Food for Change Newsletter

• Promote your event on our social media and Action Map.
• Apply for funding to hire a videographer. Video grants will be awarded at the end of September, so register early!
• Receive free campaign materials, including a fun info-poster and recipe pages for participants to fill out! We will turn these into a unique 'Cook Book' and deliver it to the European Commission in spring 2025.

Environmental NGOs and activists are increasingly becoming targets for online hate. Many of us encounter hateful comments on our social media channels daily.  Knowing how to deal with this can be a challenge. Should we just delete them, limit comments altogether, respond calmly, or even with humor? What's the right way to deal with online hate?

To answer these questions we're excited to announce our upcoming capacity-building workshop, 'Identifying and Combating Hate Speech Online: Strategies and Tools'. Join us online on September 24th from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

With the EU elections behind us and the new EU forming, Brussels has been buzzing. Hungary now holds the EU presidency, Ursula von der Leyen is set for another term as European Commission President, and the EU Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture just wrapped up last week.

What does all this mean for food in Europe? Quite a lot!

After seven months of intense talks with 29 diverse agricultural stakeholders, a groundbreaking consensus during the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture has been reached. Key recommendations of the report include shifting from area-based to income-based CAP subsidies, increase support for sustainable transitions, as well as new consumption policies that aim to make healthy, sustainable choices easier for citizens. These recommendations are a step in the right direction.

Still, the outcomes of the dialogue do show some weaknesses: It does not sufficiently cover pesticide and trade regulations, which are both fundamental to handle social and environmental crises of our times.  It is furthermore important to remember that these recommendations are not binding. 

So what now? 

Ursula von der Leyen has promised a Vision for Agriculture and Food within her first 100 days, which will shape the direction of her food politics during the new mandate. In 2025, the long-term EU budget will be negotiated and a new Common Agricultural Policy will be proposed. These are critical moments to apply pressure on decision-makers to ensure they turn the dialogue’s outcome into concrete action. We must also vigilantly monitor all involved groups to prevent any backtracking on the agreement.

In the meantime, if you want to discuss the EU’s sustainability and food politics and make your voices heard by politicians at the same time, you can join 'My Real Deal', a platform where citizens can share their ideas and concerns about the Green Deal.

With Hungary having taken over the presidency of the European Council in July this year, what better time to delve into the history of one of Europe’s most iconic dishes, Hungarian goulash!

Goulash was invented by humble cowherds, known locally as 'gulyás hús', who cooked broths on cauldrons over open fires using long-life and locally-sourced ingredients that suited their nomadic livelihoods. In the case of a death of one of the cattle, the meat would be added to the stew, which in turn came to give the iconic dish its name.

Following the arrival of chillies from the Americas, the Hungarian population had, by the end of the 19th century, bred new varieties, used new techniques for preparation, and developed their defining spice, paprika.

Colonialists imposed German as the official language at the time, restricting Hungarians' ability to express their cultural identity. So, they sought other ways - and food was the answer! One such way was the promotion of their popular new pantry-staple, paprika, and its key-role in goulash. This was so successful that the region soon had paprika shortages!

Pride in Hungarian heritage need not be based in ethno-nationalism, intolerance and isolationism as Mr Orban may wish for you to believe, a healthy dose of paprika does just the trick!