WRITTEN QUESTION E-1799/99

by Alexander de Roo (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(12 October 1999)

Subject: Biological food production restricted to 15 %

At the hearings on 6 September 1999, the nominee Commissioner for Agriculture, Austria's Franz Fischler, stated in reply to my question, on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, asking if a 10 % rate of biological food production by 2010 was an objective worth pursuing that, in his view, biological farming could account for a maximum niche market of 15 %, but that some Member States were reluctant. Is the European Commission familiar with the Bichel report from Denmark? In March 1999 this 19-member national committee (made up of researchers, farmers, representatives of biological and conventional farming, consumers and the trade-union movement, as well as various ministerial departments) reached the conclusion that conversion to 100 % biological food production in Denmark was a perfectly feasible option.

The main conclusion of the Bichel report was that the socio-economic calculations showed that 100 % organic farming in Denmark and unchanged consumer preferences would reduce that society's economy in step with the drop in size of primary production. GNP would be reduced by 1,2 to 3 %. Private consumption would be reduced by 2 to 5 %. At the farm level, pig farms would suffer the greatest losses. Changed consumer preferences in the export markets, corresponding to price increases of 10 % on milk and 20 % on pork, show that this would only diminish private consumption by about an annual DKK 2,5 billion, or about DKK 500 per person per year. The cost of compulsory restructuring would be large. If, instead, demand and price mechanisms were allowed to control the restructuring rate, there would be no guarantee of how far the restructuring that took place would improve the welfare of society.

In other words, total conversion to biological farming with changed consumer preferences would cost around 50 per person per year in Denmark, whereas compulsory restructuring would cost many times more and would jeopardise certain sectors.

Will the Commission set up a comparable committee to determine what the socio-economic and ecological impact would be of conversion (compulsory, or directed by market demand) to 100 % biological food production in the present-day EU?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(8 November 1999)

The Commission is indeed aware of the report referred to by the Honourable Member.

The Commission is of the opinion that market forces should be left free to determine the proportion of agricultural production that is accounted for by organic farming. To promote this type of farming, the Community has, with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 of 24 June 1991 on organic production of agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs(1), laid the legal basis for promoting the development of a serious market in such products within the Community. Organic farmers can also gain particular benefit from the support for the agri-environmental sector provided for in Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 of 17 May 1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and amending and repealing certain Regulations(2). Organic farming may have made great strides forward in recent years, but it still accounts for no more than 2 % of the total Community agricultural area.

The Commission considers that organic farming still has major growth potential in the years ahead, but does not regard the complete conversion of agriculture within the Community from conventional production methods to organic methods to be a realistic scenario. It does not, therefore, intend to set up a group of experts to examine in detail the socio-economic and environmental impact of such a conversion.

(1) OJ L 198, 22.7.1991.

(2) OJ L 160, 26.6.1999.