Agrifood Brief

In this special edition of the EURACTIV agrifood podcast, EURACTIV’s agrifood team takes you on a tour of 7 of Europe’s capitals, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Poland and Ireland, to hear about their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plans, through which member states explain how they intend to meet the objectives of the new CAP reform. How are these evolving in light of the Ukraine war? Where are they at in the approval process? EURACTIV’s network explains more.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team discusses the agenda for the upcoming meeting of EU agricultural ministers, which will be the first for France's new agricultural minister, Marc Fesneau, who has a shiny new addition to his title, we talk about a call from MEPs to put the CAP on pause, and we hear from EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly about her decision to caution the European Commission over how it will ensure transparency and a balanced representation of interests during the implementation of the CAP reform.

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team brings you the latest on the first high-level meeting to strengthen the EU-Turkey agri-trade and we discuss our thoughts about what to expect from these talks. We also talk about the debate in Germany over suspending crop rotation rules and the Commission’s plan to help Ukraine in exporting grain despite Russia’s blockade of the country’s ports. In this week’s focus, we cover the inter-institutional talk around the EU deforestation law.

Welcome back to the EURACTIV agrifood podcast! After a short break, EURACTIV’s agrifood team are back and this week discussing all things food security, including the deepening cracks in the Commission over its response to the Ukraine war and the missing Green Deal target in MEPs report on organic farming. We also speak with crop scientist and analyst Sarah Taber, who explains why the panic over food security in light of the war is the real risk to global food systems and how countries can compensate for the lost agri-trade with Russia and Ukraine.

Feeling lost about everything that has happened this week in the agrifood world? No need to worry, EURACTIV’s agrifood team has your back. In this week’s podcast, we cover all the major events this week, from food security to the Commission’s emissions proposal, and we are joined by EURACTIV France’s Hugo Struna to discuss the French elections and how this may impact the direction of the food sector.

This week, EURACTIV is once again talking about the hot topic on everyone’s lips right now - food security - and we hear about how German companies are cashing in from the Belarus sanctions. We also discuss our thoughts about the latest draft of the Commission’s Sustainable Use of Pesticides proposal, and we are joined by Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of IPES-Food and UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team discusses food accessibility, affordability and security in light of the Ukraine war, as well as the news that the European Commission decided to 'postpone' (although not in their words) the proposal of the sustainable use of pesticides directive. To help us do so, we are joined by Marilda Dhaskali, EU agriculture policy officer at BirdLife Europe, Olivier de Matos, Director General of Croplife Europe, and Pauline Constant, head of communications at EU consumer organisation, BEUC.

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team brings you the latest about the current EU debate over holding off the implementation of the main sustainable EU farming policies, the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity strategies, due to food safety concerns. We are also joined by a very special guest who tells us more about the first ‘salty’ flavour of the week.

With the looming threat of the Ukraine war on the world's food supply, the key theme of the week has been food security. Here, EURACTIV's agrifood team brings you up to speed on why stakeholders and raising the alarm over food, what this means for the sector and what is being discussed to tackle this. We also bring you a (very apt) focus on sunflowers.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team gives you the run down on the impact of the war on Ukraine on the EU's agrifood sector and are joined by EURACTIV's Alice Taylor to hear why it might mean that bread is off the table in Albania. We also have an agrifood podcast first with live reporting from the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris, and for those of you with a sweet tooth, we take a closer look at sugar.

In this special edition of the agrifood podcast, EURACTIV’s agrifood team takes a closer look at knowledge sharing in the agricultural sector - why is this so important, what challenges do farmers face in exchanging information on innovative approaches, and what projects already exist to help them overcome these? To dig deeper into the topic, we are joined by agroecological farmer Klarien Klingen, who is the co-founder of agroecological farmers association Toekomstboeren, Alice Minichini from the EU’s young farmers’ association CEJA, Ilias Sousis, CEO of WikiFarmer and DG AGRI’s Inge van Hoost.

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team explores what the EU-Africa summit holds for the agrifood sector, we are joined by Brendan Coolsaet, associate professor of environmental politics at the European school of political and social Sciences at Lille Catholic University, to talk about what he learned in his trip around Italy visiting farms, and, in honour of the fact that Valentine’s Day coincided with the EU-AU summit this week, we bring you some fun facts about chocolate.

