During the informal meeting of agriculture ministers held in Prague, Commissioner Wojciechowski hinted to the need for the EU to have a fertilizer strategy, notably in this time of agricultural price crisis. On the revision of the use of plant protection products, some delegations led by the Polish one strongly asked for an effective revision […]
After the informal AgriCouncil in Prague middle of September, EU ministers seemed to be particularly open to the new modifications of the EU legislations on GMO, assuring solid impact assessment and safety as the top priority. In Austria, an NGO guides a pan-European on-line petition to keep the status quo on GMO regulations, fearing that […]
A more inclusive, educative, and ambitious project Executive summary The school schemes for food procurement are a European initiative in place since 1977 whose aim is to improve the quality and the variety of nutritional intake for children in school age. They represent, therefore, one branch of the preventive arm of the more general approach […]
On September 9th, 2022, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) -the in-house research department-, has published a few analyses[1] concerning the soon-to-be-revised Regulation EC 1169/2011on the provision of Food Information to Consumers (FIC). The reports are intended to be used by the Commission for its revision proposal to be published later during 2023. The JRC’s study titled “Front-of-pack […]
This week the European Parliament has set two decisive milestones for the sustainable use of natural resources and the mobilisation of European agriculture to meet the climate challenge and make the European economy more sovereign and resilient. Firstly, with today’s vote on the Renewable Energy Directive. The European Parliament confirms the place of biofuels, including first-generation […]
Context In the face of the Ukrainian war and the Russian blockade on Ukraine’s ports, the UN launched the Black Sea Grain initiative in coordination with representatives of Turkey, Russia and Ukraine, to contribute to global food security by allowing the export of grain and foodstuffs from three key Ukrainian ports (Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi). Since […]
In August, the record drought and heat waves have continued, forcing wine producers to start harvesting in advance throughout Europe. Italy has foreseen a -10% drop in its production, while France is back on track, compared to last year’s performance. Nonetheless, in France the discussions have continued in advancing the issue of irrigation. Full note […]
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis continues to have a strong impact on agricultural markets. Trapped between soaring production costs and declining consumer purchasing power, European livestock farmers and animal feed producers face difficulties to plan ahead. Prolonged animal disease outbreaks and the increase in grain prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are expected to reduce […]
For almost three years now (since the beginning of the Covid crisis), European agriculture has been dealing with one challenge after another and one crisis after yet another one. The cumulative consequences of these challenges continue and, even increase, when they are not anymore at the headlines. And this will be a serious threat on […]
The disruption of exports, specially of grain, as a consequence of the outbreak of the Ukrainian war in February 2022 triggered by Russia, severely affected global supply chains. In response, both the European Union and the United Nations organized a series of initiatives to ensure global food security, in fear that increasing figures of hunger and famine would spread worldwide. One month after the agreement to unblock Ukrainian ports, overview of the situation.