Agrifood Brief

Welcome back to EURACTIV's agrifood podcast! After a brief hiatus, we're back this week to speak about the latest developments on the reform of the EU's farming subsidies programme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in an interview with the Chair of the European Parliament's AGRI Committee, Norbert Lins, and we give you a rundown of the top 10 agri-news stories this week, including why halloumi cheese is hitting headlines and the latest on the campaign to End the Cage Age in farming. 

This week, EURACTIV gives a recap on what to expect from the so-called "super-trilogue" on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, discussing what is on the menu for the meeting and the main remaining sticking points in negotiations.

This week, the EURACTIV agrifood team explores what can be expected from the upcoming Organic Action Plan, due to be published on 24 March, and we speak about the latest chapter in the longstanding saga on front of pack nutritional labelling. 

This week, EURACTIV spoke with Portuguese agricultural minister Maria do Céu Antunes, who is the current chair of the AGRIFISH Council, about the challenges involved in wrapping up the CAP, including the thorny issue of social conditionality and how she hopes to tackle the remaining outstanding issues to reach a conclusion within the next few months, and we discuss the thawing relations between the EU and the US.

This week, EURACTIV takes a look at why butter is hitting the headlines in Canada and what implications this could have for the EU, and we talk about the upcoming 'super-trilogue' which has been called by the Portuguese Presidency this week in an attempt to finally wrap up CAP negotiations. 

This week, EURACTIV speaks with Green MEP Viola von Cramon about a new report released which found that agricultural subsidies continue to be misused across countries in Central and Eastern Europe, we discuss a new proposal for a 'Mediterranean diet' label, and we speak with Simon Wancke, vice-president of the EU young farmers association CEJA, about concerns over the looming Mercosur agreement. 

This week, EURACTIV speaks with Enrico Somaglia, deputy secretary-general of the European federation of food, agriculture and tourism unions, about social conditionality and what this would mean for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, and we speak with Irish MEP Chris MacManus about the demise of small farms in the EU.

This week, EURACTIV's agrifood team sat down with the World Soil Champion Luca Montanarella, head of the new Joint Research Centre's action on Soil Data and Information Systems and advisor to the European Commission, to speak about all things soil and the importance of this natural resource, and we bring you our personal agri-food takes from a recently published Parliament survey.

What do Roman gods and vices have to do with agriculture? Find out in this week's EURACTIV agrifood podcast, where we delve deeper into the publication of the EU's Beating Cancer Plan and what this holds in store for the agrifood sector and we speak with MEP Herbert Dorfmann, agricultural coordinator for the EPP, about this week's amendments on the Farm to Fork strategy and what this means for the future of the strategy. 

This week, EURACTIV takes a sneak peek at a draft version of the EU's 'beating cancer' plan, which outlines plans to phase out red and processed meat and alcohol from EU agrifood promotional programmes alongside other several fiscal measures designed to target the sector, we speak with Tassos Haniotis, director of strategy, simplification and policy analysis at the EU Commission's DG AGRI, about agricultural statistics and to Gianluca Brunori, chair of the EU Commission' standing committee on agricultural research, about a recently released report on the resilience of the agrifood sector.