PDO, PGI, GTS: Europe’s approach to protect and support local products and Europe’s culinary heritage.

The backbone of this book are the portraits of eight, mostly young farmers from different areas across Europe. These eight farmers, male and female, tell their personal story: why and how they became farmers, what their passion for farming is and in what ways they are connected to the Common Agricultural Policy. Although the farmers represent different sectors and different ways of farming, they all share in common a strong drive to farm and to farm differently; to make a living out of growing food, but at the same time to re-new and recreate their connection to the soil, the products they grow, the consumers, to nature and to their local community. In this respect they are all front-runners, not in the sense that their way is the only way for the future of food and farming, but as practical pioneers who live and work from the conviction that agriculture needs to change, that the food system needs to change to be able to find solutions for current and future challenges. For each country where these farms are located an expert provides some general information on the way the CAP is being implemented.