Agroecology
Alternative to a failed CAP - Public Conference
As the European debate on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy reaches a crucial stage, the Greens continue to insist that the new CAP must be fair, green, young, democratic, healthy and easy. If not, it will simply fail. To show that the greens do have alternative solutions for a CAP-policy that may be considered dead, Green MEP Bart Staes, has organised two major events in the European Parliament on agroecology.
The old CAP is unfair, unsustainable, sclerotic, undemocratic unhealthy and bureaucratic. It is time for changes that benefit new generations of farmers, citizens and the environment. This requires rediscovering the value of food and the values of solidarity. With this in mind, on Thursday 8th November, Staes has invited French filmmaker, researcher and writter Marie-Monique Robin to the European Parliament to screen her new film 'Crops of the future'. After "The World according to Monsanto" and "Our daily poison", Robin offers us the third chapter of her trilogy, "Crops of the Future" an encouraging study of agroecology and the solutions to our planet's food crisis. How to feed the world in 2050? Through agroecology practices.
While reminding us that one sixth of humanity still goes hungry today, and analysing the reasons for this, her film demonstrates that the situation is far from irrevocable, so long as we're prepared to modify the current agricultural paradigm and rethink our management and organisation of the food chain.
The next day, Friday 9th November, Staes has organised an international conference "The potential of agroecology: Reclaiming the food crisis", where Robin will be a keynote speaker. Explaining why he is organising this conference, Bart Staes said:
"As we know, our current food and agricultural system isn't sustainable. Increasingly we get locked in a global production model with high social and environmental costs, mainly in the form of a rapid degradation of biodiversity. There is an urgent need to rethink the global food system."
This is why he has taken the initiative, together with a group of Belgian academics, to organise this international conference to show ways to the transition towards a more sustainable agricultural and food model: Agroecology.
To find out more about the public conference and to watch the event streamed live, visit
Read the Greens/EFA's demands for CAP reform
