Agriculture and environment : friends or foes? : conceptualising agri-environmental discourses under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy

Rac, Ilona (author), Erjavec, Karmen (author), Erjavec, Emil (author)

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in addition to its primary production and farm income goals, is a large source of funding for environmentally friendly agricultural practices. However, its schemes have variable success and uptake across member states (MS) and regions. This study tries to explain these differences by demonstrating differences between policy levels in the understanding of the relationship between nature and farming. To compare constructs and values of the respective policy communities, their discursive construction as it appears in the main strategic EU and MS agricultural policy documents is analysed. The theoretical framework integrates elements from existing frameworks of CAP and environmental discourse analysis; specific agri-environmental discourses, their elements and interplay, are identified. The six discourses suggested here are ‘Productivism’, ‘Classical neoliberal’, ‘Ecological modernisation’, ‘Administrative’, ‘Multifunctionality’ and ‘Radical green’. The discourse analysis of selected documents reveals that there are indeed differences in how farming and the environment are generally conceptualised at different levels of CAP decision-making. At EU level, farming is primarily understood as a sector whose main task is to produce food (‘Productivism’), and the environment is used as a justification for CAP payments (‘Multifunctionality’). At the national/regional level, Rural Development Programmes reflect different value systems: in England, environmental protection is mainly seen as sound management of natural capital (‘Classical neoliberal’); in Finland, a benefit for producers and conscious consumers (‘Ecological modernisation’); in Croatia, a necessity limiting productivity (‘Productivism’) and imposed by an external authority (‘Administrative’ discourse). This diversity shows that differences can visibly manifest despite the Commission constraining the discursive space, helping to explain the differential implementation and success of environmental measures.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, agri-environmental discourse, European Union, member state, European Commission communication, rural development programme
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 147–166
• Numbering: Vol. 41, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154727
• UDC: 631:502
• ISSN on article: 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10474-y
• COBISS.SI-ID: 157508867
• Publication date in RUL: 26.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Agriculture and human values
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1572-8366
• COBISS.SI-ID: 513116697

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: kmetijstvo, varstvo okolja, skupna kmetijska politika, CAP, razvoj podeželja, EU, diskurz