- GREEN INSIGHT INTO EU FOOD POLICY
- Revision Organic Farming Regulation: Reaction to EU organic label proposals
- Food and feed law: learning from past mistakes to improve transparency and independence of controls.
- Give Bees a Chance Action week: counter the industry pro-pesticide propaganda.
- FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- Caritas Europa Food Report: The EU role to end hunger by 2025
- Your Guide to EU Funding: focus on the instruments for Rural and Coastal development
- JOIN THE FOOD REVOLUTION: THE STORY OF THE MONTH
- Every month food actors who joined the 'Join the Food Revolution' network share their story, showing the way to take back control over your plate –
- WHAT'S ON THE PLATE?
- Upcoming Events
GREEN INSIGHT INTO EU FOOD POLICY
Revision Organic Farming Regulation: Reaction to EU organic label proposals
On 25 March, the European Commission has published long-awaited proposals to revise EU legislation on organic farming.
Greens firmly believe that organic agriculture is and should continue to be the flagship of best practice in farming. In buying into such a "do no harm" farming system, consumers need to be confident that when they buy an EU organic label product that farmers have not used damaging pesticides and that the product is free from contamination.
Organic production needs to maintain its positive image and be free from scandals that have hit the food sector. But consider that pesticides are used everywhere, they saturate the landscape and affect every terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem
Food and feed law: learning from past mistakes to improve transparency and independence of controls
In its final plenary session of the current legislative period, the European Parliament adopted the
report on Food and Feed law, amending the above-mentioned EC proposal. Many Green demands were adopted, particularly regarding the independence and transparency of controls and on the removal of seeds from the text's scope.
Besides, these new rules will also take account of consumer expectations on the frequency of controls or the assessment of the risk of fraud
Give Bees a Chance Action week: counter the industry pro-pesticide propaganda
As part of 2014’s European Week of bees and pollinators, the Greens/EFA Group organised a series of events from 1 to 4 April to highlight how a pesticide-and-GMO-free agriculture is a prerequisite for healthy bees and pollinators.
This same week, Brussels hosts a series of conferences dealing with bees and pollination. Most of them are supported by the agro-chemical industry and related organisations, which together currently steer the debate on this issue whilst forgetting to mention that the high toxicity of the products they sell is one of the main causes of the collapse of bee populations.
We also took the opportunity of the Bee Action Week to launch a new open data platform: to track losses in bee colonies across Europe:
Bee2Bees.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Caritas Europa Food Report: The EU role to end hunger by 2025
The NGO
Caritas presented its report 'The EU role to end hunger by 2025' to the European Parliament on 15 April. The report clearly states that GMOs are not part of the solutions to fight hunger. While the EU is putting at risk food security by heading towards more and more concentration and privatisation in the food chain, Caritas' report promotes - in line with UN's rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter 's and the position of the Greens/EFA group - more sustainable and small scale agriculture respectful of farmers' rights and biodiversity.
The thematic of the report will be the main focus of Caritas' campaign the coming year 2015, EU year of Development
Your Guide to EU Funding: focus on the instruments for Rural and Coastal development
The Greens/EFA Group has recently published its Guide on EU Funding. The guide gives an overview of all EU funding available and focuses in particular on financial instruments for Rural and Coastal Development. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) is the EU’s main instrument for investments in rural areas and the agricultural sector, and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is intended to promote the transition towards more sustainable fishing in the EU, support the diversification of the costal communities’ economies and finance the creation of decent jobs and quality of life
This short document gives to local and regional stakeholders, an insight into the functioning of the huge variety of EU funds. It provides young people in the EU with information on
how they can directly benefit from Europe by taking part in one of the numerous EU programmes. It also offers guidance on how to set-up your own EU project.
JOIN THE FOOD REVOLUTION: THE STORY OF THE MONTH
Corrinne Denecker, Brussels Sprout :)
Corinne is an urban gardener who chose to cultivate what she eats at home thanks to permaculture design. She also runs a Food blog
‘Brussels Sprouts’ to help urban citizens to get more knowledge on heirloom varieties and reconnect with the food they eat. As she rightfully says ‘One sprout at a time...’
More about Corrinne
WHAT'S ON THE PLATE?
28/04 EFSA stakeholders
workshop on Food additives re-evaluation programme, Parma, Italy
22/04-02/05: Mest Theatre play, Brussels, Belgium
theatres from 9 countries, including India, Burkina Faso, Brazil, South Africa and several in Europe, will be working on the issue of food security and the exorbitant rise in food prices
03/05: "Taste Europe!",
Drielandenpunt Vaals, Belgium
Green parties from the Euroregion demand a high priority for food quality and safety and believe that the standard can and must improve . They are organizing a unique cross-border launch of the joint campaign by the three countries in Vaals to show that we in Europe opt for fair and sustainable food . The Belgian, German and Dutch candidates will each highlight a food aspect of the electoral theme - food speculation, free trade agreements , GMOs , agriculture and safe drinking water - both literally and figuratively to give a taste of the election activities in the Euro-region.