This week is the week of pesticides, with both the leak of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive and new rules aimed at accelerating the approval process of biopesticides. EURACTIV also hears from our own Julia Dahm who was on the ground at the agricultural ministers informal meeting in Strasbourg this week, and we hear from EURACTIV Slovakia’s Marián Koreň about the latest news on Slovakia’s missing national strategic plan for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team brings you the latest about the timeline of the CAP national strategic plans approval, and we are joined by EURACTIV Germany’s Julia Dahm to talk about Commission’s plans to address food security within the EU in crisis situations. We also speak to Greek leftist MEP Petros Kokkalis about the first interinstitutional negotiations on the revision of the current agricultural statistics framework.

This week, EURACTIV France's Magdalena Pistorius joins EURACTIV's agrifood team to explain how French agricultural minister Julien Denormandie's debut speech under the French presidency was received in the European Parliament, we explore some of his main priorities in more depth, including carbon farming and trade reciprocity, and we speak to the newly elected Vice Chair of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, Benoît Biteau, about his ambitions for the role and the importance of strengthening collaboration between the ENVI and AGRI committees.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team talks about the first AGRIFISH Council under the French Presidency (including anecdotes from inside the building), including issues in the pig sector as well as the fallout from the Belarus food embargo, and we are joined by EURACTIV Germany's Julia Dahm together with Green MEP Tilly Metz to hear what happened in this week's plenary vote on animal welfare during transport.

Welcome back! For our first podcast of 2022, EURACTIV’s agrifood news team brings you up to speed with where we’re at on the CAP national strategic plans, we discuss tensions between wolves and EU farmers with the help of Dutch ecologist and wolf expert Glenn Lelieveld and we explore why upcoming changes in geographical indications have sparked some controversy.

In the last EURACTIV agrifood podcast of 2021, EURACTIV's agrifood news team takes a trip down memory lane to discuss the biggests moments and themes from 2021, including the conclusion of the CAP and the thawing of EU-US relations when it comes to agrifood, and we also take a look at the key things coming up on the menu in 2022.

This week, EURACTIV takes a look at the outcome of the vote on a report on live transport of animals, we explore the Commission's increasingly favorable stance to gene editing and we take a look at a new NGO report which flags concerns over the level of ambition in member states' eco-schemes with the help of BirdLife Europe's Honey Kohan.

This week, EURACTIV’s Natasha Foote is joined by EURACTIV France’s Magdalena Pistorius to discuss how the final vote on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) went down this week in Strasbourg, including reactions and next steps for the farming subsidy programme.

This week, EURACTIV talks about what to expect from the final CAP vote in Strasbourg next week, we take a look at the EU's recently unveiled soil strategy, including comments from Renew Europe's Martin Hojsík, and we hear from the European Food Safety Agency's Marta Hugas about the upcoming week focusing on antimicrobial resistance.

This week, EURACTIV looks at whether the COP26 summit was a 'cop' out on agriculture, we bring you the latest on the transposition of the unfair trade practices (UTPs) directive int he EU and hear from the rapporteur on the UTP file, Paolo de Castro, and we explore the new chapter that was opened this week in EU-US agri relations with the creation of a new knowledge exchange platform.

This week, EURACTIV discusses the outcome of the European Parliaments vote on their own initiative report on the Farm to Fork strategy, and we speak with Diana Lenzi, President of young farmers' association CEJA, about her experience in converting her family farm to organic, including her motivations for doing so and the challenges she encountered along the way.

This week, EURACTIV hears reactions from MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen and rapporteur Herbert Dorfmann to the news that the European Commission chose to delay on the publication of their controversial JRC report on the impacts of the Farm to Fork strategy for half a year. We take a look at a leaked draft of the Commission's 2022 work programme to see what's on the menu for the agri sector, and we explore the sustainable use of water in the EU with the help of EURACTIV France's Magdalena Pistorius.

