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

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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?

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

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

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

Der Öko-Landbau als Objekt der Politik

Organic farming has been developed by a social movement without government support and intervention. This situation changed in the EU during the last decade since around 1990 when subsidies for organic farmers were introduced, the defining power on the term „organic farming“ was taken over by the European Commission, and a system of government led certification and control has been established. The paper argues that this has been an unavoidable development whose consequences have not yet been fully understood neither by the organic farming sector itself, nor by the government authorities involved. It is suggested that the organic sector strongly increases its lobbying activities and that the European Commission adopts a more unified policy approach to organic farming which puts specific stress on marketing aspects

Will policy support for organic farming be justified in the future? The environmental impacts of organic farming

Introduction: In the European Union, organic farming has experienced a dynamic development in the 1990s, in part debited to financial support from agricultural policy measures. The most commonly used argument in support of organic farming is its positive environmental effects. However, support of organic farming practices on those grounds is only justified if these actually result in less negative environmental impacts than conventional farming. Stolze et al. (1999) reviewed existing research results up to 1997 on this topic and compiled a qualitative comparative evaluation based on an adapted OECD environmental indicator concept for agriculture (OECD 1997). On a per hectare basis, organic farming showed to be less detrimental with respect to most indicators than conventional farming. This paper will evaluate new evidence on the issue, taking results on a per output basis and the most recent developments in general EU agricultural legislation and organic standards into account. Materials and Methods: The OECD set of environmental indicators for the agricultural sector adapted by Stolze et al. (1999) is used. Based on a literature review of research results compiled between 1997 and 2002 a qualitative assessment is given for the following indicator categories: i) ecosystem, ii) natural resources (soil, ground and surface water, climate and air), iii) farm input and output, iv) animal health and welfare. The effect of recent developments in general agriculture EU legislation and organic standards on the relative benefits of organic farming is evaluated to assess if conventional agriculture is approaching organic agriculture due to tightening general legislation. Additionally, the option of achieving beneficial effects on some indicator categories when combining organic production with a targeted management of non-productive areas is reviewed. Results and Discussion: Organic farming seems to perform better than conventional farming with respect to all considered indicators, but large differences exist between indicators. New evidence permitted the evaluation on a per output basis for some indicators. This changes the final qualitative assessment for some indicators or indicator categories compared to the results of Stolze et al. (2000). Recent developments in EU legislation on agriculture in general do not seem to fundamentally change the relative assessment of the environmental impacts of organic in comparison to conventional agriculture. However, some important developments are not yet reflected in research results, e.g. the EU organic animal husbandry standards (European Commission 1999) which were implemented only in the year 2000. Conclusions: Support to organic farming is justified due to its positive environmental effects. However, the relative benefits must continue to be monitored in the light of current developments in agricultural legislation and organic standards. Cost-benefit analyses of the environmental effects of organic farming support in comparison to other agri-environmental measures and conventional farming are needed

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

Organic Farming: Policy and Prospects

Food retailers in Europe, including supermarkets, have responded to rapidly rising demand for organic produce. The organic sector has moved from a marginal production fad to a serious subject of policy concern for politicians and public servants involved in European agricultural policy. Drawing on a huge body of scientific research, this book - reviews the organic farming sector today and the policies developed towards it - assesses its contributions to the environment, food quality, farmers' incomes, and rural development - explains the key factors impinging on the organic farming sector in future - makes a detailed range of recommendations for future organic farming policy Contents 1 Organic farming: A grassroots movement taken over by policy? 2 Organic farming in Europe at the dawn of the new millennium 3 Organic farming's contribution to policy objectives 4 A Changing Policy Environment 5 Recommendations for future organic farming policy from: Dabbert, S. und Häring, A. M. und Zanoli, R. (2003): Organic Farming: Policy and Prospects. Zed Book

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