Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Assessment of Multifunctionality
and Jointness of Production
Nadine Turpin, Lee Stapleton, Eric Perret, C. Martijn van der Heide,
Guy Garrod, Floor Brouwer, Vaclav Voltr, and Dominique Cairol
Introduction
The concept of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) arose after implementation of
commitments under the Uruguay Round trade negotiations that started in 1995.
Countries that advocated the concept of multifunctional agriculture were
Switzerland, Norway, Japan, Korea as well as the European Union (EU). Dissenters
included a coalition of countries known as the Cairns Group (a 17 strong alliance
composed of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and 14 less developed countries).
Usually a distinction is made between the multifunctionality of agriculture (MFA),
which has been extensively propounded in Europe (both on political and scientific
grounds), and multifunctionality of the rural space. This chapter focuses on the former
and addresses multifunctionality of agriculture both at the farm and regional levels.
