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

A policy relevant assessment of the environmental impacts of organic farming

Organic farming has become an important aspect of European agri-environmental policy. Since the implementation of EC Reg. 2078/92, the EU promotes organic farming based explicitly on its positive effects on the environment. The objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of organic farming's effects on the environment in comparison to conventional farming and to discuss the policy relevance of these issues. For this purpose the OECD set of environmental indicators for the agricultural sector has been adapted, taking into consideration only those indicators that are directly affected by the system of organic farming, as are the indicator categories ecosystem, natural resources, farm input and output, and health and welfare. Based on a survey of specialists in 18 European countries (all EU-member states plus NO, CH, and CZ) using a structured questionnaire and an extensive literature review, a conclusive assessment is given for each of the indicator categories. For most of the chosen indicator categories organic farming performs better than conventional farming on a per ha basis. These results are discussed with respect to their policy relevance. An increase in the area of organic farming would clearly improve the environmental performance of agriculture, as long as food production level is not a limiting factor. The question of whether there are other agri-environmental means of achieving a desired level of environmental performance that might be cheaper for society than organic production is discussed. It is concluded that the support of organic farming can be a useful part of the agri-environmental tool box, however, other, more specific instruments are also needed. Organic farming seems especially useful if broad environmental concerns are to be addressed

Contributions of organic farming to a sustainable environment

Summary and Conclusions For each indicator organic farming is ranked at least equal to conventional farming, while in the majority of environmental indicators organic farming performs better or much better. In two cases, the subjective confidence interval could allow conventional farming to appear as the preferable system (partly due to the lack of evident data). However, when considering the aggregation level of the indicator categories, the analysis becomes more uniform. With the exception of climate and air, organic farming performs better than conventional farming in all categories. None of the indicator categories showed that organic farming performed worse. A summary assessment of all indicator categories was not carried out in the table, however, the result is clear: organic farming is, in an area-related comparison, more environmentally friendly than conventional farming. This result confirms one of the basic assumptions of the political support for organic farming, as mentioned in the introduction. On the one hand, the environmental performance of farms depends on the farming intensity, while on the other hand it depends on bio-tope management of nonproductive areas. The combination of organic farming with the conservation of semi-natural habitats and valuable field margins offers a real option to meet many environmental goals, especially biodiversity, on agricultural land

Agrarpolitische Bewertung der Umwelteffekte des ökologische Landbaus

Der ökologische Landbau war ursprünglich ein Teilbereich der Landwirtschaft, der sich weitgehend unabhängig von staatlichen Einflüssen entwickelt hat. Seit Ende der 80er Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts nahm der direkte staatliche Einfluss zu, und heute gibt es kein EU-Land mehr, indem der ökologische Landbau nicht direkt durch staatliche agrarpolitische Maßnahmen gefördert wird. Die wichtigste Begründung, die für die politische Förderung des ökologischen Landbaus genannt wird, sind seine positiven Umwelteffekte. Da es sich bei Umweltgütern um öffentliche Güter handelt, werden diese von den Wirtschaftssubjekten in zu geringem Umfang bereitgestellt. Um eine gesamtwirtschaftlich optimale Lösung zu erreichen, sind daher staatliche Eingriffe gerechtfertigt. Diese Argumentationsweise lässt sich auch auf das Beispiel des ökologischen Landbaus anwenden. Um eine umfassende Informationsbasis auf gesamteuropäischer Basis zu schaffen, wurde eine Expertenbefragung in 18 europäischen Ländern durchgeführt. Anhand eines strukturierten Fragebogens wurden die Experten angeleitet, die jeweilige nationale Literatur zur Umweltrelevanz des ökologischen Landbaus zusammenzufassen. Die Ergebnisse der Expertenbefragung zeigen auf Ebene der einzelnen Umweltindikatoren, dass der ökologische Landbau in allen Fällen bei dem vorgenommenen flächenmäßigen Vergleich gleich, besser oder viel besser als der konventionelle Landbau eingestuft wird. Dieser Vergleich liefert jedoch ohne eine weitere Interpretation keinen unmittelbaren Beitrag zur agrarumweltpolitischen Bedeutung des ökologischen Landbaus. Dieser Artikel verdeutlicht weiterhin, welche Fragen sich mit Hilfe des vorgenommenen Vergleichs beantworten lassen und wo die Grenzen der Interpretierbarkeit des Systemvergleichs liegen

Entwicklung eines regionalen Ausbildungsmodells „Ökolandbau und Vermarktung“ an der Fachhochschule Eberswalde im Rahmen des Bundesförderprogramms Regionen Aktiv

In September 2004 a new B. Sc. study course for Organic Farming and Marketing started at the University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture program “Regionen Aktiv” an innovative education model was established. Focussing on rural development farmers, processors and trading partners were involved in the development of topics for the study programme

Agricultural landscapes as multi-scale public good and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy

During the last 50 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has impacted the evolution of European agricultural landscapes by driving changes in land use and farming practices. We propose a typology characterizing the scales relevant for agricultural landscapes management and argue that action is required on three scales: (1) a landscape oriented management at farm level, (2) the coordination of land managers\u27 actions at landscape level, and (3) the conservation of the diversity of agricultural landscapes in the EU. We provide evidence that the CAP has until now mainly focused on the first scale. We also illustrate how agricultural policy could encourage coordinated actions at the landscape- and EU-scales. In particular, we propose policy instruments to coordinate actions of individual land owners (e.g. collective bonus in agro-environmental contracts or support to environmental cooperatives). We also analyse how the recognition and transposition of the European Landscape Convention could promote trans-frontier landscape cooperation in order, not only to conserve high-quality rural landscapes, but also to ensure the conservation of the diversity of EU landscapes (scale 3). This article provides a knowledge base to support an integrated CAP design in the direction of improved landscape management, as an important component of the EU project towards more sustainable agriculture

The role of different types of actors in the future of sustainable agriculture in a Dutch Peri-urban area

Peri-urban areas support a broad range of multifunctional demands for public goods. In northwest Europe, peri-urban areas tend to overlap with intensive agricultural land, resulting in conflicts between agricultural use and the public good demands of residents. Sustainable intensification (SI) of agriculture might help reconcile agricultural and well-being goals, but it is unclear how the mix of actors in a peri-urban setting can trigger or restrain SI. In a Dutch case study, we explored how SI of agriculture can contribute to making peri-urban areas more sustainable, and which actors are key enabling factors for implementing SI. We used interviews, surveys, workshops, and empirical analysis to obtain insight into the stakeholder's vision of a sustainable future for the case study area, the farming system and actor network. We integrated these insights in a Bayesian Belief Network, where we linked the actor network to implementation of three SI measures (farm-level efficiency measures, small landscape elements, and direct sales), and used sensitivity analysis to model effects of support for implementation by different groups of actors. The case study has a dense stakeholder network, where, dependent on the SI measure, farmers are triggered by all actors to implement SI, or have a stronger role in uptake themselves. The sensitivity analysis suggested that the future preferred by the stakeholders requires broad support of all actors involved, with local actors without a formal role being essential for uptake. Overall, trade-offs among public goods are almost inevitable when taking up SI measures.Industrial Ecolog