By EURACTIV's Agrifood Hub and Natasha Foote | Euractiv.com Est. 15min 07-10-2022 Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram How many of you chose to take a meditative walk before you ate your dinner last night? If you’re anything like me, heading home after a long day at the office, I’d be willing to bet not many. But perhaps you should consider it, according to the revered Seon Buddhist nun and Korean chef Jeong Kwan, who served up a meal unlike anything I have ever experienced before to select EU diplomats and journalists in Brussels a few weeks ago. And the use of the word ‘experience’ here is deliberate because it really was just that – a whole experience in reshaping the way we think about our relationship to food. The master of mindfulness specialises in something known as Korean temple cuisine, which was famously fawned over by world-renowned chef Éric Ripert of Le Bernardin in a 2015 New York Times profile by food journalist Jeff Gordinier. And, if Kwan’s name rings a bell, it also might be because an episode of the Netflix series ‘Chef’s Table’ was devoted entirely to her. The meal starts with a meditative walk around the venue’s gardens, with attendants in single file, one metre apart, soaking in the sights, smells, and sounds of the grounds in an effort to help calm and focus the mind and body ready for the meal to come. The cooking itself is far from anything you can find in Europe, firstly because it forbids the use of our favourite ingredients – onions, garlic, chives, green onions, and leeks, collectively referred to as ‘o-shin-chae’. Asked why, Kwan explained that these ingredients “prevent spiritual practice” and may distract Buddhist practitioners during meditation. The food is also entirely devoid of any animal products, as per the fundamental Buddhist principle that compassion means to embrace all living beings as oneself. But the meal is not defined by what it lacks, but by the richness of what it brings to the table. This includes a number of unusual ingredients, such as dried acorns, ground to a paste and set into a kind of jelly, seaweed, and the Korean fermented speciality, kimchi. But the real magic ingredient in temple cooking is time. Everything relies on months or, in the case of soy sauce, even years of fermentation and pickling, combined with hours of laborious processes such as chopping, grounding and stirring, bringing a whole new meaning to the concept of ‘slow’ food. I’ve thought long and hard about how best to explain the result, and the only way I can think of is the somewhat oxymoronic ‘subtle flavour explosion’ – a complex, unique, and multilayered taste experience. But what is arguably most interesting is the mindset around temple cooking. Because for Kwan, the importance of food goes far beyond the plate. Instead, it is the thing that “connects our emotional and physical selves” – the way we interact with the natural world and the foundation of our emotional wellness. Asked how those of us who live in cities, far from the farm, can reconnect with our food, Kwan replied that we should take time to remember that nature is “all around us – even in cities” and that the way we choose to eat has wide-ranging impacts on ourselves and the environment. She also emphasised that we should learn to work with what we’ve got. “By learning to cook with the local nature around you, this is how we protect nature,” she said – very ‘Farm to Fork-ish’. Perhaps a lesson for all of us to pause for a short medit-‘ate’-tion before eating our dinners this evening. By Natasha Foote Agrifood Podcast: Gas supply, pesticide cuts ruckus, biostimulants Agrifood Podcast: Gas supply, pesticide cuts ruckus, biostimulants This week, EURACTIV’s original agrifood duo reunite to bring you the latest on gas supply prioritisation and how member states’ decisions may impact the agrifood sector. We also give you the rundown on the backlash from EU countries over the … This week, EURACTIV’s original agrifood duo reunite to bring you the latest on gas supply prioritisation and how member states’ decisions may impact the agri-food sector. We also give you the rundown on the backlash from EU countries over the EU’s ambitions to slash the use and risk of pesticides, and EURACTIV’s Agrifood Editor Gerardo Fortuna travels to Italy to learn all about the world of biostimulants. —— Subscribe to EURACTIV’s Agrifood Brief, where you’ll find the latest roundup of news covering agriculture and food from across Europe. The Agrifood Brief is brought to you by EURACTIV’s Agrifood Team – Gerardo Fortuna (@gerardofortuna), Natasha Foote (@NatashaFoote), and Julia Dahm (@dahm_julia) Agrifood news this week Commission stands by gene editing survey slammed by NGOs A coalition of NGOs has joined forces to lambast the European Commission’s consultation process on its upcoming policy initiative on gene editing technologies – but the EU executive insists that a broad range of voices have already been heard on the contentious issue. Natasha Foote has the story. Relaxing green measures falls short as cereal production set to drop Despite the EU’s efforts to ramp up cereal production in the face of the Ukraine war by relaxing environmental rules, the area under cereal production has dropped below the five-year average and production is expected to decrease significantly, according to the European Commission. Julia Dahm has more. European Commission announces communication on fertilisers The European Commission will put forward a communication on fertilisers as part of efforts to tackle the disruption caused by the Ukraine war, but this still falls short of the EU-wide fertilisers strategy that stakeholders have been calling for. Natasha Foote has the details. Italy’s right envisages ‘alternative’ to EU’s sustainable agriculture policy Food sovereignty