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What and how we eat has a profound impact on our culture, but changes in recent decades have profoundly changed our relationship with food, and not for the better. What are the costs of these changes, and can they be reversed?

The economic crisis has been used as a cover to weaken labour laws across Europe.

Cameron’s proposal for an in/out referendum on EU membership is likely to cause uncertainty and confusion for years to come, but what impact will it have on Scotland’s independence referendum? Scottish Greens co-convenor Patrick Harvie discusses the consequences.

In a context of an economic crisis and with public finances under stress, the on-going round of negotiations over the next EU Budget and the European legislation for the regulation of the financial industry have taken the British debate on Europe to a new level.

One of the major drivers of change in the agricultural sector has been fluctuations in the price of different commodities. For developing countries, such changes have had a disastrous impact and urgent steps need to be taken to return their agricultural sectors to a sustainable footing.

If “you are what you eat” than what happens when you don’t eat? In Greece, the economic crisis is forcing a rethink of people’s relationship with food, and the consequences are positive.

Against the backdrop of Spain’s desperate economic situation, the organic industry is one source of positive news. However despite its potential, significant barriers to its development remain.

The German Greens won the premiership of the German land (region) of Baden-Württemberg in 2011, giving them a unique opportunity to implement green policies across a range of areas. For food and agriculture, this meant an ambitious strategy based on high ecological quality standards, versus the industrialisation of our natural resources.

Ideological innovation and perseverance can give birth to concrete actions contributing to the Green transformation of agriculture and food systems, despite a difficult political and institutional environment. This is currently experienced by the Belgian Greens of Ecolo in the regional governments of Wallonia and Brussels.

On March 13th the European Parliament (EP), now co-legislator on agricultural and budgetary issues, adopted its position on redesigning the CAP. A period of intense negotiations opens-up between the Council of the EU and the EP. But the complete shift of the CAP towards an ecological transformation of agriculture is now very unlikely to take place. This will not prevent the Greens and other progressive actors to continue to prepare this transition. If the CAP can’t change, can we?