Articles

With the constitutional amendments adopted on the 11th of March, Viktor Orbán has once again caused a surprise. The reactions of the Western European public show that there is still an inadequate grasp of how political power is exercised by Orbán’s government. European democrats now finally need to formulate a common position against the power centralization in the country.

Giuseppe Avigliano is one of our Young Voices of Europe.

Buen Vivir is a Latin American concept which can be understood in three differing ways, but mainly as a critique to the Western way of development. The equivalent school of thoughts in Europe is based on the, the Green New Deal, which proposes a strategy to confront the challenges of global warming, finite resources and etc. Despite this connection, the Green New Deal it is not a goal in itself, it is just a tool, differing from a political philosophy like Buen Vivir.

Buen Vivir is a criticism of what could be described as an ideology or cultural aspect of development. This paper will briefly touch upon the three different interpretations of the complex Latin American concept of Buen Vivir and then compare it to the European New Green Deal.

One by one, Germany’s farms are dying off. One in every two farms was run as a sideline: the majority of the household’s income came from activities other than agriculture. For many, that is a worrying trend. But to fight it, society must agree on what the future of agriculture should look like. 

Europe’s agriculture is part of many international value chains. It influences global commodity markets and thus the prices, products, income and diets in developing countries. Disagreement exists as to whether the area payments have a negative effect on developing countries.

French agricultural policy has been guided by an agroecological project since 2014. But these good intentions are not refl ected in the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. It is high time to put the focus on agroecology. 

Rising demand for organic products in Europe is a market opportunity for producers and the food industry. But farmers need help to switch from conventional to organic, and to stay organic in face of market pressures inducing them to switch back. The Common Agricultural Policy offers some support – but not enough. 

Like all industries, agriculture is subject to economies of scale. But larger farms have a smaller workforce and can be a bigger burden on the environment if they employ industrial methods, compared to the low-input systems that have traditionally dominated rural landscapes. It is time to shift policies towards preserving jobs and communities, being kinder on the environment, and encouraging young people to take up the farming profession.