Rural Landscapes and Agricultural Policies in Europe

The reform of the European agricultural policy aims at stimulating the development of European towards more sustainability and more competitiveness in global markets, by ensuring environmental soundness, supporting rural viability and better meeting consumers demands. Parallel to this farming in the ever growing EU is undergoing major changes. The conditions for production are occurring faster than ever, including developments such as climate change, new markets (bioenenergy), structural changes and ageing rural societies. Agriculture in an ever changing Europe has to develop multifunctional regional strategies.

About 40 scientists from 11 European research institutions compiled this joint publication to provide an overview of concepts and approaches for multi functionality impact assessment, which includes surveys on societal demands in different parts of Europe. A central part presents research results on the impact of current agricultural policies and future scenarios, assessed by micro-economic and environmental modeling procedures (agent based, linear programming, trade-offs). They provide information on the issues of how and why farmers in varying structural and geophysical frameworks respond to the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policies) reform. One large chapter specifies the developments in 7 case study regions in Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Slovakia.