This week, EURACTIV’s agrifood team explores the controversy surrounding the UN’s food systems summit with the help of IPES-Food’s Nick Jacobs and Attila Szocs of small farmers association European Coordination Via Campesina, the Commission gets in touch with its hippy side on the Autumn equinox to celebrate the EU’s new Organic Day and EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski teases stakeholders about a new impact assessment on the Farm to Fork strategy

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team digs deeper into a controversial vote in the Parliament on the European Commission's new delegated act designed to tackle anti-microbial resistance, we talk about Parliament's preliminary approval of their report on the EU's flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy, and we explore what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had to say about the agrifood sector in her State of the Union speech.

Welcome back! This week, EURACTIV explores the ways in which agriculture can part of the solution for preventing wildfires with the help of Claire Mignet, director of the NGO 'Shared Mediterranean Conservatory', journalist Monica Pelliccia, secretary general of Italy's programme for the endorsement of forest certification, Antonio Brunori. We also speak to Joao Pacheco of Farm Europe to hear his take on the controversial Joint Research Centre report which focused on the impact of the the EU's green goals on the agriculture sector.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team reflects on the biggest stories from this 'school' year and the fun to come after the summer break, and we speak with Green MEP Sarah Wiener on turkey welfare and Professor Doreen Boyd from the University of Nottingham on how satellite technology can help monitor labour exploitation in agriculture

The EURACTIV agrifood team speaks about the Fit for 55, the European Commission's package of energy and climate laws designed to cut carbon emissions by 55% before the end of the decade, and its implications for the agrifood sector, and we talk about the agricultural priorities for the Slovenian Presidency

This week, EURACTIV spoke with EURACTIV France's very own Clara Bauer-Babef and Magdalena Pistorius about what the 'polluter pays' principle has to do with agriculture and the bubble battle brewing between France and Russia, and we take a look at the newly-launched EU Code of Conduct on responsible food business and marketing practices.

EURACTIV brings you up to speed with all the developments on the long awaited CAP reform and exactly what was decided last week. To put this CAP reform in perspective, we spoke with Angelo Di Mambro, a journalist with the Italian media ANSA and long-time CAP follower, about how this CAP reform compares to previous policies. We also delve in to all of the most contentious elements of this reform with the help of ENVI Chair Pascal Canfin giving his take on the alignment of the Green Deal, Birdlife's Harriet Bradley, who explains the issues with the GAECs, Enrico Somaglia from the European trade union of food and agriculture about the conclusion reached on social conditionality, Irish MEP Colm Markey on internal convergence, and young farmer's assoication CEJA's recently elected new President Diana Lenzi on what this CAP reform holds for young farmers

This week, EURACTIV spoke with Jindrich Dolezal of the European Court of Auditors about their recent report which lambasted EU agricultural funding for combatting climate action - totalling €100 billion - saying it has so far been ineffective, especially when it comes to livestock farming and peatlands.

This week, EURACTIV discusses the controversy around the fact that EU farmers association COPA-COGECA was invited to this week's informal AGRIFISH Council, we explore the EU-US trade truce and what this means for the agrifood sector, and we speak with journalist and campaigner Georgina Downs about a recent referendum in Switzerland on a ban of the use of synthetic pesticides and the UK's upcoming environment bill, which may also restrict their use.

This week, we spoke with EURACTIV's very own Ben Fox about the so-called "sausage war" between the EU and the UK which has hit headlines this week, and with Green MEP Francisco Guerreiro to hear his reaction to the news that the European Parliament voted for a resolution to ban cages for farmed animals in the EU, marking a first step towards a ban by 2027.

This week, EURACTIV reflects on the final CAP down week, exploring why talks collapsed and negotiatiors did not manage to seal a deal, and we speak with Nathalie Sauze-Vandevyver, director in DG Agri in charge of quality, research & innovation, on promotional policy.

This week, EURACTIV speaks to the EU's Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski ahead of next week's pivotal CAP reform negotiations about the thorny issues remaining in the reform, how he sees his role and his relationship with the EU farming community, and his vision for the future of farming beyond this reform. We also speak with Ulrike Müller, CAP rapporteur for horizontal regulations, about her expectations for next week's discussions.

This week, EURACTIV spoke with Riccardo Valentini, Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Tuscia, about carbon neutrality and carbon markets for farming, and we hear from Green MEP Thomas Waitz about the news that the Spanish government has rejected a request from the European Parliament to speak about the two livestock ships that departed from Spanish ports in mid-December and ended up stuck in limbo at sea for months.

