Product-oriented Environmental Policy for Agricultural Production

In the study on “Product-oriented environmental policy for agricultural production” we identified the problem areas and the possible role of product-oriented policy measures.

The client

Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Denmark

Our role

The project was performed by a group of scientists from the agricultural sector under the leadership of 2.-0 LCA consultants. Project completed December 2001.

Product-oriented environmental policy for agricultural production

In this study on (report in Danish language with English summary) we applied the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) to identify the problem areas and the possible role of product-oriented policy measures. Combined with an actor analysis, this led us to conclude that the measures with the largest potential were market-oriented measures, e.g. differentiating agricultural subsidies according to environmental performance. In comparison to these measures, it would require disproportionately large investments to increase the demand for food products with a documented low environmental effect, e.g. through a labelling and certification scheme.

The basic prerequisite for a product-oriented approach is that the environmental effect can be recorded per unit of product (i.e. per tonne of wheat, per kg of pork, per 1000 kg of milk, etc.) To enable this, we proposed an extension of the existing PC tools to produce ”green accounts” and use these in farm planning, so that the present records per farm unit can be related to the amount of each product from the farm.