Union Common Agricultural Policy Research Articles

Are farmers’ minds really too elusive to capture? A novel evaluation framework for the knowledge transfer initiatives in agriculture

ABSTRACT Knowledge transfer initiatives aim to improve farmers’ knowledge and skills for tackling the growing economic, environmental and social challenges in agriculture. However, their evaluation is often inadequate due to institutional barriers and a lack of comprehensive methodology for assessing normative and behavioural shifts within this social group. To address this gap, we developed an extended evaluation framework for the knowledge transfer activities within the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), including three indicators levels: output, result and impact. The indicators and survey instruments were based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and piloted in a selected EU Member State for evaluating knowledge transfer measures in the programming period 2014–2022. The results indicate a promising potential of the proposed framework for capturing the multifaceted outcomes of knowledge transfer activities in agriculture. The usefulness and feasibility of the evaluation framework were further assessed through interviews with AKIS actors. They highlighted that evaluation activities at the Member State level may be hindered by inconsistent long-term data collection, insufficient response and involvement of farmers, deviations from the agreed protocols and a lack of dedicated resources. To ensure the uptake of the proposed evaluation framework, evaluation culture within the managing authorities and among stakeholders should be systematically fostered at the Member State level. This process can be enhanced by adopting a more elaborated CAP monitoring framework and methodology guidelines and by providing targeted training on evidence-driven policy-making.

Functional responses in habitat selection as a management tool to evaluate agri-environment schemes for farmland birds

Agri-environment schemes (AES), as part of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, are intended to help prevent the decline of farmland biodiversity. Nevertheless, the ecological effectiveness of AES in supporting farmland bird populations remains inconclusive across studies. This inconsistency highlights a research gap: What behavioral mechanisms contribute to the variation in farmland bird populations? This variability may arise because farmland birds alter their habitat selection in response to available habitat—a phenomenon known as functional responses in habitat selection. Here, we examined the effects of AES and non-AES land-use variables on habitat selection of farmland birds, taking into account the species-specific functional response to availability. We built two types of hierarchical distance sampling models to analyze observational data of four farmland bird species from line-transect surveys during the breeding season in Saxony, Germany. First, we built mixed-effects models to estimate the marginal effects of AES and non-AES land-use variables on the occurrence of farmland birds. Second, we integrated linear models into the distance sampling model to relate habitat selection estimates to habitat availability. Results from the first mixed-effects model showed positive and negative effects of AES on habitat selection. In the second model, we observed inverse relationships between habitat selection and availability for both AES and non-AES variables. These results support the hypothesis of negative functional responses, as we found a decrease in the tendency of farmland birds to select both AES and non-AES land uses as their availability increased. Our findings suggest that the varying effects of AES on bird occurrences reported in the literature may depend on cross-study differences in AES availability. We propose that functional responses in habitat selection should be considered as a phenomenon in future AES research. Our study also highlights the importance of optimal AES provision and their spatial allocation in the agricultural landscape.

Viticulture and the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): Historical overview, current situation and future perspective

AbstractThe grapevine is one of the most important perennial fruit crops worldwide. The historical stability of winegrowing methods has spanned almost 3000 years since the introduction of viticulture in Europe. However, in the last 70 years, the wine sector in the Europe has experienced substantial transformations. These changes are attributed to the widespread adoption of mechanisation and industralisation in the 1950s and the establishment of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The growing concern for the environment and climate change in the European Union (EU) has significantly influenced the successive reforms of the CAP. These reforms have resulted in the acquisition of new commitments to protect the environment, mitigate climate change and reduce biodiversity loss over the years. In this work, we carried out a critical analysis of the most relevant aspects of the new CAP and address the regulatory framework of organic agriculture in the EU as a tool for improving the sustainability of vineyards. Currently, Spain is the country with the largest vineyard area in the world, reaching 964,000 hectares. This represents 13% of the world's vineyards and 30% in the EU, which demonstrates the importance of this crop in Europe. Due to its relevance, we focused our critical analyses of the new CAP on Spain as a case study. The latest reform of the CAP, applicable for the period 2023‐2027, is the most ambitious in environmental terms and includes instruments such as reinforced conditionality, eco‐schemes and payments for agri‐environment–climate commitments. Finally, we propose that by integrating concepts and management strategies from current organic and regenerative viticulture together with historical strategies derived from treatises and classic authors across a wide range of societies and cultures, the goals of the new CAP can be successfully met. This will contribute to reuniting the past, the present and the future of viticulture for a more nature‐based winemaking.

