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environment (PGI). Both of these designations are
available to producers working in cooperative
groups, but their uptake across Europe still awaits
detailed research.
In response to an OECD (1995) report on niche
markets and the statement by the Committee of
the Regions (1996), a major European project,
funded by the European Commission, is attempting
to help public institutions to develop strategies,
policies and structures to enable the successful
marketing of SFPs in the lagging regions of the EU.
The RIPPLE project is attempting to link product
and place by conducting research on regional
imagery and marketing in relation to the creation
of SFPs from twelve lagging rural areas (Ilbery and
Kneafsey 1998). Investigating a range of quality
products and services, RIPPLE will involve surveys
of both producers and consumers of SFPs, as well as
the public and private agencies concerned with
their promotion and successful marketing. In the
future, the production of SFPs in the peripheral
regions of Europe may contribute to the process of
agricultural dispersion.
agrochemical inputs. Indeed, at the core of the
PPT is the concept of sustainable agriculture.
Although this can be interpreted in
environmental, socio-economic or productive
senses (Brklacich et al . 1990), there are two main
models of sustainable agriculture: idealist and
instrumental (Bowler 1992). While the former
adopts an 'alternative agriculture' perspective and
argues that 'no' or 'low' growth modes are the
only long-term option for agriculture, the latter is
more conventional and sees sustainability as a
contextual process rather than a set of specific
prescriptions. The instrumentalist model is thus
less rigorous and advocates an extensive, diversified
and conservation-oriented system of farming. This
contrasts with the organic, biodynamic and
ecological systems of farming put forward by the
idealist school of thought. In Western Europe, only
a minority of farmers are pursuing the idealist
model. The instrumentalist model is more popular
with farmers and is being encouraged through
such state regulation as limits on fertiliser
application, imposition of minimum standards of
pesticide residues in food, constraints on types and
rates of application of agrochemicals, and subsidies
to farm under lower input—lower output systems.
In the longer term, it could be that the only
payments made to farmers under the CAP will be
for environmental conservation. Indeed, the future
focus of policy will be broader than agriculture,
incorporating rural diversification and integrated
rural development. The latter needs to be
multisectoral, sustainable and based on local needs
through the concept of subsidiarity.
CONCLUSION
This chapter has focused on the applied
dimensions of, and problems relating to, the
deintensification of agriculture in Western Europe.
It has highlighted the duality between
'productivist' and 'post-productivist' farming
systems and examined the uneven spatial
development associated with the PPT. Different
regions are dominated by different pathways of
farm business development, and de-intensification
is being encouraged through a combination of
extensification (AEPs), diversification (OGAs) and
dispersion (SFPs).
The PPT is being regulated by the state, which
will need to reform the CAP further in response
to the growing trends towards market orientation
and sustainability. While the former is pressing for
farmers to receive market prices for their products
without economic subsidies, the latter is seeking a
more environmentally sound system of farming
that is less dependent on major energy and
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
Bowler, I. (1985) Agriculture under the Common
Agricultural Policy: A Geography. Manchester
University Press, Manchester. Examines the main
elements of the CAP and the spatial dimensions
of 'productivist' agriculture in the EU up to the
early 1980s.
Evans, N. and Morris, C. (1997) Towards a
geography of agri-environmental policies in
England and Wales. Geoforum 28, 189-204.
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