This week, the EURACTIV agrifood podcast is buzzing about insects, starting with an interview with Maria Saponari, from Italy's Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, about the latest research on the olive tree disease Xylella, including an exclusive clip of the mating call of the disease-carrying spittlebug. We also speak with Christophe Derrien, secretary general of the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed, to hear if the idea of edible insects has wings, and we discuss the news that a common food additive, Titanium Dioxide, has been ruled unsafe by the EU's food safety authority.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team delves into the publication of the Commission's controversial new study on gene-editing, hearing reactions from a range of stakeholders, including Green MEP Tilly Metz, centre-right MEP Herbert Dorfmann, Garlich von Essen, secretary general of EU seed sector organisation Euroseeds, and Eric Gall, deputy director of the EU organic association, IFOAM.

This week, EURACTIV explores the definition of an active farmer with the help of Morgan Ody, a farmer and member of EU farmers association European Coordination Via Campesina, EURACTIV's agrifood news team talks about a 'ruckus' between farmers and the EU agricultural Commissioner after a series of tweets this week, and we speak to David Wilkinson of PepsiCo about the company's new initiative to support regenerative agriculture.

Welcome back to EURACTIV's agrifood podcast! After a brief hiatus, we're back this week to speak about the latest developments on the reform of the EU's farming subsidies programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in an interview with the Chair of the European Parliament's AGRI Committee, Norbert Lins, and we give you a rundown of the top 10 agri-news stories this week, including why halloumi cheese is hitting headlines and the latest on the campaign to End the Cage Age in farming.

This week, EURACTIV gives a recap on what to expect from the so-called "super-trilogue" on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, discussing what is on the menu for the meeting and the main remaining sticking points in negotiations.

This week, the EURACTIV agrifood team explores what can be expected from the upcoming Organic Action Plan, due to be published on 24 March, and we speak about the latest chapter in the longstanding saga on front of pack nutritional labelling.

This week, EURACTIV spoke with Portuguese agricultural minister Maria do Céu Antunes, who is the current chair of the AGRIFISH Council, about the challenges involved in wrapping up the CAP, including the thorny issue of social conditionality and how she hopes to tackle the remaining outstanding issues to reach a conclusion within the next few months, and we discuss the thawing relations between the EU and the US.

This week, EURACTIV takes a look at why butter is hitting the headlines in Canada and what implications this could have for the EU, and we talk about the upcoming 'super-trilogue' which has been called by the Portuguese Presidency this week in an attempt to finally wrap up CAP negotiations.

This week, EURACTIV speaks with Green MEP Viola von Cramon about a new report released which found that agricultural subsidies continue to be misused across countries in Central and Eastern Europe, we discuss a new proposal for a 'Mediterranean diet' label, and we speak with Simon Wancke, vice-president of the EU young farmers association CEJA, about concerns over the looming Mercosur agreement.

This week, EURACTIV speaks with Enrico Somaglia, deputy secretary-general of the European federation of food, agriculture and tourism unions, about social conditionality and what this would mean for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, and we speak with Irish MEP Chris MacManus about the demise of small farms in the EU.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team sat down with the World Soil Champion Luca Montanarella, head of the new Joint Research Centre's action on Soil Data and Information Systems and advisor to the European Commission, to speak about all things soil and the importance of this natural resource, and we bring you our personal agri-food takes from a recently published Parliament survey.

What do Roman gods and vices have to do with agriculture? Find out in this week's EURACTIV agrifood podcast, where we delve deeper into the publication of the EU's Beating Cancer Plan and what this holds in store for the agrifood sector and we speak with MEP Herbert Dorfmann, agricultural coordinator for the EPP, about this week's amendments on the Farm to Fork strategy and what this means for the future of the strategy.

This week, EURACTIV takes a sneak peek at a draft version of the EU's 'beating cancer' plan, which outlines plans to phase out red and processed meat and alcohol from EU agrifood promotional programmes alongside other several fiscal measures designed to target the sector, we speak with Tassos Haniotis, director of strategy, simplification and policy analysis at the EU Commission's DG AGRI, about agricultural statistics and to Gianluca Brunori, chair of the EU Commission' standing committee on agricultural research, about a recently released report on the resilience of the agrifood sector.