Farmers' perception of soil health: The use of quality data and its implication for farm management

AbstractPreventing and reversing soil degradation is essential to maintaining the ecosystem services provided by soils and guaranteeing food security. In addition to the scientific community, it is critical to engage multiple stakeholders to assess the degree of soil degradation and mitigation strategies' impact and meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, and other national and international goals. A semi‐structured questionnaire was distributed across countries participating in the EU Horizon‐2020 “Transforming Unsustainable management of soils in key agricultural systems in E.U. and China. Developing an integrated platform of alternatives to reverse soil degradation (TUdi).” Using farmers' associations and educational institutions as an intermediate to distribute the questionnaires was an effective strategy for gathering a high number of responses. Results from 456 responses to the questionnaire showed that farm country, size, type of agriculture, and educational level of farm managers were significantly associated with the farmers' perception of soil degradation issues. Farm size and type of agriculture were also correlated with applying a nutrient management plan. The implications of the results for soil conservation measures are discussed. Additionally, we highlight the potential of projects such as TUdi for creating collaboration networks to drive widespread adoption by farmers of technologies to reverse the degradation of agricultural soils.

The importance of calibration in policy mixes: Environmental policy integration in the implementation of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy in Germany (2014–2022)

AbstractEnvironmental policy integration (EPI), that is, the incorporation of environmental concerns in non‐environmental policy areas, has been widely adopted in public policies. However, EPI research has found much discrepancy between environmental objectives and actual implementation. This paper argues that analyzing EPI in the context of policy mixes with multiple objectives, multiple instruments and their calibrations helps to better understand unavoidable tensions and limitations. We develop a framework to assess EPI at these three levels of policy output, synthesizing the EPI and policy mix literatures. We further distinguish four analytical dimensions to assess calibrations: stringency, specificity, flexibility, and temporality. A case study of the national implementation of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Germany 2014–2022 is used to elaborate the conceptual argument. The CAP has saliently incorporated environmental objectives, while implementation, including the calibrations of most instruments within predetermined corridors, is left to member states. A systematic meta‐review of 142 texts evaluating policy instruments and calibrations in the CAP 2014–2022, focusing on Germany, found that several CAP instruments link most farm income support to pro‐environmental behavior. These instruments could potentially have high environmental effectiveness and efficiency. But actual policy calibrations delivered weak EPI due to low stringency and specificity, while high flexibility and temporal accommodation of farmers' needs might support EPI by increasing acceptance. Weak EPI resulted from instrument calibrations in the face of unavoidable trade‐offs between competing objectives. Our results demonstrate that calibrations can significantly affect the strength of EPI adoption, and the priorities within policy mixes more generally.

Je spoločná poľnohospodárska politika prispôsobená potrebám poľnohospodárov? Názory poľnohospodárskych výrobcov z Poľska, Rumunska a Litvy

The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been reformed several times since its launch in the early 1960s. It has evolved from a price support policy into a mechanism for supporting agricultural income and investment. At the same time, increasing concern has been given to environmental issues, in line with the paradigm of sustainable development. Part of this approach is the concern for the viability of family farms, including smallholder ones. The question that arises here is whether today's EU agricultural policy is really adapted to the needs of smallholder farms. The aim of this publication is to find an answer to the above question. Therefore, the study was conducted to assess the opinions of small family farms owners on the financial support within the EU common agricultural policy. Three European countries - Poland, Romania and Lithuania - were included in the analysis due to the relatively high share of small-scale farms. The research was organised in two stages. In the first, a synthetic measure of sustainability of smallholder farms was created among the holdings surveyed. The second stage included in-depth interviews with 20 – in each country - most sustainable farms. As a result, it was proved that financial support, especially in the form of the simplified direct payment, is necessary to ensure the viability of small farms, but the owners also expect greater price stability and equal conditions of competition within the food supply chain.

