The Reform Of The Cap And Rural Development In Southern Europe

Today the use of the term countryside reflects a dual historical shift due to the decreasing importance of agriculture - both in terms of employment and production - in European economies and the shift toward the environment. An increasing part of rural populations is being drawn into non-agricultural sectors such as tourism, construction, manufacturing, and the conventional and innovative services, thereby granting a more diversified and contemporary role to the countryside. The environmental shift has questioned many of the very fundamental premises governing the relationship between social practices and nature. Agenda 2000 and the ongoing debate concerning the CAP reforms are connected to a large extent with these new realities. This engaging book focuses on the prospects for the development of the Southern European countryside during a transitional period of a major policy paradigm shift. Bringing together case studies from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece, the book discusses the key issues mentioned above, as well as the restricting factors and prospects of the adjustments required.

Taking into account Agenda 2000 and the ongoing debate concerning the CAP reforms, this engaging book brings together important case studies to focus on the prospects for the development of the Southern European countryside.

First published in 1998, this volume features specialists in agricultural economics who have provided case studies on small farms in northern and central Portugal and southern and central Italy. The collaboration is a result of an early 1990s research project on small farm agriculture in Portugal and Italy and the likely impacts of the Common Agricultural Policy. It recognises that small farms have become an unexpected yet durable aspect of the agricultural landscape since World War II. As small farms represent 95% of the number of farms in Portugal and Italy, the contributors provide some much needed analysis of an often overlooked aspect of the agricultural sector.

Examines the interaction of the economic, political and social change processes within Europe which are bringing about fundamental transformations in rural areas. The authors expand on this view of rural Europe, and place its significance within the broader field of rural studies.

This book provides a stimulating account of agricultural policy which goes beyond a narrow concern with the mechanisms and operation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and instead constructs a broader canvas, developing an assessment of the relationship between national, international and supranational institutions and actors in the agricultural sector. Among the theses covered by the book are: the different national policy styles across Europe in this sector; the evolution of the CAP; safety and regulation, the environment, and technological developments in food production such as genetic engineering.

This book reviews assessments on the environmental effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and assesses the contribution of agricultural policy to environmental quality in the EU. It focuses on the role of agricultural policy in reducing harmful effects and/or creating benefits to the physical environment, landscape and nature. Emphasis is given to comparative studies, rather than any limited to one country. The commodity regimes of the CAP ' e.g. the beef, wine and olive oil regimes ' are considered in detail.

This book argues that the marginal upland regions of southern Europe are facing a growing agrarian crisis. Drawing on an extensive period of original field research in northern Portugal, a theory of crisis is put forward, which draws on recent advances in the fields of geography, rural sociology, and development studies. In an in-depth analysis of the Serra do Alvao, the importance of external political economic factors are highlighted. It is argued that traditional agriculture systems have been undermined, and farmers marginalized, without creating the conditions for restructuring and more efficient production. A strategy for economic growth which prioritizes increases in productivity is rejected, in favour of a more flexible approach to development.