The formation of a policy field: organic farming within the CAP (1993-2005).

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter proposes that the period from 1993 to 2005 is characterized by the institutionalization of a policy field concerned with organic farming within the auspices of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It is proposed that organic farming, by 2005, has been established within the CAP as (i) a system of problems and solutions, which links organic farming and the CAP, and within which disputes evolve around the nature of the links between organic farming and the CAP. This system and these disputes evolve (ii) among a set of agents representing the Commission, the Commission Services, the European Parliament, member states, research and various organized interests. Further, these agents (iii) operate according to the consultation procedure, interact at successive conferences and, importantly, among the agents, commonly agreed solutions to existing disputes should be pursued in the context of the CAP. Finally, (iv) it is, to some degree, possible to distinguish this policy field from other fields of concerns, agents and processes. It is further proposed that the formation of a policy field concerned with organic farming within the CAP during the period 1993-2005 was given momentum through a series of conflicts over meaning, the exercise of policy entrepreneurship and the existence of a widely recognized crisis (i.e., the BSE crisis).