Resources
The European Commission has today published a Report on "Genetic Resources – From Conservation to Better Use," outlining Commission aims for the period until 2020. While issues of conservation and halting biodiversity loss in agriculture remain a central element, the report highlights the need for a change of rationale with greater emphasis on an increased sustainable use of our genetic ...
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OECD and FAO see likely end to period of high agricultural prices but urge vigilance
The recent period of high agricultural commodity prices is most likely over, say the OECD and FAO in their latest 10-year Outlook. But the two organisations warn of the need to be vigilant as the probability of a major price swing remains high. The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025, published today, projects inflation-adjusted agricultural commodity prices will remain relatively flat ...
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Strong leadership is a critical determinant of success in ending hunger
Africa has vibrant societies that are eager to achieve development and eradicate hunger, agreed African Ministers and other senior officials meeting at the African Union in Addis Ababa today, in the framework of the High Level Meeting of African and international leaders to end hunger in the continent. The Ministers were meeting ahead of the meeting of African Union Heads of State and Government ...
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Cranfield launches European project to promote the use of trees in farming
The first meeting of ‘AGFORWARD’, an exciting EU funded research programme on agroforestry, was held at Cranfield University this week. The 4-year 6 million Euro project will be working with farmers and land owners in 15 countries across Europe to identify how agroforestry practices – farming with trees – can create profitable, productive, and environmentally ...
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Compass group broadens its `eat local` program to support family farms
Compass Group North America announces the expansion of its "Eat Local" programs across the United States. As part of their commitment to sustainable agriculture and wellness, Compass Group will be broadening its efforts this summer to source fresh fruits and vegetables from mid-size farmers and educate consumers about the merits of eating local. For Compass Group, "local" is defined as food grown ...
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FAO to partner CBD on biodiversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will work together on programmes that address climate change, food security and biodiversity loss. Two memoranda of understanding (MoU) signed last week (11 Oct) on the sidelines of the 11th Conference of Parties (COP 11) of the CBD in Hyderabad, India, aim to promote partnerships covering research, ...
By SciDev.Net
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$15 million in USAID funding looks to spark ‘new era’ in agricultural data collection
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and FAO have signed a $15 million agreement aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data -information that is essential to good policymaking and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second of the SDG goals is to end hunger, achieve food ...
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Supporting family farms key for healthy food systems
While substantial progress has been made in the fight against hunger in recent years, more than 800 million people remain hungry and efforts need to be increased to reach the global target of cutting the percentage of hungry people in half by 2015, said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his opening remarks at the annual World Food Day ceremony, held at FAO Headquarters in ...
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