and an idea of sustainability that does not overlook economic and social aspects are among the main agriculture policy points of the Italian right-wing coalition, which will likely form a government in the following weeks. Gerardo Fortuna explains more. Berlin kickstarts process to inspire biomass strategies across the EU The German government published the framework for its biomass strategy on Tuesday (6 October) which aims to solve the conflict between biomass use versus electrification, guarantee food security and set standards for strategies in other EU countries. Learn more. In case you missed it Patchwork energy prioritisation risks food chain disruption, industry warns EU countries’ lack of cohesion in prioritising the agri-food sector for gas supply is sparking concerns of market disruptions among industry stakeholders while experts stress that member states must coordinate to ensure consistency. Julia Dahm and Natasha Foote explain more. Commission refutes EU farmers’ plight over influx of Ukrainian grain Romanian grain producers warned that an influx of Ukrainian grain via the EU’s so-called ‘solidarity lanes’ is pushing them close to bankruptcy, but the European Commission insists this has no negative impact on the single market. Yaroslava Bukhta has the story. Agrifood Special CAPitals Brief: Mental health in farming Faced with economic hardships, climate concerns, and mounting scrutiny on the farming community, farmers have long suffered from mental health issues. In this Special CAPitals edition of the Agrifood Brief, EURACTIV’s network takes a look at mental health concerns in the farming community across Europe and the support on offer to help farmers and break the stigma around talking about mental health in the profession. Agri-bites MEPs renew calls for impact assessment on pesticide reduction plans. Chair of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, Norbert Lins, sent a letter this week to Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, demanding that a new impact assessment be carried out on the EU executive’s plans to slash in half the use and risk of pesticides by 2030, echoing recent calls from member states. Agri stats saga concludes. This week, the regulation on statistics on agricultural input and output was adopted in the European Parliament’s plenary. The review of the regulation was carried out as part of efforts to consolidate and streamline how the EU collects data in the agricultural sector and will cover statistics on agricultural production, agricultural prices, nutrients, and plant protection products. For more background. Cost over taste. The cost of food is weighing more heavily on Europeans today than a few years ago, becoming the main factor influencing food purchases, followed by taste, according to a new report from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). Close to half of those surveyed consider food safety also important, while 41% of EU citizens take it for granted that the food they buy is safe. Learn more. Stable agriculture markets… EU agri-food trade remains stable. The latest monthly agri-food trade report published today shows that the EU agri-food trade reached a total value of €34 billion in June 2022, a decrease of 2.6% month-on-month and an increase of 24% compared to June of last year. Learn more. …rising agriculture prices. EU agricultural prices continued to rise in Q2 2022, according to new data from Eurostat, which found the average price of goods and services currently consumed in agriculture jumped by 36%, including considerable price hikes for fertilisers and soil improvers (+116%) and energy and lubricants (+61%). Bird flu reaches record levels. An unprecedented number of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus detections were reported in wild and domestic birds from June to September in Europe, according to the latest overview by EFSA, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the EU reference laboratory. In previous years, no cases or only a few cases were detected during the summer period. The overall 2021–2022 HPAI season has produced the largest epidemic so far observed in Europe. Live exports ban. This week, the New Zealand government signed into law the animal welfare bill that bans all live animal transport from New Zealand from 30 April 2023. On the back of the move, campaign groups have been urging the EU to follow suit. Pierre Sultana, director of the European policy office (EPO) at FOUR PAWS, said the move “clearly shows that such political decisions can be implemented within a shorter period of time when there is a strong will to do so”. The move was also called for in Slow Food’s new position paper on animal farming and welfare. See here for background on the issue. New briefings. A profound rethink of how we produce food and operate global food chains and related industrial processing sectors is needed to make them resilient and sustainable, according to new European Environment Agency (EEA) briefings on agriculture and food systems, published this week. Food waste prevention. How effective is your food waste prevention initiative? Fill out this EU survey to help scientists at the JRC identify and promote best practices in food waste prevention. Deadline 10 October. School scheme. Agriculture think-tank FarmEurope has put together a handy analysis of the EU school food procurement schemes. Check it out here. Geographical indications. There are two new Geographical Indications (GI) on the block – the German ‘Peitzer Karpfen’, a flat back mirror carp raised in Brandenburg, and the Spanish beef ‘Vaca Gallega – Buey Gallego’. CAP corner New CAP network. Two existing networks – the European Network for Rural Development, including its Evaluation part, and the Agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) – merged