welcome bienvenue wi I I kom men

six (;richst Editori;tl b y Cees Veemwn

Agriculture Under the Public Eye: Who Cares for What?

Vagriculture aux yeux des politiques publiques : qui doit f& quoi ?

Landwirtschaft in der offentlichen Meinung: Wer ist wofiir zustiindig?

twelve by Zohra Bouamru-Mechemache and Wncent Rkquillart

CAP Reform in the Dairy Sector: Remove Export Subsidies and Retain Milk Quota

La reforme de la PAC laitiere: supprimer les subventions aux exportations et conserver les quotas

Reform der GAP im Milchsektor : Abschaffung der Exportsubventionen nnd Beibehaltung der Milchquoten

eighteen by khrel uan Bommel, Herinie tun der Veen, Gubc Vmeina

Financial Distress with Famiiy Farm Transfer in Six European Countries

La pression financihe sup les exploitations familides dans six pays de la comunaute europeenne

Finanzielle Notlage bei der Hofiibergabe von Familienbetrieben in sechs eumpaischen Iiindern

twenty four ~ J ~ ~ ~ ~ t ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~€~~~~~~~~~~

by Xa~uer lrz and C .P SrmriJusan

Impact of WHO Dietary Recommendations on World Sugar Consumption, Production and Trade

Vimpact des recomandations dietktiques de I’OMS sur la consommation, la production et les echanges mondiaux de sucre

Die Auswirkung der WHO- E m ~ ~ e m p f ~ u n g e n auf den Weltzuckerverbrauch, die Produktion und den Handel

If3 ~~~~~~Q

European Consumers’ Acceptance * Income Developments in of US Hormone-treated Beef. Agriculture.

b- The Changing Composition of a The Impact of Foot and Mouth Disease o n the Price of Beef.

* Impact of CAP Reform and Enlargement on Spain.

support to Agriculture

k The CAP and Enhrgement - Implications for Agriculture in the Balkan Countries.

twenty six b ~ i JLMa Roosen. Jqson L. Lrcsk, John A FOX

Transatlantic Daerences in Consumer Preferences

Des consommateurs merents d’une rive de 1’Atlantique a l’autre

T~satlantische Unterschiede bei Verbraucherpriiferenn

thirty four S’OiC~t tit. \ blU

by Sal(y Shortall

Time to Re-Think Rural Development?

Serait-ce le moment de repenser le developpement rural ?

1st es an der Zeit, die EntwicMung des landlichen Raums noch einmal zu uberdenken?

forty b y Kenneti!J Thornson and I>ettietrios

‘Integrated Rural Development Policy in the EU: a Term Too Far?

Les politiques europeennes de developpement rural ‘integre’ : un mot de trop?

’Integrierte’ Politik zur EntwicMung des landlichen Raums in der E U Em zu weit gefasster Be-

~ ’ s ~ l ~ o p o u ~ o s

forty six

EuroChoices 3(2) 03

Dear reader,

Greetings to Ministers

Publication of this issue of EuroChoices coincides with an informal meeting of Ministers of Agriculture in the Netherlands under the auspices of the Dutch Presidency of the EU. I do hope that the Ministers and their delegations find much to interest them within its covers. I am p ~ c u l a r l y grateful to Cees Veerman, Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, for contributing to the Guest Editorial section. Minister Veerman has been actively involved in farming in the Netherlan~ and France and for many years held professorial positions in agricultural economics at several Butch univer- sities, as well as being Chairman of Wageningen University. He is very well placed to make links between the academic world and decision makers in the policy community and the priv- ate sector. In his thought-provoking article he reflects on CAP re€orm and changes taking place in the food chain. He points to the emergence of a new duality between state and market - on the one hand a system of state regulation, and on the other, a

04 EuroChoices 3f2)

t 6 My thanks to the Ministries in the UK, Ireland and the Net herlands that have provided financial support to help sustain € ~ ~ ~ C ~ o j c e s in the future J 1 John Davis ~ ~ ~ g i n g Editor

system of self-regulation driven by major forces in the supply chain. He concludes that a simple and effective regulatory environment is needed if we are to achieve compet- itiveness goals and calls for debate in the policy community about the balance between the state and the market - who cares for what?

My thanks to those ministers who have written articles for EuroChoices in the past and to the Ministries in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands that have provided financial support to help sustain the periodical in the future. It is perhaps an opportune moment to invite other ministers to contribute their views through the Guest Editorial section, for example on where agri-food policy and research should be going or how CAP Reform is being implemented at the national and regionaI levels.

