Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Diversity of production
In the early years of 'the European project' the farm sector was a central part of the contract
and it remains so today, certainly in terms of EU spending and arguably in the wider
politics of the EU. In the 1960s, much of European agriculture was regarded as backward
and inefficient, dominated by small farms. An early Agricultural Commissioner, Sicco
Mansholt, sought to modernize farming and emancipate it from the small and inefficient
structures that remained in the so-called 'Mansholt Plan'. Later, he recanted on his earlier
vision as he became more aware of the consequences of the modernization project on the
environment.
In spite of various policies to support modernization, there remain large variations in
structures and production systems across Europe and over time, some differences have
tended to be reinforced by increased specialization. Some mixed farming areas remain but
the core arable areas have tended to lose livestock (except pigs and poultry) and specialist
livestock production has become more intensive. Once agriculture was emancipated from
the need to sustain fertility 'internally' through the on-the-farm use of rotations and
manures, first through import of animal fertilizers (guano) and later artificial nitrogen and
mined phosphate and potash, specialization could be more readily accomplished and
economies of size and scale delivered. This specialization might have been hindered by
ecological consequences of concentration, such as pests and diseases, but a developing
arsenal of agri-chemicals was now available. Sometimes, relief was temporary as weeds
and pathogens built up resistance. But modernization enabled significant yield increases in
core areas, at the same time as locking farmers into high-input pathways.
However, intensification was not without consequence. Landscape structures were
simplified to allow for larger machines; agri-chemicals and their residues began to have a
discernible effect on biodiversity and sometimes water quality; phosphates and nitrates
began to have an adverse effect on water quality; and concentrations of animal production
caused major challenges in the disposal of manure.
Tolerance of diversity, however, has increased since the modernization project was
promoted during the Mansholt years. Even semi-subsistence farming can now receive
special support under the RDP. But there are inevitable tensions between agricultures
geared for globalized commodity chains, and agricultures geared to semi-subsistence and
local markets (Primdahl and Swaffield, 2010). This duality seems likely to produce a
variegated Europe of specialized food production regions and a periphery in which diverse
regionally specific production practices remain, sometimes as in the Tuscan model,
benefiting from tourism and new forms of rural occupancy, sometimes still reliant on
regional and local markets.
Diversity of farm structures and incomes
Farm size varies significantly across Europe, though business size cannot always be
equated with areal extent as there are many extensively farmed areas where farms are
territorially large but remain small business. Tenure also varies, although the collapse of
state and collective ownership in Eastern Europe has confirmed the dominance of private
property tenure. In some areas, tenanted farmland is still a common feature, and the
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