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"Preface" [2015] ELECD 1342; in McMahon, A. Joseph; Cardwell, N. Michael (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Agriculture Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) xvii

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Agriculture Law

Editor(s): McMahon, A. Joseph; Cardwell, N. Michael

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781954614

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Preface


Despite the various treaties which have seen the European Economic Community estab-
lished by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 transformed into the European Union (EU) of
today, the provisions dealing with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have remained
essentially unchanged. And it is ironic that the latest treaty amendments have returned
the numbering of the provisions on agriculture to those found in the Treaty of Rome.
The lack of change in these provisions should not, however, be taken as evidence that the
agricultural policy which they developed has remained the same over this period ­ this
is clearly not the case. Reform of the CAP has been evolutionary, but it has resulted in a
regime that is now fundamentally different from that introduced in 1962.
At the heart of these reforms is the move away from price support to producer support.
Such producer support is increasingly focussed on the delivery of public goods, for example
through instruments implementing cross-compliance which encompass a requirement to
maintain all agricultural land in good agricultural and environmental condition. This has
allowed the CAP to respond to a wide range of public concerns about agriculture, such
as the impact of agriculture on the environment (especially its negative impact on biodi-
versity), the vitality of rural areas (including the need to avoid land abandonment) and
consumers' concerns about food quality and provenance. The policy landscape is greatly
altered from that which obtained as the original Member States convened in 1958 at Stresa
to discuss ...