Spanish Thinking about Animals

This book gathers the work of 15 Spanish scholars working in the field of animal studies. It presents an interdisciplinary overview of humans’ abusive relationship with animals in Spanish art (in a chapter by Verónica Perales Blanco), literature (in chapters by Carmen Flys-Junquera, José Marchena Domínguez, José Manuel Marrero Henríquez, and Diana Villanueva-Romero), film (in a chapter by Claudia Alonso-Recarte and Ignacio Ramos-Gay), philosophy (in chapters by Lydia de Tienda, Jesús Mosterín, Alicia Puleo, and Marta Tafalla), and law (in a chapter by Nuria Menéndez de Llano). It also contains a chapter discussing the rise of the antispeciesist movement (by Estela Díaz and Oscar Horta) and an annotated bibliography on speciesism (by Daniel Dorado). The book aims to challenge human exceptionalism in Spain by examining ethical and aesthetic arguments, as well as cultural representations of animals (p. xxvii).A significant part of the book is devoted to bullfighting. This focus is justified: Spain as a whole has a bad reputation for animal cruelty because of this practice, even though only a small minority of Spaniards support bullfighting.1 Bullfighting is a national fiesta and seen as an important part of Spain's cultural heritage. It has, moreover, been promoted by iconic artists such as Federico García Lorca and Pablo Picasso (p. xxi), as well as celebrated contemporary authors like Mario Vargas Llosa and Fernando Savater (p. 130).2Around 60,000 animals are annually tortured in popular festivals in Spain. This includes not only bulls and cows, but also horses, geese, goats, lambs, and various other animals (p. xxi).3In her chapter “Animals as Ornaments: On the Aesthetic Instrumentalization of Animals,” Marta Tafalla argues that one form of animal exploitation is aesthetic instrumentalization, that is, using animals as ornamental objects to provide humans with aesthetic pleasure (p. 54). Bullfighting is a legally protected example of aesthetic instrumentalization, as the law treats this activity as a form of art (p. 55), comparable to flamenco. In fact, bullfighters go as far as declaring bullfighting “the art of arts” (ABC, 2017).Jesús Mosterín's chapter “Failed Arguments in Defense of Bullfighting” provides a concise list of counterarguments against common arguments in favor of bullfighting, useful for politicians, policymakers, and animal rights activists working on banning this activity. For example, Mosterín argues that there have been many cruel traditions that society has censured and abolished, such as burning heretics and the Chinese custom of binding women's feet. He accordingly argues that “culture is not static; it is a dynamic reality, constantly changing, subject to diverse influences, one of which is rational criticism” (p. 131).4The exact origin of the famous idiom “take the bull by the horns,” meaning to decisively deal with a difficult or dangerous situation, is unknown. Some ascribe this idiom to bullfighting, others to the American Old West, and yet others to farmers’ practice of controlling bulls by holding their horns. In any case, Spanish scholars and animal rights advocates are currently taking bullfighting “by the horns,” campaigning to ban this cruel practice in Spain. In fact, the Canary Islands banned bullfighting in 1991 and Catalonia followed suit in 2010 (p. xxii).5 Unfortunately, other cruel festivals involving animals, such as cockfighting and correbous, are still celebrated in those regions.6 In 2016, one of the cruelest festivals in Spain, the Toro de la Vega in Tordesillas (Valladolid), involving spearing a bull to death, was finally banned after relentless opposition from the animal rights movement (p. xxii).7Despite these important advances, bullfighting is still protected and promoted by Spanish law and financed by the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy Programme (Eurogroup for Animals, 2020). The special attention this volume gives to bullfighting is justified because understanding bullfighting is essential to understanding why animals do not receive greater legal protection in Spain. The law must be consistent with bullfighting. In bullfighting, a bull is painfully and repeatedly stabbed and finally killed with a sword, as the crowd applauds. A law that permits bullfighting is a law that permits animals to be tortured and killed. Thus, the existence of bullfighting is bad not only for bulls but for all animals, since other animals are left without adequate legal protection in order for bullfighting to continue.This and other interesting topics can be found in this wide-ranging and up-to-date collection. The volume will be of interest to anybody following the latest research in the field of animal studies in Spain as well as anyone interested in understanding and ending cruel uses of animals and cruel traditions involving animals.The author wishes to thank Paula Casal, Carlos Contreras, John Horden, and the editors of the Journal of Animal Ethics for their editorial support.

