Latest posts
Food waste: beating bourgeois etiquette
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Why is it a social faux pas to bring a half-eaten cheese to a dinner party? Food waste is one of the most irrational and soluble problems of the modern world, but tackling it is not simply about logistical questions such as supermarket sell-by dates...
Salvaging Durban’s invisible climate talks
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What marks out the current climate talks in Durban– ‘COP17’ – from Cancun, Copenhagen and its other predecessors? A lack of media coverage is perhaps the most conspicuous factor. Type COP17 into Google News and the shortage of coverage from b...
People power: lessons from La Paz
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It has been a good few weeks for people power. Protest movements have occupied the world’s financial centres, brought European capitals to a standstill, and – with a helping hand from the West – brought down Gaddafi’s Libyan regim...
Overpriced berries and the junk food complex
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I was recently having a discussion with a friend who does not work in agriculture, and asked her the following question: If you could ask one thing of the EU’s upcoming reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), what would it be? She repl...
Development goals: celebrating on an empty stomach
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Just four years shy of 2015, the date by which the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will have been met or missed, the world is preparing to celebrate a major success: the 2011 progress report shows that the world is on track to reach the headline...
Biodiversity – what’s that again?
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One quarter of animal species are at risk of extinction, fish are getting smaller and fewer in number, pollinators are disappearing, and naturally water-purifying ecosystems are falling apart. Faced with this genuine ecological crisis, it is no wonde...
Climate change: king of the road(map)
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‘Roadmaps’ are often disappointing in politics. George Bush had a roadmap for peace in the Middle East, until the election of Hamas in Gaza and other off-piste developments consigned it to failure. This week the European Commission produc...
Why are food prices soaring again?
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Only six months ago, the world appeared to have put the destabilising food price spikes of 2008 behind it. Wealthy countries had clubbed together to deliver new seeds and fertiliser to African farmers, global harvests proved bountiful in 2009, and fo...
Waiting for Doha
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World leaders have set themselves yet another deadline for completing the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round. The trade talks, launched in 2001 and tipped for completion in 2005, 2008 and then 2010, should now be wrapped up in 2011, accordin...
CAP reform: austerity or posterity?
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The stage is set for reform of the EU’s ever-contentious Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The public has been consulted. Stakeholders have defended their stakes. MEPs have put their two cents in. And member states have laid down their red line...
How safe is our food?
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How safe is the food that we eat? Is the EU responsible when contaminations slip through the net? Italy is still reeling from the sight of ‘blue mozzarella’ after consignments of the contaminated cheese made their way from a German fac...
Trade deal or trade-off?
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Why must agriculture be the “bargaining chip” when the EU negotiates trade deals? This was the question asked by French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire as he closed ranks with his Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Irish and Romanian counterparts...
Natural resources: the x factor
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Everybody is talking about resources. Maybe not directly, and maybe through bywords and buzzwords: sustainability, food security, energy security, water scarcity, climate change. An increasing number of policy discussions are centring on one big ques...
Rising hunger prompts EU rethink
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In the wake of food price shocks, the EU is rethinking ways to curb global food insecurity In 2007-2008 global grain prices suddenly doubled, sparking sharp mark-ups on consumer prices and putting staple food products out of the reach of many develop...
Political hot potato
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Last week, the EU issued its first authorisation for cultivation of a genetically modified plant (GMO) in 12 years. BASF’s Amflora potato variety quickly became the most famous spud since Toy Story’s Mr Potato Head. The potato, engineered...
EU2020: an elephant in the room?
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Less than a month remains before the European Commission launches its proposals for a new economic strategy, dubbed ‘EU2020′. And less than a month remains for goals such as food security, the maintenance of farm livelihoods and rural lan...
Good CAP Bad CAP
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Proponents of a greener farm policy have raised the stakes in the CAP debate The CAP is under assault. But not from the traditional army of budget disciplinarians, aiming their scythes at the farm budget. Instead, the new assailants are wearing green...
EU:the world’s sleeping trade giant
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Barroso II showing lack of ambition on agri-trade agenda Those having observed EU trade policy over the last five years will have been left in little doubt over the bloc’s commitment to a free trade agenda. The EU has been the proponent of the...
French resistance
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CAP defenders have the numbers but not necessarily the initiative Last month 22 member states met in Paris to discuss the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Only the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Malta were left out. On firs...
