Sowing Change, Growing Together Creating a Resilient Food Future Synthesis Report of the 2023 Agroecology Europe Forum by Kushal Poudel
Focusing on connections between living organisms, nature, rural communities, and various actors in the food chain, the 2023 Agroecology Europe Forum was co-hosted by the Hungarian Agroecology Network Association on 16-18 November against the backdrop of the Mátra Mountains in the Hungarian town of Gyöngyös.
This synthesis report of the 2023 Agroecology Europe Forum is an outcome of the shared learning and inspiration to build a resilient food system. It serves as the representative and meaningful portrayal of collective understanding and vision co-created by diverse participants of the Forum. This report is a critical outlook and synthesis of presentations and discussion notes taken by the volunteers. It explores the current state and envisioned future of a resilient food system and offers actionable insights for food system stakeholders.
Agroecology Europe's comments on proposal for a directive on the soil monitoring and resilience, october 2023
Agroecology Europe (AEEU), the European association promoting agroecology as a set of practices, a science and a movement across Europe welcomes the Commission’s COM(2023) 416 Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience published on the 5th of July 2023.
The Soil Monitoring Law (SML) marks a positive starting point for the move towards healthy soils throughout Europe, establishing a comprehensive and systematic monitoring framework to ensure a thorough assessment of soil health and its evolution across Europe.
AEEU highlights the need for a more action-oriented approach in the proposed Directive, as the current version heavily emphasises monitoring at the expense of tangible actions.
cooperate or perish : the urgent need to adopt an ambitious EU law to reduce pesticides and to promote agroecology- agroecology europe position paper, december 2022
In June 2022, the Commission published the revision of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUD), now called the Proposal for a Regulation COM(2022)305 on the sustainable use of plant protection products (SUR).
This paper aims to give an overview of the Commission’s legislative proposal, with an agroecological and systemic approach, and to to provide recommendations for improvements to make the legislation more consistent. It also aims to highlight the wide range of scientific evidence that shows that, in the light of the climate and biodiversity crises, the most convincing solution to ensure long-term global food security lies in the implementation of agroecology, improving agroecosystems by harnessing natural processes, creating beneficial biological interactions and synergies and using, in the best way, ecological processes and ecosystem services.
10 steps to achieve the european green deal - AE4EU policy brief, June 2022
The European Green Deal is a monumental step in achieving a greener and more sustainable Europe, filled with promising targets which aim to culminate in no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and economic growth decoupled from resource use. It establishes great potential for a fairer economy, the revitalisation of rural areas and sustainability. Yet, the roadmap on how to actualise such targets has yet to be realised.
This policy brief provides a roadmap, by giving recommendations for 10 concrete steps that can be taken to achieve the European Green Deal through agroecology, especially the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies. It will focus on many of the technical aspects, as well as on research, social responsibilities and responsible governance. Each step is to be considered as a whole, rather than individually, as many steps require the other in order to create true transformation.
Donham, J., Wezel, A. (2022). 10 Steps to achieve the European Green Deal. Policy Brief, AE4EU
eco-schemes
"IMPROVING ECO-SCHEMES IN THE LIGHT OF AGROECOLOGY" - AE4EU Policy Brief, February 2022
On the 25th of June 2021, the EU finalised its negotiations for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that is set to come into power on the 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 environmental issues, it has left many civil society organisations to wonder if it will deliver on the commitments found in other legislations such as the Farm to Fork Strategy of the EU Green Deal.
The Horizon 2020 project, Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU), aims to take part in this discussion and provide insights for policy makers and Member States in order to ensure that this new CAP is as robust as possible and delivers on its promises for change.
“Integrating Agroecology into European agricultural policies” – New Agroecology Europe Position Paper on Eco-schemes, May 2021
“A 10+13 Agroecology approach to shape policies and transform EU Food Systems”, Policy brief, January 2021
This policy paper puts forward a proposal to mainstream agroecology into the policies governing EU food systems. It builds on the consensual vision of a coalition of EU civil society, farmers and scientific organizations to use the FAO ‘10 Elements of Agroecology’ and ‘13 Agroecological Principles’ as a framework to develop the appropriate instruments and targets for EU policies.
Common agricultural policy
“Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union in the Framework of the EU Green Deal – The Position of Agroecology Europe”, March 2020
“A Green Deal for implementing agroecological systems: Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union “, december 2020 – Peeters et al. (2020) · LANDBAUFORSCH · J Sustainable Organic Agric Syst · 70(2):83–93, DOI:10.3220/LBF1610123299000