Sustainability of ~ ~ ~ o C ~ ~ ~ c e s

You may grow weary of reading my frequent references to this subject! But I do wish to emphasise that the EU grant that supported the development of our new periodical has now ended. Indeed this issue

is the first in the post-grant era. And let me say first of all, on behalf of the entire EuroChoices team, very many thanks to the European Commission for the award of a two- year grant under the Quality of Life Theme of Framework Programme 5. Without this ‘pump-priming’ support it would just not have been possible to launch and esrab~~sh the credibility of our new publication. We look forward to continuing our very productive relationship with colleagues in the Commission. We have indeed achieved much in the last two years but significant challenges lie ahead.

There are two related aspects to long-term sustainability The first, of course, is financial solvenq. We need to be able to cover our production and distribution costs in the medium to longer-term. In this area we are continuing ta make progress thanks to the work of our Business Manager, Tim Sparrow, supported by the Steering Group. We greatly appreciate the assistance already given by the above-mentioned ministries and we all earnestly hope that others will recognise the public good value of what EuroChoices does and will follow their lead. The subscriptions of ~nstitutions will also be a very important source of revenue in the future. So please do lobby your library to become a subscriber. In this regard the decision of the AES (UK) to bundle EuroChoices with its institutional subscription for the Journal of &-iculturaE Economics is most welcome and will provide a significant source of fbture revenue. The EAAE is considering ways in which it might also provide long- term support. The second aspect of sustain-

abiIity is editorial quality. f am pleased with the standards we have achieved so far, mainly as a result of the exceflent range of articles submitted and the hard work of our team of reviewers. But we can also do better on this front. I would like to see a wider geographic spread in our submissions - I am hopehl that Enlargement will increase the participation a f colleagues in central and eastern Europe, and we also need more submissions from southern Europe. I am alsd interested in hearing from rural sociologists, particularly those working on rural development topics. So please do consider ~ ~ ~ ~ o ~ ~ o ~ c e ~ as an ~ m ~ ~ ~ r t a n t channel for the wider dissemination of your work and ideas - I believe that we have a duty these days to ensure that we communicate with the widest possible audience. The various pubkation opp~rtunit~es and the submission Guidelines can be seen on our website: www.EuroChoices.org Please do consider the guidel~es carefully as this will greatly enhance the chances of having your article accepted.

In this issue

In addition to Minister Veerman’s . article I am sure you will find much efse of interest. Two articles, for example, look at different aspects of rural development. A Point de Vue by Shortall argues, based on her preliminary work in Ireland, that it is time to ~ndamental~y re-think some aspects of rural policy and practice. She argues that the social capitat debate gives renewed impetus to partnership structures of dubious democratic l ~ g ~ t i m a ~ y and that the nature of

rural development problems are such that they must be taken up by national governments rather than primarily by local partner- ships. Thomson and Psaltopoulos, on the other hand, challenge rurat policy makers and practitioners to avoid the use of vague rhetoric in designing p r ~ ~ r a r n ~ e s , particu- larly in relatirrn to how we are to interpret the term ‘integrated’ when applied to rural development poliq. Their arguments seem to endorse the apparent direction of thinking at the November 2003 Salzburg conference on rural development,

An article on dairy policy by Boua~ra-Mechemach~ and Requillart may provoke considerable debate. They argue that, based on their economic modelling work, the optimal approach for the EU is to retain but not increase dairy quotas and to get rid of all dairy subsidies as soon as possible - this approach provides the best outcome in terms of economic welfare. They seem to discount the Longer-term dynamic efficiency effects of a quota system and argue that the quota system complements rurat development policy The financial impact of family farm transfer in Europe is the topic of an article by van Bommel et al. They compare the financial distress afier take-over of the family farm by the next generation in six European countries and conclude that a policy to reduce the fiscally appraised value of the farm woufd most aid succcssors. Such a policy would reduce transfer prices and reduce or avoid gift taxes and thereby cut installation costs for successors. In an article by Roosen d al. transatlantic differences in consumer preferences are analysed. They find, for exampie, that French

consumers are willing to pay more than US consumers for beef from cattle not administered hormones. There are, however, no significant differences among German, UK and US consumers. This article should attract considerabie attention from those interested in the issues surrou~ding the EU’s ban on imports of hormone-treated beef.

The Parfons Graphiqes article by 11% and Srinivasan looks at the impact of WHO dietary r e c o ~ e t ~ ~ a t ~ o n s , which aim to reduce intake of caloriflc sweeteners, on world sugar markets. They conclude that that the WHO norms could have major ~ p I i c a ~ o n s for the world sugar economy in general and for developing countries in particular.

Finally, in his letter Joachim von Braun finds reason for cautious hope with regard to food and nutrition security in Africa. He believes that we can end hunger in

Africa by the year 2020 if we focus on change and action.

I welcome your feedback on any aspect of EuroChices and your suggestions for topics that might usefully be covered.

Yours ever,

Email: joohn,rtavis~EuroChoices.org