Estimating persistent and transient technical efficiency and their determinants in the presence of heterogeneity and endogeneity

AbstractWe develop an estimation procedure that generates consistent estimates of the technology parameters, long‐run (persistent) and short‐run (transient) technical inefficiencies and the marginal effects of their determinants for the stochastic frontier model developed by Colombi et al. (2014, Journal of Productivity Analysis 42, 123) and Kumbhakar et al. (2014, Journal of Productivity Analysis 41, 321). Our approach accounts for three sources of potential endogeneity: (i) unobserved heterogeneity; (ii) simultaneity of input use with both types of technical efficiency; (iii) potential correlation of the noise term with the regressors. Using this approach we examine the effect of direct payments and farm size on the persistent and transient technical efficiency of French crop farms before and after the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy decoupling reform of 2003. Our results show that subsidy payments per hectare of utilised agricultural land had a significant positive effect on persistent technical efficiency and a significant negative effect on transient technical efficiency during the period before decoupling. For the period after the reform, the effect of subsidies is found to be significantly negative for persistent technical efficiency and insignificant for transient technical efficiency. The overall effect of subsidies on technical efficiency is found to be negative in both periods, albeit substantially lower in the period after decoupling. The effect of farm size on technical efficiency is found to be significant only for the period prior to the reform: it reduced persistent technical inefficiency but increased transient technical inefficiency during that period.

Extreme weather events and farmer adaptation in Zeeland, the Netherlands: A European climate change case study from the Rhine delta

Global climate change is manifest by local-scale changes in precipitation and temperature patterns, including the frequency of extreme weather events (EWEs). EWEs are associated with a myriad range of adverse environmental and societal consequences, including negative impacts to agriculture and food production. This study focuses on EWEs and their effect on adaptation strategies by potato and onion farmers in Zeeland, a Dutch coastal province in the Rhine delta that can serve as a model for other intensive agricultural landscapes in industrialized nations impacted by extreme weather events. The research approach combines quantitative trend analysis of long-term climatic data (temperature, precipitation) with a formal survey of Zeelandic farmers to statistically test four specific hypotheses regarding the frequency of EWEs in the Netherlands and farmer awareness and adaptation.Trend analyses reveal a strong (statistically significant) increase in extreme heat, a small increase in extreme rainfall and drought, and a strong decrease in frost occurrence. Survey results indicate Zeelandic farmers perceive high risk and awareness of changes to the frequency of EWEs. Many farmers have experienced financial losses from EWEs, particularly between 2017 and 2020. For extreme heat, droughts, and frost, the proportion of farmers that incurred financial damages annually is statistically correlated to the actual occurrence of EWEs. Farmers who incurred more financial losses between 2000 and 2020 due to heat and lack of frost had a higher risk perception of these extremes. Further, almost all farmers have already implemented one or more adaptation strategies. A third of surveyed farmers reduced or stopped with potato and onion cultivation in response to climate change and EWEs. Awareness, exposure to, and risk perception of EWEs contribute to adaptation support by farmers. The high perceived risk of climate change and EWEs among respondents and the high incidence of financial losses from extremes in the past two decades highlights the importance of adaptation in the agricultural sector, including in temperate regions where growing seasons are expanding. Study results support the current ‘Rural Development Program’ and future ‘National Strategic Plan’ policies in the Netherlands, both part of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), that provides accessibility to adaptation measures for farmers to avoid financial loss.

