Dear members and friends of Forum Synergies,

Your board and team wishes you a very relaxing and happy holiday time! We are sure you are just now longing for a break or you are already enjoying it…

As you may have noticed from earlier emails and our recent newsletters we have been quite busy these last months. We have been running a number of capacity building exercises on good communication, thematic workshops of our projects and conferences like the recent one on agro-ecological innovation with the organic farming movement and ARC2020.

We are proud that our website is up and running finally, after many unforeseen hurdles, but also following many stages of improvements. We can now offer a good overview on success stories and interesting documents concerning our projects which shall serve newcomers and partner networks. In times when we can hardly foresee which role rural Europe might have to play in the coming years this is a good starting point for sharing good practices and creative initiatives on the local level.



On the international and political level we have continued to support the Agricultural and Rural Convention (www.ARC2020.eu) and to launch the call for the Good Food March (www.goodfoodmarch.eu) which will start its actions in mid-August and end in Brussels on 19. September with a “European Brunch” in front of the European Parliament followed by a Conference which the ARC organises together with Slow Food International. Key note speakers at the conference will be Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, Council President Van Rompoy and the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. Special about this event is, that this is a citizens initiative, - us – inviting the decision makers who will decide soon on the future farm and rural development policy to listen to the Good Food Marchers,  - and not the other way round.
 
The good cooperation with Slow Food in the past months and years has brought up the idea that we should take the opportunity this year to join their Terra Madre event in Turino this autumn and to hold our annual General Assembly 2012 there. Terra Madre is one of, - if not the-,  largest and most impressive gathering of people concerned about tasty, healthy and local food. It is a beautiful and exciting fair of local food and environmental initiatives,  and it has had a substantial impact in Italy and in international food politics. If you want to get an impression of the programme and the opportunities to meet with local initiatives there, have a look at Terra Madre’s website http://www.slowfood.fr/le-salon-international-du-gout-et-terra-madre-2012.

Again wishing you a splendid summer and looking forward to seeing you all soon!!

Yours truly,

Marina, Simone, Oliver, Philippe and Hannes