It is all too easy to cover a product with labels and stickers without providing the necessary guarantees and expect the consumer to pay a higher price. Rural areas should provide attractive location for living and working and comprise a wide spread of population in terms of age structure so that schools and other essential services can be guaranteed. Also, there are many environmental goals to be met if sustainability is to be taken seriously. Responsible stewardship of the natural resources on which agriculture is based is a fundamental requirement for sustainable development, underpinning the need to synchronise our actions with nature. This includes responsible water management, measures to address desertification and shrinking biological diversity.
Rural areas are increasingly home to broader economic activities such as e-commerce.
New technology is opening the countryside up to the general business public and we must ensure that this wider population can be integrated in a way which is economically motivating and harmonious with existing rural populations. Citizens are understandably preoccupied with the environment in which they live. They aspire to breathing fresh air and drinking unpolluted water. They have the legitimate expectation of being able to enjoy cultivated land in which the natural fauna and flora of the European continent can co-exist with agriculture. The countryside plays an important role in providing leisure and pleasure to the citizen.