this week to become the EU CAP Network. The network aims to optimise the flow of information about agriculture and rural policy within the EU, to support the implementation and evaluation of the CAP Strategic Plans, as well as boosting innovation of the sector. Learn more. Newly submitted German CAP plan falls short of expectations. With the submission of its revised strategic plan, Germany has moved a significant step closer to implementing the EU’s landmark agricultural reform, yet neither farmers nor environmentalists are particularly convinced by the proposed changes. Agrifood news from the CAPitals FRANCE Opposition against mega biogas plant. Plans to construct a mega biogas plant in a small town near the French city of Nantes have residents up in arms. The plant, which would produce up to 23.6 million cubic meters of biogas per year, would bring too much noise, odour, and waste to the town in the eyes of many locals. EURACTIV France has more. GERMANY German, Spanish ministers vow to help Ukraine exports. Germany and Spain will continue to support agricultural exports from Ukraine, especially through the so-called solidarity lanes established by the EU via road and rail freight as well as inland shipping, according to a joint declaration signed on Wednesday by the agriculture ministers of both countries after a Spanish-German government summit in La Coruña. The two ministers also expressed concerns over the “global food crisis elicited by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine” and problems concerning the availability of agricultural inputs. (Julia Dahm I EURACTIV.de) NETHERLANDS New Dutch agriculture minister announced. Former deputy minister Piet Adema is the Netherlands’ new agriculture, nature, and food quality minister, taking over from Henk Staghouwer, who resigned last month amid the country’s ongoing nitrogen controversy. Find out more here. (Sofia Leeson I EURACTIV.com) ITALY CAP funds for thefts on farms. Some Italian local administrations are taking action against the increasing reports of thefts on farms using Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding. Both Apulia and Emilia Romagna regions earmarked funds for the installation of video surveillance cameras under measure 7 of the current CAP programme which provides funds for the renovation of rural areas. As reported by online media Agronotizie, Emilia Romagna made available this year €1 million with a 40% co-funding rate to finance video surveillance systems, anti-intrusion sensors, acoustic alarms, GPS trackers to be installed on tractors, software, and similar technologies precisely to counter the work of thieves. SWITZERLAND A ban on industrial livestock farming? Animal welfare associations’ collective attempt to ban industrial livestock farming in Switzerland proved unsuccessful. Swiss citizens were invited to vote on a referendum proposing the abolition of so-called “intensive” livestock farms and introducing new animal welfare laws. However, the ban was ultimately rejected. (EURACTIV.com) AUSTRIA Higher-income for Austrian farmers. Incomes of those working in agriculture and forestry in Austria grew by 15% on average in 2021, according to the agriculture ministry’s newly released “Green Report” on the situation in the sector. The rise comes after agricultural incomes had stagnated in 2019 and 2020. Minister Norbert Totschnig welcomed the report as a “confirmation for the effectiveness” of the government’s actions in this area, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Julia Dahm I EURACTIV.de) SPAIN Madrid to bring Commission to court over bottom fishing ban. The Spanish government will file an appeal with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against the European Commission’s decision to suspend bottom fishing activity in 87 areas of the Atlantic, agriculture and fisheries minister Luis Planas announced on Wednesday. EURACTIV’s partner EFE Agro has more. GREECE Millions from EU crisis reserve distributed to producers. €26 million in exceptional financial support that Greece received from the European Commission’s crisis reserve in order to address the impacts of the Ukraine war was made available to more than 20,000 producers on Monday (3 October). “We are always on the side of our producers, using every available resource at EU and national level, especially in this difficult period of the exogenous crisis,” Agriculture Minister Georgios Georgantas said in a statement. The payments’ beneficiaries include, among others, fruit and vegetable producers and winemakers. (Marianthi Pelekanaki| EURACTIV.gr) ALBANIA Albania moves closer to cannabis legalisation. A second draft of a law on cultivating and processing cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes has been put forward by the Albanian government, bringing the plant another step closer to at least partial legalisation. Read the full story. (Alice Taylor I exit.al) Events 10 October | EU Council’s Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) meeting 10 October | Meeting of the European Parliament’s food safety committee (ENVI) 10-11 October | European Potato Processors’ Association annual event 12 October | Front of pack labellings reform: health, knowledge, liberties 13 October | Implementing the EU legislation on deforestation: the way forward 13 October | Seminar on fast-track Biocontrol authorisation 15-19 October | Sial fair in Paris 16 October | World Food Day 17-18 October | AGRIFISH Council Read more with Euractiv European Commission announces communication on fertilisersThe European Commission will put forward a communication on fertilisers as part of efforts to tackle the disruption caused by the Ukraine war, but this still falls short of the EU-wide fertilisers strategy that stakeholders have been calling for.
