Organic farming and the Common Agricultural Policy: A European Perspective

Organic farming has grown considerably during the last decade in Europe and currently accounts for about 2% of agricultural area of the European Union compared to 0.5% in 1993. While still small in absolute terms, growth rates are impressive, and organic farming actually represents an exception within European agriculture being a growing subsector. It seems plausible that a number of developments have jointly contributed to this growth. The two most important factors are undoubtedly a developing market for organic products and the influence of policy

The economic impact of the CAP reform and potential future policy developments on typical organic farms in the EU

Introduction: The increasing emphasis of the CAP on environmental sensitive agricultural systems and surplus reduction has lead to an increased focus on organic farming and its consideration in policy measures. The EU project “Organic farming and the CAP” evaluates CAP and other policy measures with respect to their effect on organic farming in the EU. Therefore, the effects of various policy scenarios on the profitability of organic arable and dairy farms in selected EU countries were investigated. Material and Methods: Case studies of typical organic arable and dairy farms in DE, DK, UK and IT were conducted following the concept of the „International Farm Comparison Network (FAL)“ (Deblitz et al. 1998). In a group discussion process in panels of 4-8 farmers typical farms are defined and potential farm development strategies are discussed. Using the simulation model TIPI-CAL (Hemme et al. 1997) the economic development of these model farms is simulated for future years. Modelling results are corrected and confirmed by these panels in a three-stage feed back process, assuring high data quality. The impact of EU-wide policy scenarios on economic performance of these typical farms is demonstrated. A liberalisation scenario and two positive scenarios (one demand-driven, one policy-driven) are compared with a baseline scenario (Agenda 2000). Panels are confronted with these results and adoption of farm management strategies are discussed for the different policy scenarios. Results and Discussion: Size, structure, productivity, achieved output prices and policy surrounding of typical dairy and arable farms in differ widely among the selected countries. With respect to national differences especially productivity and the contribution of payments to total farm profit seem to be of importance. Farm family labour remuneration is highly variant not only among countries, but also between farm types within a country. Farm development strategies envisaged by organic farmers are related to diversification, value addition, and growth. Organic dairy farms tend to consider growth strategies more than organic arable farms do. However, diversification strategies are also important. Arable farms in turn are much more flexible and, therefore, more likely to diversify production and invest into valued adding strategies such as processing and marketing. The effects of policy scenarios on profitability of typical farms is similar in all countries. However, the choice of adoption strategy of farmers in the different countries vary significantly. This seems to be mainly due to the current national market situation. Conclusions: The present methodology benefits the consideration of non-monetary issues in the simulation process of farm strategy and policy modelling of farms. The effect of agricultural policy measures on organic farms can be demonstrated effectively, providing also a farmer based reasoning of farm development and adoption strategies

Research on Organic Food Production: Status, Requirements and Perspectives

Organic farming has rapidly developed in the EU in the 1990s. Although funding for organic research seems to increase with growing public awareness and political pressure, the current funding volume lags behind. The following aspects are discussed to effectively expand research in organic farming in the future: Why research and innovation specific to organic farming is needed. What are the appropriate research priorities? Is there need for specific “organic” research methodologies? How is research in organic farming best organised? Based on a literature review on the topic, a summarising evaluation of the status-quo of research on organic food production is given. The need for specific organic farming research is justified primarily because problems are different due to the organic farming definition, and because synergy effects may result for conventional farming, as well. Research priorities differ widely between stakeholders and regions and should, therefore, be defined jointly. A need for organic research methodologies has been identified. Core centres of competence assisted by advisory boards consisting of representatives of all stakeholder groups are proposed as an ideal research infrastructure for organic farming

Der Einfluß ökologischer Produktionsverfahren auf die Betriebsstruktur: eine deskriptive Analyse basierend auf der EU Agrarstrukturerhebung 2000

Der ökologische Landbau ist durch Richtlinien klar definiert. Einschränkungen durch diese wirken sich auf die Betriebsorganisation aus. Basierend auf aggregierte Daten aus der Agrarstrukturerhebung 2000 wird die Betriebsstruktur von ökologischen und konventionellen Betrieben verglichen. Weiterhin wird die regionale Verteilung ausgewählter Charakteristika des ökologischen Landbaus im Vergleich zum konvetionellen Landbau in der EU diskutiert. Die Anabaustruktur im ökologischem Landbau ist von einer weiteren Fruchtfolge als im konventionellen Landbau gekennzeichnet, die ökologische Tierhaltung durch eine geringere Viehdichte. Dies trifft jedoch nicht auf alle Regiionen und alle Tiergruppen zu. Mögliche Bestimmungsgründe für die regionale Verteilung ökologischer Betriebe werden diskutiert

Commission to practice what it preaches

An ORGAP (Evaluation of the European Action Plan for Organic Food and Farming) research project paper questions whether the EU Commission is line with its own Principles of good governance regarding the revision process of the EU Organic Regulation

Organic farming – can policy and markets mix?

