The Meatrix is committed to helping educate people around the world about the issues of sustainability, specifically in terms of food production and consumption. This action page is a way for us to communicate with the concerned people in the European Union, to encourage them to take action locally, but also to exchange information and experiences at the international level. We hope to create a network of concerned people, communities and organizations around the world that all join together to promote more sustainable food production and consumption patterns.

This action page will provide you with information on the agricultural situation in the European Union, on like-minded organizations that operate in the country, as well as with background information about the Meatrix series. Please send us any information or updates you feel should be added to Giuseppina Pagano at gpagano@fwwatch.org.

Food & Water Watch is a not-for-profit consumer rights organization that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate the development of food systems that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers and groundwater.

Food & Water Watch works with allies around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. In Europe, we work to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and enact policies that favor small- and medium-sized family farms and sustainable agriculture. With staff based in three European countries, we closely monitor agriculture-related policies and participate in national and European campaigns with other civil society organizations.

European Farmer Co-ordination
CPE consists of 18 farmer and rural organisations from 11 European countries (Members and non members of the EU). It was created in 1986 following European farmers' meetings which had been held annually since 1981. Its members propose an in-depth reform of the agriculture policies in Europe and in the world, in particular of the Common Agricultural Policy (European Union).

CPE's priorities:

• many sustainable family farms
• economic recognition of the farmers'work through the sale of their products, which must represent the major part of his income
• sustainable modes of production respecting the quality and safety of the products and care of the environment,
• supply management
• a fair distribution of the public funds between farms
• between sectors of production and between regions,
• balanced production among all the regions of Europe
• a relation of solidarity with the farmers of Central Europe and other continents, and the elimination of dumping in international trade.

European Food Irradiation Campaign
The European Food Irradiation Campaign has been active since 2001 by influencing European legislation, testing for illegal irradiated food, working with European supermarkets, etc. The European Food Irradiation Campaign is a network of European and US NGOs opposing the use of Food Irradiation in the European Union.

The Campaign also works for:

• Better control with irradiated food including more monitoring and enforcement of illegal irradiation
• More research into the long-term health impacts irradiated food

Friends of the Earth Europe (FOE)
FOE campaigns for sustainable and just societies and for the protection of the environment, unites more than 30 national organisations with thousands of local groups and is part of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, Friends of the Earth International.

Alliance of Social and Ecological Consumer Organisations
ASECO is a network of 10 consumer organizations from the European Union and Eastern Europe working together for sustainable consumption.

Contact: Klaus Melvin Jensen

GRACE Factory Farm Project (GFFP)
Team of farmer experts based around the US and Canada who assist local communities in confronting the problems associated with factory farms. The GFFP website contains comprehensive information, data, reports and facts on all the issues surrounding factory farming.