Food chain sustainability
EU’s new agriculture Commissioner vows to promote organic farming
The EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, highlighted the promotion of organic farming as a key aim for the new European Commission in his inaugural speech yesterday (10 December).
With a ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy on the cards, is the EU finally listening to its citizens?
The Farm to Fork strategy will reveal whether the new Commission is ready to overhaul some of the EU’s most unsustainable policies and the vested interests behind them but leaked drafts suggest that it will not be truly systemic and...
EU-wide approach to due diligence needed to regulate cacao sector, manufacturers and NGOs say
Some of the world’s biggest chocolate manufacturers have called on the EU to “strengthen human rights and environmental due diligence requirements of companies in global cocoa supply chains”
More focus needed on food waste in the creation of a circular economy
Ahead of a Finnish Council Presidency’s conference that aims to set the EU agenda for action on food waste towards 2030, a number of companies have made commitments to reduce their food waste, but a number of barriers still stand in their way.
Indigenous leaders urge EU to protect forest homeland
Brazilian indigenous leaders pleaded Tuesday (12 November) with European lawmakers to protect the Amazon and the communities living there, warning that the West's insatiable appetite was risking the health of the planet.
Co-ops show that other side of the food chain can be ‘greened’ too
Focusing the debate over the new EU food policy only on greening the agricultural production may detract from the other side of the food chain which has ground to become more sustainable, as the experience of retailing co-operatives shows.
Brave new food world
At the dawn of a new legislative term, Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen seems determined to increase the ambition on a new integrated food strategy that will involve the entire food supply chain, from farm soils to supermarket shelves.
MEPs have high hopes for the EU’s new food policy
Lawmakers in the European Parliament expect an ambitious Commission's proposal on the new EU long-term and integrated food policy, that ensures safe, quality and affordable foodstuffs to all European citizens but without harming actors in the food supply chain.
Only 1.5% of France’s waters are truly protected, expert says
To what degree are French waters genuinely protected? In an interview with EURACTIV's partner le Journal de l'Environnement, conducted after the fourth National Marine Protected Areas Congress (23-24 October), Élodie Martinie-Cousty of the France Nature Environnement (FNE) explained the situation.
Commission sets out 2020 fishing quotas in the Atlantic and North Sea
On 24 October, the EU proposed to significantly reduce total allowable catches (TACs) in the North-East Atlantic and the North Sea for cod starting in 2020. EURACTIV's partner le Journal de l'Environnement reports.
World’s sixty largest meat, dairy and fish farms ranked in new sustainability index
A group of concerned investors has examined the sustainability of the world's largest fattening farms and dairy factories that supply the global food industry. And the results aren't mouth-watering, EURACTIV Germany reports.![A swordfish caught in an illegal driftnet used by the Luna Rossa shipping vessel. [Gavin Parsons/Greenpeace].](https://www.euractiv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/driftnet_fishing_greenpeace_photo.jpeg)
Two French MPs want their Parliament to discuss Europe’s overfishing problem
Two French MPs presented a report to the French parliamentary committee on European affairs on 17 July. The report recommended 27 measures to prevent the collapse of Europe's fish resources. EURACTIV's partner le Journal de l'environnement reports.
Today’s diets are eating away at our future food supplies, but we can change this
Thousands of overlooked yet beneficial crop species are threatened unless we learn to conserve, farm and consume them, writes Juan Lucas Restrepo.
A bitter taste
Europe’s chocolate habit is driving the world’s fastest rising deforestation rates. We need new EU laws to stop this, writes Julia Christian.
EU bets on digitalisation to fight illegal fishing
The European Commission launched a new IT tool on Tuesday (8 May) to track illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) from third countries, with a view to set up an entirely digitalised documentation of catches.
Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth’s natural life
A landmark UN report published yesterday (6 May) reveals 1 million species are at risk of extinction, with agriculture and fishing the primary causes of the deterioration, which also threatens humankind. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.
EU hits pause on helping farmers fight climate change
The farming sector is often blasted for its contribution to climate change. But it also has unique potential to capture and store carbon, write Imke Lübbeke and Andreas Baumüller.
Seven benefits of having an aquaponics garden at home
The European Parliament research service recently listed aquaponics – the symbiotic cultivation of fish and plants – as one of the ten technologies that could change our lives, producing local food without any chemical fertilisers, writes Robert Woods.
MEPs want less EU money going to intensive farming
Lawmakers in the European Parliament's environment committee have voted for a reduction in subsidies going to intensive farming under the common agricultural policy as of 2021. EURACTIV France reports.
New treaty bans commercial fishing in the Arctic for 16 years
The European Union and nine other countries, including the US and Russia, approved an international agreement on Thursday (14 February) that will prohibit commercial vessels from fishing in the Arctic in order to preserve the region's fragile ecosystem.
Collective of 400 EU stakeholders call for a ‘common food policy’
400 agriculture-related EU stakeholders, convened by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), has mapped out a new governance architecture for food systems in a bid to create sustainable food systems under a ‘Common Food Policy’.
Poland admits exporting suspect beef to ten EU countries
The European Commission will send a team of inspectors to Poland on Monday after a TV report showed sick cows being butchered for food in a Polish slaughterhouse.
Citizens are fed up with industrial agriculture
Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was a big issue at this year's Green Week in Berlin. With all the billions of euros available, the agro-ecological transition is more than possible, especially if subsidies to agribusiness and factory farms were stopped, write Harriet Bradley and Trees Robijns.