Natasha Foote

🚨After 4 years with @Euractiv (& my dream agri team), it’s time for new adventures. I’m leaving in December, but of course staying in my beloved agri world (& Brussels) so 📩natashafoote.freelance@gmail.com. Exciting things to come, watch this space 👀

A new high in the EU Commission’s quiet publishing practice: proposing the revision of the tobacco taxation directive on the MFF day, complete with a smokescreen of an unworkable tobacco tax (and of course, everyone’s talking about that, not the actual revision)

All agri folks right now a day on from the announcement of the new CAP… without the publication of the actual proposal Raises serious questions of how journalists are supposed to scrutinise what is on the table when all we have for now is the Commission’s spin on things?

“I don’t see any cuts at all,” Agri Commissioner Hansen tells journalists, adding the €300 billion secured is “similar to the current level” This budget merge hides all the devils in the details of the money - someone better at maths than me (a low bar) please help

The Commission has spoken on the future of the CAP - and it’s going down like a sack of manure in the European Parliament “This looks like the final chapter of the CAP” one MEP summed up, while another called it a “sad day for Europe and for its rural areas” Yikes

@Watermael01 It looks closer to 30% when adjusted for inflation, but I’m no mathematician

@NatashaFoote 17%?

Real time footage of everyone in this room in the Parliament trying to figure out how much the Commission is cutting the CAP

Largest ever EU budget but the agriculture budget is being cut by 20% (at face value) and up to 30% when adjusted for inflation

Everybody (or almost everybody) in the EU bubble is talking about the Green Claims Directive. @gerardofortuna explains the drama. euronews.com/my-europe/2025…

Update: seems like the EU budget proposal and the new CAP proposal will come on the same day, on 16 July Hope no agri stakeholders have planned a holiday in July…

Some dates for the diary: The new EU budget proposal (MFF) will come on 16 July, and will be followed closely by the new CAP post-2027 reform proposal. Not clear yet if it will be a 'two for the price of one' deal on the same day, but it will be in quick succession

And I’m not the only one noticing this

Listening between the lines at the #EUAgriVision conference - both Commissioner @CHansenEU & 🇵🇱’s Siekiersk stressed the need for a separate *agri* budget, but I’ve heard nothing about rural development, which is the one most likely to be merged as per current discussions

Sorry, is @EUAgri actually kicking off its Vision conference with a manel? Visionary… #EUAgriVision

Is Trump about to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals? 💊 A trade war between the U.S and the EU in the pharma sector would be concerning, messy, and problematic. Here's the full explanation.

Dangerous pesticides banned in the EU are still used in South Africa. Some are neurotoxic, others cause cancer or harm the environment Yet it is often EU companies that produce & export these pesticides My deep dive from the ground for ARC2020 arc2020.eu/spilling-europ…

South African farm workers have set up a People's Tribunal on Europe's 'toxic trade' in pesticides deemed dangerous for the EU, but still made in their country. A story from the other part of the world-maybe from another time-by @NatashaFoote on @euronews euronews.com/green/2025/04/…

I’ve been in South Africa this week to learn about the impacts of the EU’s trade in banned pesticides on the ground This is Dina, who used to work on vineyards before her lungs were too damaged to continue working, and this is her message to EU policymakers

What does this mean for next steps? More to follow but I already outlined a bit what today’s vote means in my latest for ARC2020 arc2020.eu/new-vote-could…

Member states TODAY backed a proposal to move ahead with negotiations on genetically modified crops, despite concerns about patents. But what's all this patent talk about? Read my analysis: euractiv.com/section/agricu…

Aaaand we’re one step closer to the EU loosening its rules on new genetic techniques 🧬 consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press…