Reconstructing the framing of resilience in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy post‐2020 reform

AbstractThe concept of resilience has been increasingly adopted on the European Union's (EU) policy agenda as a principle for agro‐food policy‐making. However, resilience is an ambiguous concept, allowing for different understandings and uses in the context of agro‐food policy‐making. This study analyses whether and how resilience is framed and contributes to framing in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post‐2020 reform process by policymakers and stakeholders. Combining deductive and inductive coding, we analysed 123 policy documents of EU institutions and stakeholders related to the CAP post‐2020 reform debate and the associated Farm‐to‐Fork Strategy. Five distinct resilience frames were identified: (1) income resilience frame, (2) farmers’ supply chain position resilience frame, (3) climate change impact resilience frame, (4) disease resilience frame and (5) ecological resilience frame. Whereas the resilience concept has been deployed by various actors, they differ in their preferred policy actions towards greater resilience.

How can the European Common Agricultural Policy help halt biodiversity loss? Recommendations by over 300 experts

AbstractThe European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has not halted farmland biodiversity loss. The CAP post‐2023 has a new ‘‘Green Architecture,’’ including the new ‘‘Eco‐scheme’’ instrument. How can this new Green Architecture help tackle the biodiversity crisis? Through 13 workshops and an online survey, over 300 experts from 23 European Member States addressed this question.From experts’ contributions, key principles for success include preserving and restoring (semi)natural elements and extensive grasslands; improving spatial planning and landscape‐scale implementation, including through collective actions; implementing result‐based approaches; and improved knowledge exchange. To maximize the effectiveness of Eco‐scheme for biodiversity, experts highlighted the need to prioritize evidence‐based actions, allocate a sufficient budget for biodiversity, and incentivize management improvements through higher payment levels. Additionally, stronger coherence is needed among CAP instruments.For effective CAP implementation, the European Commission and the Member States should expand investments in biodiversity monitoring, knowledge transfer, and capacity‐building within relevant institutions. The remaining risks in the CAP's ability to reverse the loss of farmland biodiversity still require better design, closer monitoring, greater transparency, and better engagement with farmers. Additionally, greater involvement of scientists is needed to guide the CAP toward restoring farmland biodiversity while accounting for synergies and trade‐offs with other objectives.

Promoting organic food production through flagship regions

AbstractMitigating the environmental impact of agriculture is a major issue in negotiations on the future of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy. Organic farming is commonly put forward in these discussions as a promising way to reduce the negative environmental impact of agriculture. Consequently, different promotional strategies aiming at the adoption of organic farming practices have been developed. In 2013, the German federal state of Bavaria initiated an innovative programme that resulted in ‘organic flagship regions’ being appointed in the years that followed. These regions are allocated support with the main goal of motivating farmers to switch to organic production. By applying a difference-in-differences estimator, we evaluate whether the programme has achieved its aims, i.e. whether more farmers have adopted organic farming practices within the flagship regions as compared to farmers outside such regions. The Theory of Planned Behaviour provides the conceptual framework to identify the main factors influencing a farmer's decision to go organic. Our results suggest that the programme fails to motivate farmers to switch to organic production and that there is a need to more effectively target decision-influencing factors.

Is small beautiful? Techinical efficiency and environmental sustainability of small-scale family farms under the conditions of agricultural policy support

The need to guarantee the efficiency of the agricultural sector and to shape production in order to limit its negative impact on the natural environment is one of the most important priorities of the European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In particular, the relationship between efficiency and environmental balance under the policy support for small-scale family farms has not been widely established. Answering this question is important because small-scale farms are the basis for the functioning of agricultural sectors in many regions of the world. Such a situation takes place also in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which, apart from some exceptions (e.g. the Czech Republic), are characterised by a fragmented agrarian structure. Hence, the article is an attempt to identify the connection between the economic and ecological performance of small-scale farming in five countries. As three countries under study belong to the European Union's agricultural support system and two are outside this system, the next target is to check whether farms in countries covered by the CAP showcase higher economic and environmental indicators. The study was based on surveys conducted in small-scale farms in Poland (710 farms), Lithuania (1000), Romania (900), Serbia and Moldova (550). To find the results, data envelopment analysis (DEA), single-factor analysis of variance (the ANOVA method) and linear ordering methods were used. Two main conclusions were drawn: First, regardless of the support system (EU vs. national), the researched farms are characterised by relatively low technical efficiency and relatively high environmental sustainability. Thus, it can be concluded that they are rather weak economically but environmentally friendly. Second, there are no statistically significant differences in the environmental balance and technical efficiency for farms in EU countries (Poland, Lithuania and Romania) and non-EU countries (Serbia and Moldova), despite the fact that the latter obtained significantly lower agricultural support.

