Organic farming has grown considerably in recent years in the European Union, not least due to changes in the political environment. The aim of this paper is to compare the support of organic and conventional farming in the year 2000. A measurement of support is calculated using the methodology of the Producer Support Estimate (PSE) of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The results show that the percentage ‘PSE’ of organic farming at 40.2 % in 2000 slightly exceeded that of conventional farming at 39.4 % but, on the other hand, the nominal protection coefficient (‘NPC’) was lower at 1.29 versus 1.42. This indicates that despite a higher level of support the trade distorting effect may be smaller in organic farming. There are however large differences in the percentage ‘PSE’ of organic farming between member states. A regular calculation of separate PSE for organic and conventional farming could inform policy makers, economists and other stakeholders about the distortion and similarities of support between both forms of farming and between EU member states. In addition information on developments of support could be derived. At the moment, the difficulties in obtaining the data needed make this aim rather ambitious
