From an Agrarian to an Environmental,Food, and Natural Resource Base for Agricultural Policy: Some Reflections on the Case of the EC

Abstract The agriculture of the European Community (EC) has experienced significant changes in the last decade. From a situation of deficiency in agricultural and food production, the twelve-nation community has shifted to a situation of food overproduction. This change has also been characterized by a rapid decrease in the agricultural labor force and a decrease of its importance in the employment structure which has manifested itself in fewer, more efficient farms. This alteration of structural conditions has led to the emergence of a new set of agricultural issues. This article discusses these changes by underscoring the decline of agrarian-based issues and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based issues. It is maintained that EC agricultural policies have been instrumental in both the resolution of agrarian-based issues and in the creation of new problems embodied in the environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies. The combination of the demise of agrarian-based policies and the emergence of environmental, food, and natural resource-based policies is also employed as a theoretical perspective from which the evolution of the agricultural sector in the EC can be interpreted.