Across Europe, there is overwhelming support for the benefits of local, sustainable food – yet opinion polls show that it is hard for people to access it and citizens are demanding more of policymakers to improve the situation. To help develop better policy solutions to this system and move Europe forward towards agroecological approaches to agricultyre, Friends of the Earth Europe is organising a conference and civil society gathering on Good Food and Good Farming in Brussels on February 10th-11th which will bring together representatives from civil society, grassroots groups, and local, national and EU decision-makers.
The conference will feature plenary discussions and workshops which will:
- Exchange experiences and strategies for implementing agroecological solutions to farming problems under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
- Bring together ideas and concepts for integrating local, sustainable food policies with health, trade and development policies
- Share views on a common agenda for transforming food and agricultural systems by 2020
Speakers at the conference will include:
- Jerzy Plewa, Director-general, DG AGRI
- Benoit Biteau, Vice President, Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, France
- Renate Künast, former German federal minister for Agricultural and Rural Development
- Patrick Holden, Sustainable Food Trust, UK
- Erik Mathijs, Chair of SCAR 4th Foresight Report, KU Leuven
- Olivier de Schutter, co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
To help nurture these solutions and find support in EU policy changes, the conference (co-organised with ARC2020 and IFOAM EU), will run on the 10th and 11th of February 2015 and will be hosted in Brussels by the European Economic and Social Committee.
More details and registration information can be found here.
