Are Agricultural Measures for Groundwater Protection Beneficial When Compared to Purification of Polluted Groundwater?

The groundwater resource, the drinking water areas and the surface water quality can be protected by measures, e.g. by reductions of pesticide and nutrient applications, conversion of arable land to grasslands or forests etc. The objective of the paper is to estimate the benefits of groundwater protection by the valuation method choice experiments. This method allows for separate estimation and comparison of the different attributes connected to groundwater protection i.e. the effects on drinking water and surface water quality as compared to the benefits from cleaning and treatment of polluted drinking water to make it suitable for drinking water consumption. The results indicate that the benefits are significant, and that the willingness to pay for protection of the groundwater exceeds that from purification.groundwater, pollution, drinking water, valuation, choice experiments, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q25, Q26, Q28, C42, D62,

Costs of Reducing Nutrient Losses in Denmark - Analyses of Different Regulation Systems and Cost Effective Measures

The economic calculations carried out prior to the Plan for the Aquatic Environment III included a comparison of regulation systems aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching, analyses of measures for reducing phosphorus losses and estimation of administrative costs. The conclusions were that taxation of the N-surplus introduced at the sector level was the most cost effective regulation when compared with administrative regulation and set a side. For phosphorus a balance between incoming and outgoing phosphorus is very costly as this requires that much slurry is transported from the western to the eastern part of Denmark. The final plan for the Aquatic Environment III from 2004 included a 13% reduction of N-leaching until 2015 based on cost effective administrative measures like wetlands and catch crops. Also a tax on mineral phosphorus in feedstuffs was included in order to half the phosphorus surplus. The measures in the Plan will have to be supplemented by more measures to meet the targets in the EU's Water Framework Directive.cost-effectiveness, cost of reducing nitrogen leaching, phosphorus, administrative costs, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q51, Q52, Q53,

Preferences for food safety and animal welfare – a choice experiment study comparing organic and conventional consumers

Food quality attributes such as food safety and animal welfare are increasingly influencing consumers’ choices of food products. These attributes are not readily traded in the markets. Hence, stated pref-erence methods have proven to be valuable tools for eliciting preferences for such non-traded attributes. A discrete choice experiment is employed, and the re-sults indicate that consumers in general are willing to pay a premium for campylobacter-free chicken and for improved animal welfare; and they are willing to pay an additional premium for a product containing both attributes. Further, we find that organic consumers have a higher willingness to pay for animal welfare than other consumers, but they are not willing to pay more than conventional consumers when it comes to their willingness to pay for avoiding campylobacter

Can investments in manure technology reduce nutrient leakage to the Baltic Sea?

In this study, quantitative models of the agricultural sector and nutrient transport and cycling are used to analyse the impacts in the Baltic Sea of replacing the current Greening measures of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy with a package of investments in manure handling. The investments aim at improving nutrient utilization and reducing nitrogen leaching, based on the assumption that lagging farms and regions can catch up with observed good practice. Our results indicate that such investments could reduce nitrogen surpluses in agriculture by 18% and nitrogen concentrations in the Baltic Sea by 1 to 9% depending on the basin. The Greening measures, in contrast, are found to actually increase nitrogen leaching.Peer reviewe

Omlægning til økologisk jordbrug i et lokalområde. Scenarier for natur miljø og produktion

Delprojektet om Natur- og miljøscenarier formulerede 4 måder at omlægge 25% af et konkret værkstedsområde til økologisk jordbrug. I scenariet ”Mælk” var det fortrinsvis kvægbrug, der blev omlagt. Scenariet ”1997” var også domineret af mælkeproducenter, men med et tillæg af planteavlsbedrifter. Scenariet ”Planter/svin” omfattede udelukkende svine- og planteavlsbrug, og scenariet ”Selvforsyning” omfattede bedrifter i et udpeget SFL-område, som ikke måtte supplere produktionen med indkøbt foder. Resultaterne pegede på en tendens til fald i kvælstofudvaskningen i hele området i tre scenarier, mens der var uklarhed m.h.t. det fjerde - ”Planter/svin”- scenariet. Belastningen med pesticider blev reduceret. I scenarierne ”Mælk” og ”1997”var reduktionen mindre end de forventelige 25%, mens den var 31% for svine- og plantebrug. Hvad angår jordforstyrrelser øgedes den andel af arealet, der ikke blev forstyrret med 35% og 21% i de to scenarier ”Mælk” og ”1997, mens øgningen for ”Planter/svin” var 10%, og for ”Selvforsyning” 15%. Ved omlægning af plante- og svinebrug øgedes samtidig arealet, der blev forstyrret mere end konventionelle kornafgrøder med maksimalt 6% af hele området. Udlægsmarker blev øget fra 8% af områdets samlede areal til 10 og 14% i de to mælkeproducentdominerede scenarier - og helt op til 18 og 19% af totalarealet i ”Planter/svin”- og ”Selvforsyning”-scenarierne. En særligt dybtgående analyse af lærkers levevilkår viste, at territorietæthed og produktion af unger ikke ændrede sig konsistent med omlægning fra økologisk til konventionel drift, fordi ændringer i afgrødefordeling, ophør med pesticider, intensiv græsning og mekanisk ukrudtsbekæmpelse påvirker levevilkårene såvel positivt som negativt

Toward the Baltic Sea Socioeconomic Action Plan

Abstract This paper analyzes the main weaknesses and key avenues for improvement of nutrient policies in the Baltic Sea region. HELCOM’s Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), accepted by the Baltic Sea countries in 2007, was based on an innovative ecological modeling of the Baltic Sea environment and addressed the impact of the combination of riverine loading and transfer of nutrients on the ecological status of the sea and its sub-basins. We argue, however, that the assigned country-specific targets of nutrient loading do not reach the same level of sophistication, because they are not based on careful economic and policy analysis. We show an increasing gap between the state-of-the-art policy alternatives and the existing command-and-control-based approaches to the protection of the Baltic Sea environment and outline the most important steps for a Baltic Sea Socioeconomic Action Plan. It is time to raise the socioeconomic design of nutrient policies to the same level of sophistication as the ecological foundations of the BSAP. Keywords Cost-effectiveness Incentives Innovation Manure Performance-based policyAbstract This paper analyzes the main weaknesses and key avenues for improvement of nutrient policies in the Baltic Sea region. HELCOM’s Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), accepted by the Baltic Sea countries in 2007, was based on an innovative ecological modeling of the Baltic Sea environment and addressed the impact of the combination of riverine loading and transfer of nutrients on the ecological status of the sea and its sub-basins. We argue, however, that the assigned country-specific targets of nutrient loading do not reach the same level of sophistication, because they are not based on careful economic and policy analysis. We show an increasing gap between the state-of-the-art policy alternatives and the existing command-and-control-based approaches to the protection of the Baltic Sea environment and outline the most important steps for a Baltic Sea Socioeconomic Action Plan. It is time to raise the socioeconomic design of nutrient policies to the same level of sophistication as the ecological foundations of the BSAP. Keywords Cost-effectiveness Incentives Innovation Manure Performance-based policyPeer reviewe