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Article in APRODEV NEWS on outcome of EP Plenary vote on the CAP Reform on 12 March 201
APRODEV CAP statement, February 2013. The EP Agricultural Committee vote in January 2013 was a dangerous step backwards in a CAP reform process that is long since overdue. APRODEV calls on MEPs to vote in favour of a more coherent CAP reform in the forthcoming plenary vote.
Crop Rotation in the CAP reform: Relevance of WTO constraints, benefits and control, February 2013. This APRODEV paper addresses the urgent debate of which solution provides the better response to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and depletion of soil fertility: crop rotation or crop diversification. The difference is far from trivial. Experts and institutions clearly agree that rotation is much more effective in achieving good ecosystem functions. This paper shows that crop rotation fully complies with WTO green box requirements and can even be more easily defended than crop diversification. Also the paper demonstrates that the crop rotation measure would be an annual obligation with a pluriannual scope and control for which effective solutions already exist.
Legal advice on CAP Reform vs WTO: Crop Diversification or Crop Rotation, by NCCR Trade Regulation CAP reform and WTO on crop rotation by NCCR Trade Regulation, WTI, Bern, 17 February 2013.
EU Horizon 2020 - Agricultural reserach for sustainable agriculture and global food security, October 2012 APRODEV Policy Brief advocates for investing in long term sustainable agriculture and agro-ecological approaches that contribute to improving soil fertility and nutrient cycles, to enhance ecosystem functions and to reverse the trends of biodiversity loss. There is a risk that European agricultural research continues to be too narrowly focused on short term gains of increasing yields and profitability in Europe and that it fails to respond to the diverse issues that must be addressed to fight rural poverty and improve climate resilience.
Crop rotation: Benefiting farmers, the environment and the economy, July 2012 Briefing paper by APRODEV, FoEE, IFOAM EU Group and PAN. Farmers worldwide have rotated different crops on their land for centuries and thereby contributed to biodiversity and ecological land management. In contrast, monocropping has led to a loss of diverse agricultural systems and to many negative social and environmental externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions and displacement of indigenous people. The CAP reform must ensure a move towards sustainable farming practices and must include crop rotiation with legumes.
EU farm policy still harms poor countries – it’s high time for change - Joint cartoon and call for action by ARC-Agricultural and Rural Convention, APRODEV, Corporate European Observatory, CONCORD, European Environmental Bureau, European Coordination of Via Campesina, Food and Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace, EU IFOAM and Pesticide Action Network.
APRODEV CAP Lobby Brief 7 - Mitigating GHG emissions and promoting sustainable agriculture, March 2012. Climate change mitigation is part of the international responsibility of CAP. A clear strategy is needed to ensure the CAP reform is contributing to sustainability targets and to GHG emission cuts. Specific recommendations to do so include increasing soil carbon, closing nutrient cycles, promoting eco-intensification, improving crop rotation, increasing cultivation of legumes, reducing emissions from the livestock sector, promoting agri-environmental programmes and agri-ecological research.
APRODEV letter to Commissioner Ciolos on Rio+20 and the CAP Reform, February 2012 - APRODEV urges the EU to support actionable commitments in the Zero Draft document for Rio+20 in line with the shared global responsibility as outlined in the Agenda 21 (UNCED 1992). APRODEV calls for bold commitments that show clearly how Europe will implement the transition towards a sustainable and resilient food system which maintains biodiversity and addresses the needs of the poor.
APRODEV COMMENTARY on legislative proposal on CAP reform, December 2011 - More with less? Why business as usual is not an option and why we need to rethink the export orientation of European agriculture. On how to take on the EU's international responsiblty in earnest and contribute to do-no-harm and use the CAP to stimulate the transition towards sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.
APRODEV CAP Policy Brief - Monitoring and Complaint Mechanism March 2012 - This brief summarises and elaborates on different voices that support the call for including the monitoring of the external impact of CAP and to set up a CAP complaint mechanism open to civil society and farmers organisations in the South.
APRODEV CAP Policy Brief - History of Trade, October 2011 -The EU has evolved as one of the world's biggest agricultural exporters under the CAP and GATT/WTO rules. In the beginning the focus was entirely on protecting the domestic market, however from the 1960s a legal sapce was created in GATT for subsidisation of exports. And EU agricultural exports continued to increase.
APRODEV CAP Lobby Briefs 1-6, February 2011
The impact of CAP on food markets and food security in developing countries is hardly addressed in CAP debates. Matters relating to external aspects of CAP need to be assessed and monitored to identify possible negative effects. The CAP should be subjected to a coherence test and should adhere to the principle of “do-no-harm” to food markets in developing countries.
- International responsibility of the CAP - This Brief no 1 looks at the profound impact of EU rule-making on functioning of global food chains, and calls on the CAP to take its responsibility for global food security and to become a test case for the EU’s commitments to policy coherence for development.
- Trade Defence Measures - This Brief no 2 looks at international trade rules and trade flows that jeopardize developing countries’ efforts to increase food self-sufficiency, and calls on the EU to grant necessary policy flexibilities to developing countries to meet their food security concerns
- Preventing dumping - This Brief no 3 looks at dumping of cheap food on markets in developing countries and at hidden forms of dumping linked directly or indirectly to the CAP, and calls for EU export competition to adopt the principle of doing no harm to developing countries.
- EU imports of animal food - This Brief no 4 looks at the EU’s dependency on protein feed import and its effects, and suggests measures to overcome the current protein deficit in the EU.
- Standards - This Brief no 5 looks at global value chains and the role of EU standard-setting in international competitiveness of EU food economy, and calls for public international standard setting and for private standards to be subject to a legal framework, to allow competitive smallholders in third countries to maintain their share in domestic markets.
- Indexation of direct payments - This Brief no 6 looks at possible correlation of world market prices and direct payments, and suggests measures that curb the trade distorting impact of direct subsidies and allow for any savings to be used to ease the situation of food insecure countries (Net Food Importing Developing Countries) in times of high food prices.
- Mitigating GHG emissions and promoting sustainable agriculture - This Brief no 7 (see above NEW) looks at climate change mitigation which is part of the international responsibility of CAP. Recommendations include increasing soil carbon, closing nutrient cycles, promoting eco-intensification, crop rotation, cultivation of legumes,agri-environmental programmes and agri-ecological research and reducing emissions from the livestock sector.
APRODEV Response to EC Consultations on CAP reform
Background documents
EU's Common Agricultural Policy : Tools protecting Europen Farmers - Analytical note by South Centre, 2011, providing an overview of the policy instruments available under the CAP that are used to protect European farmers.
EU Common Agricultural Policy Reform 2006
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