It is not only about money —– German farmers' preferences regarding voluntary standards for farm sustainability management

Improved sustainability in farming is one of the main objectives of the European Union's new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2021–2027. In an exploratory study conducted with German farmers, we examine the adoption-decision process for a comprehensive farm sustainability management standard. The standard is rooted in scientific assessment systems and aims to achieve higher levels of sustainability in all farm production processes. Despite the growing political interest and increasing consumer demand for sustainable food, no such sustainability standard has as yet become established in Germany. Using a Delphi process, we analysed the main hindrances to its wider acceptance. Linking our results to the pre-decision stages of Rogers' innovation-decision model, we find that there is both a lack of any relative advantage of a sustainability standard and a lack of communication of the benefits, such as optimised processes and possible economic improvements. We also analysed both the importance and the optimal configuration of the various elements that make up the standard. Besides the obvious desire for higher product prices, the data basis underlying the sustainability assessment is identified as the most important factor of an optimised standard. Technical user support is another aspect of great concern to the farmers questioned, whereas the threshold values for farming regulation given in the standard appear to be of less significance to them. According to those surveyed, a standard would need to display a high level of compatibility with existing farm management practices, it must not be too complex, and it would need to promote its advantages so as to overcome its lack of trialability. Agricultural sustainability management could play a role in achieving the national emission and biodiversity targets of European member states, but only if they are accepted by a majority of practitioners. However, current German management standards need to undergo further development if they are to meet the needs of practitioners. Our findings can help all member states to structure their agricultural policies and promote the use of farm sustainability management. Further research should aim to improve standards and tools of agricultural sustainability management and render them compatible with EU funding policy.

A harmonized and spatially explicit dataset from 16 million payments from the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy for 2015

SummaryThe Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the largest budget item in the European Union, but varied data reporting hampers holistic analysis. Here we have assembled the first dataset to our knowledge to report individual CAP payments by standardized CAP funding measures and geolocation. We created this dataset by translating, geolocating to the county or province (NUTS3) level, and consistently harmonizing payment measures for over 16 million payments from 2015, originally reported by EU member states and compiled by the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. This dataset and code allow in-depth analysis of over €60 billion in public spending by purpose and location for the first time, which enables both individual payment tracing and analysis by aggregation. These data are representative of the distribution of annual CAP payments from 2014 to 2020 and are of interest to researchers, policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and journalists for evaluating the distribution and impacts of CAP spending.

EU regional convergence in the agricultural sector: Are there synergies between agricultural and regional policies?

AbstractAlthough the European Union's (EU) Common Agricultural Policy was intended as sectoral, its recent reforms lead to a stronger territorial vocation, allowing for possible overlaps with the objectives of the Cohesion Policy, the main regional policy of the EU. Through a threshold regression approach, we explore if the possible interactions between these policies influence the agricultural productive performance in more and less developed regions. Results show that in regions with agricultural Gross Value Added per worker lower than 25.53 thousand Euros, both policies exhibit a negative effect, mitigated if they are implemented together. In more productive regions, the effects are the opposite.

Turning Meadow Weeds Into Valuable Species for the Romanian Ethnomedicine While Complying With the Environmentally Friendly Farming Requirements of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy.

