Building Effective Sustainable Agriculture Policy: Conclusions

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter concludes the analysis of the book. It builds on the quantitative analyses in the previous chapters and the comparison of agricultural policies of the EU, the USA and China. The authors discuss the universal premises for an active agri-environmental policy in different parts of the world. Next, the authors examine the global gains from the increase in integrated efficiency. These benefits are related to the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and the reduced use of inputs. The authors demonstrate these benefits against the background of global and local targets that are officially announced or modelled by scientific experts. The last part of the chapter presents proposed systemic solutions for agricultural policy. These proposals could mitigate the trade-off between specific policy measures designed to address particular problems faced by sustainable agriculture. The authors argue for a ‘two-track policy’ – conditional counter-cyclical subsidies for intensive farming and creating quasi-market value for public goods for extensive farming systems.