Defra published its ‘Action Plan to Develop Organic Food and Farming in England’ in June 2002 (Anon., 2002a). The Action Plan aimed to ensure stable and strategic growth for the organic sector, and it set out steps that the Government and the food and farming industry would take to encourage a sustainable organic farming and food sector in England. Similar plans have been published for Wales and Scotland. Although organic farming is just one strand of The Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Food and Farming, its uptake is being encouraged because it is considered to deliver benefits for the environment. If environmental benefit is a key driver for Government support of organic farming, there needs to be a collation of the scientific evidence to confirm this. This same debate has been held across many countries as they reassess their agricultural policies (e.g. Stolze et al., 2000; Condron et al., 2000; Hansen et al., 2001; Stockdale et al., 2001). The aim of this report is to review the evidence in the UK context.

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EnvironmentalImpactsofOrganicFarming.pdf	630.52 KB