The cross-compliance mechanism of the European Union (EU)'s common agricultural policy (CAP) makes the approval of the direct payments to the European farmers subject to compliance with the requirement to maintain the land in good agricultural and environmental condition. One of the obligations of the Romanian land owners and farmers is to avoid the installation of unwanted vegetation on their land plots. This vegetation is represented by some species of herbaceous or woody plants, annual or perennial, that spontaneously invade the agricultural lands, diminishing the production capacity of the cultivated plants. Included in this category are 10 meadow weeds, without fodder value or even toxic to animals: Arctium lappa L., Carduus nutans L., Conium maculatum L., Eryngium campestre L., Euphorbia cyparissias L., Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn, Rumex acetosella L., Veratrum album L., Xanthium spinosum L., and Xanthium strumarium L. Various and multiple uses in traditional medicine of these meadow weed species have been reported for Romania and other nine neighboring East European countries, i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Kosovo, Russia, Turkey, Serbia, and Ukraine. For A. lappa were recorded the highest number of ethnomedicinal uses, in the largest number of East European countries, including Romania. C. maculatum and V. album are not recommended for human consumption but can be further investigated as potential sources of pharmaceutically active compounds. Once removed by landowners and farmers from their land, the raw plant material of these 10 species become readily and easily available to the Romanian local communities and the industry of herbal food supplements, while the biodiversity of the agro-ecosystems is maintained.

The Noble or Sour Wine: European Commission’s Competing Discourses on the Main CAP Reforms

AbstractIn this article, we apply discourse analysis to the European Commission's Communications on reforms of the European Union's Common agricultural policy (CAP). The results of the historical discourse analysis of the European Commission’s strategy documents in the form of Communications on the CAP from 1991 to 2017 showed that the discourse was a hybrid, modified according to the specific political economic context and the European Commission’s need to justify the CAP reforms. In the first two Communications of 1991 and 1997, the neomercantilist and neoliberal discourses dominated to justify the reduction of market price support. In the Communications of the 2000s the neoliberal and multifunctionality discourse dominated to justify further CAP reforms based on decoupling and liberalisation of support. In the last Communication from 2017 the multifunctionality discourse in populist form prevailed to find the new societal argumentation for maintaining the policy.

European agricultural policy requires a stronger performance framework to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Non-technical summary Agriculture provides many benefits to people, such as producing food and creating jobs in rural areas, but it can also have negative impacts on the environment. We analysed existing monitoring indicators for the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to evaluate whether the CAP is effectively achieving multiple social and environmental goals. We found that the current CAP monitoring system is unable to balance many potentially competing goals because its indicators are biased towards a few objectives. We suggest the European Union and its Member States adopt a broader set of indicators covering clear targets when the policy is reformed after 2020.

The position of the EU organic label among Hungarian consumers

The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has undergone many reforms and - over the past decades - has reached a level where food security issues are basic criteria for the European food production. From the beginning of the 1990s, the EU has been trying to reinforce this positive overall impression with quality systems which are regulated at the Community level.
 Basically, European decision-makers regard two areas as being of paramount importance: geographical indication and organic food. Each system has separate certifications and labels to help consumers make their decisions. Despite the fact that these products are also important factors of EU trade policy and in the case of geographical indications in Hungary, there has been a separate Origin Protection Program, the relationship between Central and Eastern Europe consumers with this system is a rather undiscovered area. That’s why the aim of this study is to investigate the awareness of the Hungarian consumers about the EU organic label and the factors that determine the awareness of the EU organic logo and the regular purchases. Not surprisingly, the awareness of the EU organic label and is still low despite the growing tendency in the recent years.
 The survey conducted in Hungary is based on a sample with 1,019 consumers. The online consumer survey was implemented during the second half of 2017. Results show that among the European food quality labels the organic label is one of the most recognized ones in Hungary, but its average awareness is still very low: less than every fourth Hungarian consumer knows what this label is for.
 The awareness of the EU organic logo is mainly determined by the sex (male), diet (fish consumption, (ovo)-vegetarian) and the place of purchase (alternative routes and internet). Regarding regular purchases, trust in the label and the system is crucial next to the age (younger ones), and purchase (supermarket). Therefore, in order to increase the sales of products with EU organic label, it is essential to sell bio food more widely, which will enable consumers to know more about organic products and the EU organic logo; as well as the application of a proper marketing strategy by companies to reach their potential target group, mainly the younger consumers. In any case, the future goal is to raise the awareness of bio and other quality systems (e.g. GI) products because the higher level of comsumers’ awareness and trust can lead to a higher level of consumer willingness to pay. And this results in mutual benefit for both producers and consumers.