FOOD 2050

At the Forum for the Future of Agriculture (see previous posts below), we spoke to Ariel Brunner, BirdLife International’s EU Agriculture Policy Officer, about the importance of farmers having the right knowledge when applying technology, and the ways in which farmers can acquire this knowledge (he talks about training, incentives and regulation). He highlights that, so far, industry has perhaps played the biggest roll in providing this training to farmers, but considering their clear vested interest, others should be involved to a greater extent. View his comments by clicking below.

We attended the Healthy Foods Summit in London earlier this week with our trusted handycam. Following the keynote debate on food production, we spoke to two of the panel members, Helen Browning, Food and Farming Director at theSoil Association and Caroline Drummond, Chief Executive of LEAF, an association that specialises in integrated farm management techniques, and the moderator, Dominic Dyer of the Crop Protection Association,  to get a full spectrum of views on the ongoing revision of the European pesticides regulation.

What a shame! I missed all the buzz around the pesticides in wine story. Not only because I was somewhat distracted after a few glasses of Chateau la France, but mainly because I was on holiday. Pan Europe have had great success in the media recently after launching a new report claiming the presence of pesticide residues in wine. Looking at my RSS feeds this one bounced around Europe several times. Industry responded but it appears their response wasn’t half as media sexy (or can I say addictive?) as Pan’s. No change there then! If you missed this one, overviews of the story may be found here: Pan Europe,ECPA, EurActiv, Wine & Spirit.com, Yahoo!, DW-World.

Elsewhere on the web, heated debates are taking place as to the official first day of Spring, historically the 20/21st March, however there is no question in the minds of the French activists MDRGF (Movement for Rights and Respect for Future Generations) who are organising their third year of ‘Week without pesticides’ in France today. Since its debut in 2006, this event has grown in popularity across France and this year is also supported by various European countries.