This report, co-authored by Aaron Scheid from Ecologic Institute, summarises the results of a series of assessments of the climate and environmental ambition of the Common Agricultural Policy's (CAP) Strategic Plans. It is based on the detailed study of four Member States (France, Spain, Poland and Germany). The analysis suggests that, while the new CAP structure provides more flexibility to Member States, countries did not take this opportunity to significantly increase support for environmental and climate action.

The German CAP Strategic Plan has the potential for an ambitious CAP 2023 to 2027. While the debate on the next CAP post-2027 is already starting, in this article Aaron Scheid and Sophie Ittner from Ecologic Institute argue that the German government needs to exploit all potential in the current CAP to increase the ambition towards more climate change mitigation and the protection and enhancement of natural resources and biodiversity. The coalition agreement gives them the mandate to do so.

This assessment identifies the likely contribution of Poland's CAP Strategic Plan to climate mitigation and adaptation, natural resources, and biodiversity protection. Overall, the findings are that the Plan is insufficient to respond to the country's needs in relation to environment and climate challenges.

This report identifies and assesses the likely contribution of Poland's CAP Strategic Plan to climate mitigation and adaptation, natural resources, and biodiversity protection.

Animal products are an essential part of today's German diet, but they are associated with a variety of environmental problems, such as global warming, eutrophication of soils and waters, etc.. These cause external costs. The study, co-authored by Aaron Scheid and Benjamin Görlach of Ecologic Institute, estimates these external costs for animal products and examines policy measures to address them.

In a report co-authored by Ecologic Institute and IEEP, we demonstrate that despite both the potential benefits and risks of carbon farming for biodiversity, most of the current carbon farming mechanisms fail to safeguard biodiversity and incorporate approaches to ensure net positive biodiversity impacts. We identify challenges and opportunities for implementing standards for biodiversity into carbon farming mechanisms and propose requirements to ensure that carbon farming standards enhance and safeguard biodiversity, alongside delivering climate change mitigation.

Drawing on our evaluation of ten existing carbon farming standard approaches to safeguard and promote biodiversity, this infographic proposes a differentiated approach to safeguarding and enhancing biodiversity in carbon farming standards.

This report examines the mitigation potential of climate friendly soil management practices at global, EU and German level, along with key management measures, their co-benefits and trade-offs, and implementation challenges.

The two-year "Soil Mission Support: Towards a European Research and Innovation Roadmap for Soils and Land Management" project supported the European Union's A Soil Deal for Europe mission on soil health and nutrition and the European Green Deal to facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This animated video demonstrates the importance of healthy soils, the nature of "lighthouses" and where to find them, as well as their contributions to healthy soils. The video was created in cooperation between Ecologic Institute and INRAE.

For the project "New Cooperation for Sustainable Landuse and Food Supply in Urban-Rural Areas (KOPOS)", Ecologic Institute designed a ten-part postcard series. The postcard series promotes the first two episodes of the four-part KOPOS podcast series "Ernährungswende – Regional gedacht". In it, the focus of the two model projects (1) regional nutrition in Freiburg and (2) access to farmland in Brandenburg are discussed. The postcards are designed according to the project's style guidelines and also include a QR code to the corresponding podcast episode.

The study for BUND provides scientific input for the discussion on more environmentally friendly crop protection in the future. It provides an overview of the potentials and barriers associated with alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides, as well as approaches on the implementation of integrated pest management that have so far been given too little consideration. The study is available for download.

In her plans for 2023 addressed to the EU Parliament, President of the EU Commission von der Leyen did not mention the proposal for a Sustainable Food System legislative framework (SFSF). This created speculation about the timeframe of this key proposal, which has been put forward as a cornerstone of the EU Green Deal for the agri-food sector. This blogpost, co-signed by members of the Think Sustainable Europe network, underlines the importance of the SFSF to be proposed next year in order to drive a sustainable transition of the EU food system, given the urgency of such a transition.

The discussion about possible alternatives to conventional pesticides has gained momentum in recent years with the announcement of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy. The European Commission proposes a 50 percent reduction in synthetic and hazardous pesticides by 2030. But what are possible alternatives to synthetic chemical pesticides? This infographic from Ecologic Institute shows indirect and direct non chemical crop protection measures.

In this open access book, Dr. Josselin Rouillard together with Christina Babbitt (Environment Defense Fund, U.S.), Edward Challies (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Jean-Daniel Rinaudo (BRGM, France) compile an international account of water allocation policies supporting a transition to sustainable water use in regions where agriculture is the dominant water use.

In the fourth episode of the "Green Deal—Big Deal?" podcast, we ask our expert guests about the food systems approach adopted by the "Farm to fork" strategy and investigate how the strategy will impact producers, consumers and the global food markets. We discuss strategies to address food waste and explore why meat is a politically sensitive topic

Gattinger, Andreas et al. 2022: Reducing soil compaction. Factsheet. German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau.

Scheid, Aaron et al. 2022: Prevention of land take. Factsheet. German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau.

Gattinger, Andreas et al. 2022: Precision Farming (site-specific management). Factsheet. German Environment Agency: Dessau-Roßlau.