French president greeted by whistles from hundreds of demonstrators as some clash with police

Hundreds of protesting farmers clashed with police in Paris as Emmanuel Macron toured the annual agricultural fair on Saturday. The French president had opened the fair as angry farmers blew whistles and shouted insults.

Riot police initially kept the protesters at a safe distance as he toured the fair, tasting honey from Normandy and cheeses from the Alps, and shaking hands with exhibitors. But as he entered the fair’s livestock area, hundreds of demonstrators crashed the gates and clashed with police.

The ornithologist Seán Ronayne’s all-consuming quest has made him an unlikely celebrity in Cork, and his passion for nature is raising awareness about the seriousness of Ireland’s ecological crisis

One of Seán Ronayne’s earliest memories is walking in the countryside near his home with his father. “I cried a lot as a child and I was hyperactive,” he says, “When I was three or four years old, my dad would take me out to calm me down. In the woods, he’d mimic the sound of the birds and ask me what they were. Looking back, I was trained to be an ornithologist almost from the pram. That’s really where it all started.”

As he grew older, Ronayne, who was something of a solitary child, would spend a lot of time at his kitchen window in Cobh, County Cork, peering through binoculars at the birds feeding in his garden and writing down their names in a notebook. At 14, he could identify most of the birds he saw by the sounds they made.

Inspired by French action, British campaigners say they will continue slow tractor protests after Dover roads were blocked

Farmers say there will be further French-style blockades following a slow tractor protest at Dover against low supermarket prices and cheap food imports from post-Brexit trade deals.

Around 40 tractors and other farm vehicles blocked roads around the Kent port for several hours on Friday evening by driving slowly and carrying signs with slogans such as “No More Cheap Imports”.

EU producers and hauliers find it’s ‘too hard’ to trade, just as Britain has been quietly destroying its farming sector

The announcement last month by the Port of Dover that the government was imperilling the UK’s food safety by insisting that import checks be conducted at a facility 22 miles inland rather than at point of entry, when physical inspections begin in April , could be dismissed as just another skirmish in the battle to implement a flawed Brexit. In reality, it’s part of a much bigger challenge to the UK’s post-Brexit food security – one which many in the sector believe will result in the first domestic crisis of a coming Starmer premiership: major food shortages and empty supermarket shelves.

At the heart of the issue, for a country that imports more than 45% of its food after exports, are post-Brexit border checks, recently introduced after five delays . The EU has been checking British exports for safety and standards for three years. This has already had an impact on trade. While Brexit cheerleaders like to celebrate robust export figures to the EU, those are led by gas and whisky. UK beef and pork exports were already down by more than 20% . According to figures from the Food and Drink Federation , the same is now being seen with imports, with apples down by 16.8% and oranges down by 18.2%.

Mass demonstrations across the EU against environmental directives have become a politically charged issue

On the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, a green, red and blue stream of New Holland, John Deere, Massey Ferguson, Fendt and Deutz-Fahr tractors trundled forwards, horns honking and orange lights flashing.

Under drizzly grey skies and escorted by navy blue Policía Nacional vans, few were in the mood to explain the motives for their demonstration, but a young farmer from the nearby town of Estella threw open his cab door to share his grievances. “They’re drowning us with all these regulations,” he said. “They need to ease up on all the directives and bureaucracy. We can’t compete with other countries when things are like this. We’re … drowning.”

In crowded Jerash refugee camp, hydroponic horticulture allows residents to grow their own crops efficiently in an arid country – and provides a stateless people with an income

Idris Abu Saleh has got used to being known as the chemist who grows the best onions. Unable to find any work after graduation, now, aged 23, he is supporting his family of eight from his homemade hydroponic greenhouse in a refugee camp in northern Jordan.

“People keep commenting on me being the pharmacist who sells onions,” said Abu Saleh. “But I try not to let that bother me – it’s a job.”

"Les prix agricoles ont baissé de 10% en moyenne rien que l’année écoulée, tandis que l’inflation bondissait et les bénéfices des grands groupes agro-industriels et de la grande distribution également. Cet échec et ce drame, ce sont ceux d’un modèle productiviste, poussé par la grande distribution et des gouvernements successifs depuis des décennies, contre lesquels nous alertons depuis tout ce temps."

Cet article « Agriculteurs et écolos, nous refusons d’être catalogués comme ennemis de la mobilisation » est apparu en premier sur La Relève et La Peste .

« La France pourrait redistribuer complètement autrement la PAC. Les Etats membres ont la possibilité de plafonner les aides la PAC. Rien n’empêche la France de plafonner les aides de la PAC à 100 000 euros par agriculteur, ce qui libérerait un volume financier énorme. Ce plafonnement n’écrêterait que les grosses structures, c’est bien la preuve que les gens qui sont à la manœuvre sont ceux qui ont intérêt à ne pas ce que ça change »

Cet article « 20% des agriculteurs les plus riches reçoivent 80% des aides de la PAC, le gouvernement doit agir » est apparu en premier sur La Relève et La Peste .

Enlarge (credit: Bruce Yuanyue Bi )

A few years back, the Internet was abuzz with the idea of vertical farms running down the sides of urban towers, with the idea that growing crops where they're actually consumed could eliminate the carbon emissions involved with shipping plant products long distances. But lifecycle analysis of those systems, which require a lot of infrastructure and energy, suggest they'd have a hard time doing better than more traditional agriculture.

But those systems represent only a small fraction of urban agriculture as it's practiced. Most urban farming is a mix of local cooperative gardens and small-scale farms located within cities. And a lot less is known about the carbon footprint of this sort of farming. Now, a large international collaboration has worked with a number of these farms to get a handle on their emissions in order to compare those to large-scale agriculture.

The results suggest it's possible that urban farming can have a lower impact. But it requires choosing the right crops and a long-term commitment to sustainability.

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