Structural Development in Danish Agricultural Production

1
Structural Development in Danish Agricultural
Production

• 1950 More than 200,000 farms
• 2000 Less than 75,000 farms
• 2015 10,000 full time farms

2
Agricultural subsidies

• Quantity vs. Quality. 60s and 70s
• Based on production. Butter mountains etc.
• Subsidies for giving up production. 80s, 90s
• Closing-down subsidies, decultivation
• CAP Common agricultural policy
• Decoupling production and land use
• Land use for farming and environment
• Up to 20 to rural district programmes, including
  sustainable farming.

3
Two Directions Towards 2013

• In Denmark there are two roads for agricultural
  production in the future.
• Industrialized big-scale primary farming based on
  new forms of ownership, corporations or
  partnerships supplying supermarkets and
  megamarkets.
• Environmentally friendly medium-scale farming
  based on private ownership supplying
  specialized food shops.

4
5 million people and 25 million pigs

• Most agricultural production in Denmark is based
  on pork and dairy products.
• Animals, both pigs and dairy cattle, are kept in
  indoor facilities under highly controlled
  circumstances to optimize the production.
• There is a lack of free range beef cattle to
  graze the meadows and nature reserves

5
The main road

• Big is beautiful
• Industrial farming
• Output maximized by the use of petrochemicals
• Creation of monocultures
• Lack of animal welfare
• Use of antibiotics in fodder
• Third world farming areas used for EU-animal
  fodder
• No longer financial opportunities in buying farm
  land in Denmark
• Free movement of capital within the EU
• Less restrictive environment rules

6
Another Road(The road less travelled.. Robert
Frost)

• Production based on
• Pride and happiness
• Growth through balance
• Harmony between animal units and farming area
• Organic principles
• Continuality
• Use of available technology
• Abstain from the use of petrochemicals
• Abstain from the use of fertilizers
• Abstain from stress if possible

7
DNs agricultural goals

• Organic farming as the basic model of production
• Intensive utilization of natural nitrogen
  (manure) to avoid chemical fertilizers
• Avoidance of pesticides

8
Environmentally Friendly farming

• Since the mid-nineties
• Administered by the regional authorities
• Productive agrarian areas bordering valleys and
  streams or nature reserves
• Intensive production extensive production
• Rotation of crops continuous grassland
• Abstain from fertilizers and pesticides
• Bread OR Fish
• Periods of 5 or 10 years
• Obligation to grazing with cattle, sheep or
  horses
• Obligation to produce hay once a year

9
Public opinion

• From every tax payer in Denmark 3-400 Euros per
  year are transferred unconditional to the farmers
• 75 of Danes think that farming subsidies must
  follow environmentally friendly production
  (Survey from May 2006)
• Danes demand the cheapest possible food products
  with beautiful stories of animal welfare and
  picturesque landscapes
• Two markets

10
Four Targets

• 1 Maximum modulation for catchment areas
• Skimming off a percentage of subsidies allocated
  to single farm payments and redirecting the money
  to non-production measures such as structural
  improvement and environmental measures.
• Obligatory modulation (5 from 2007-2013)
• Voluntary modulation decided by the nation states
• 2 Coastal zones reserved for EFF and organic
  farming
• Preferential treatment of organic farming from
  regional and national political levels
• 3 Industrial farming removed from vulnerable
  nature and neighbours
• Increased demands and regulations on manure
  deposits, ban on protective use of medicine,
  nation state standards
• 4 Consumers awareness
• Marketing logo. Friendly Baltic (Baltic
  Friendly Farming Products)
• ABC (Agriculture/Baltic/Clean) etc.