Organic farming development in Europe — impacts of regulation and institutional diversity

Abstract

In Europe the distribution of organic farming has increased along with growing political support during the 1990s - including a common EU definition of organic farming and financial support for organic farmers. Three qualitative analyses covering all EU member and three non-member states are summarised to analyse co-variation between policies and organic sector size. When comparing impacts of policy instruments, the results were unclear but mainly pointed towards positive effects from introducing uniform certification schemes. With regard to national policy processes no correlation appeared between conditions for policy oriented learning and the size of organic farming sector. Some explanatory power is, however, derived from distinguishing between three types of institutional interrelationships between organic farming and mainstream farming. Cooperation or creative conflict persists in countries with large organic farming sectors, while pure competition is found in countries with small ones.

Citation

Michelsen, J. (2002), "Organic farming development in Europe — impacts of regulation and institutional diversity", Hall, D.C. and Joe Moffitt, L. (Ed.) Economics of Pesticides, Sustainable Food Production, and Organic Food Markets (Advances in the Economics of Environmental Resources, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1569-3740(02)04007-5