On her 7000km journey from France to Kyrgyzstan on bicycle and horseback, daily interactions and sometimes long sojourns with rural farmers and grassroots organizations showed Ashley Parsons the resilience and strength of our rural communities. Ashley is a writer and journalist dedicated to exploring potential and existing systems of inclusive progress, whether they are found in the agro-economy sphere or in the larger biodiversity and environmental conservation movement. In her work with ARC2020, she acts as the Paris correspondent, covering newsworthy agri-food and rural topics at the EU level, communicating with partners, and assisting with the on-the-ground work of Nos Campagnes en Résilience in supporting farmers and other rural actors.
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France | Not Perfect, But Possible – Seeing is Believing at Institut de Tramayes
After such an inspiring visit, the momentum can only build: the Institut de Tramayes will join us at the Gathering in Plessé in November. They’ll participate in our opening day, where we’ll collectively explore the question: What is a Université Paysanne?
October 28, 2025
When Policy Fails, People Step Up – Inside ARC’s Rural Resilience Project
The Rural Resilience project brings together a small but highly committed team working to connect the dots – between farmers and funders, researchers and regional leaders. In the face of centralised decision-making and extractive business models, our work aims to ensure local realities inform European decisions.
September 22, 2025
Could a Rustic Cow Reshape Local French Food Systems?
The Filière Nantaise stands as a model of how such policy ambitions can be put into practice on the ground. It is proving that small-scale, local, and rare can also mean ambitious, forward-thinking, and economically viable.
March 26, 2025
EU Institutions – Productivity Now, Environment Maybe Later
Yet again, now is supposedly not the time to do the very things that would reduce our exposure to destructive inputs. There is a fear that this terrible war in Ukraine will give European business-as-usual forces one more excuse turn the EU Green Deal into that potentially perfect but always elusive pie in the sky.
March 29, 2022
War in Ukraine – Food Fight in the EU
So now that we have the evidence of the risk of excessive reliance on feeds, fertilizers and fossil fuels – what are we going to do to adjust to this reality?
March 21, 2022