Organic farming is an approach to agriculture that emphasises environmental protection, animal welfare, food quality and health, sustainable resource use and social justice objectives, and which utilises the market to help support these objectives and compensate for the internalisation of externalities. Since the early 1990s, the organic sector has grown rapidly across Europe and globally, thanks to a combination of strong consumer demand, developing regulatory frameworks, direct financial support and insecurity in the conventional agricultural sector. The sector’s success in utilising the market to support the broader public good goals has been seen as a role model for mixing market and public support mechanisms in agriculture, but the market has also come to dominate in many circumstances, threatening the achievement of the underlying goals and the integrity of the organic approach. With market growth slowing across Europe, has organic farming achieved its potential? Or is this just an illustration of the limits of relying on markets to support the delivery of public goods – another example of market failure in the making

Environmental impacts of organic farming in Europe

Organic farming has become an important element of European agri-environmental policy due to increasing concern about the impact of agriculture on the environment. This book describes in detail the environmental and resource use impacts of organic farming relative to conventional farming systems, based on a set of environmental indicators for the agricultural sector on a European level. The policy relevance of the results is also discussed in detail

Stakeholder involvement in policy evaluation and development in 11 European countries: synthesis results

In an effort in bringing together stakeholders of the organic farming and general agricultural policy sector within the EU in April Mai 2004 a group of stakeholders met for a one day-workshop in 11 European countries (AT, GB, DE, DK, IT, CH, CZ, PL, SI, EE, HU) to formulate policy recommen¬dations for the development of organic farming sector. Close personal contact of participants in these workshops facilitated policy learning and innovation at the national level and provided a platform to form alliances to decide on further actions. This contribution presents the synthesised results from all national workshops highlighting the current situation of organic farming policy in Europe and providing recommendations for future policy instruments

Anforderungen des Ökologischen Landbaus an die Agrarökonomie. Hinweise für die gartenbauliche Forschung

Die Agrarökonomie als Wissensgebiet definiert sich durch den empirischen Gegenstand und einen Methodenkanon. Das institutionelle Netzwerk der Agrarökonomie erstreckt sich über Universitäten und Fachhochschulen, außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtungen, Verwaltungen, den gesamten agrarwissenschaftlichen Sektor und die verschiedenen Interessenverbände. Zu den Anforderungen des ökologischen Landbaus an die Agrarökonomie gehört zum einen ein Verständnis für das Gesamtsystem des Öko-Anbaus. Zum anderen besteht jedoch auch die Notwendigkeit der deskriptiven Forschung. Es müssen viele Zahlen, die im konventionellen Bereich bereits vorliegen, neu zusammengetragen werden. Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung im Bereich des ökologischen Gemüsebaus gibt es bisher nur sehr wenig. Zwar liegen Ertragsschätzungen für den ökologischen Gemüsebau vor, die jedoch sehr unterschiedliche Ergebnisse ausweisen

Nicht mehr am Katzentisch

Der ökologische Landbau schob sich in den letzten 20 Jahren weit nach vorn im öffentlichen Bewusstsein. Verunsichert von Lebensmittelskandalen und Tierseuchen, interessieren sich Konsumenten heute mehr für ökologisch erzeugte Nahrungsmittel als in den 80er Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts. Parallel dazu verdreifachte sich die ökologisch bewirtschaftete Fläche innerhalb der EU zwischen 1993 und 1999. Trotz dieses Wachstums werden nur drei Prozent der landwirtschaftlichen Flächen in Europa ökologisch bewirtschaftet. In diesem Beitrag wird auf folgende Aspekte eingegangen: „Wo sitzen die Öko-Bauern in Europa?“ , Markt für ökologische Lebensmittel, EU-Agrarpolitik und der ökologische Landbau, und „Was ist der Stand der Dinge im Öko-Landbau in anderen europäischen Ländern?