Policy networks and policy change in organic agriculture: a comparative analysis of the UK and Ireland
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9299.00313 |
| Published date | 01 September 2002 |
| Date | 01 September 2002 |
| Author | Alan Greer |
POLICY NETWORKS AND POLICY CHANGE IN
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE: A COMPARATIVE
ANALYSIS OF THE UK AND IRELAND
ALAN GREER
This paper takes a comparative case-study approach, located within the literature
on policy networks, to organic agriculture policy in the United Kingdom and Ire-
land since the late 1980s. An examination of policy development for the organic
sector focuses primarily on regulatory arrangements. The core of the analysis
applies some prominent themes in the policy network literature to the organic sec-
tor: the debate about sectoral and sub-sectoral networks, the relationship between
networks, context and outcomes, and the role of the state and ideas in promoting
policy change.
INTRODUCTION: POLICY NETWORKS AND AGRICULTURAL
POLICY
Agricultural policy has provided fertile ground for the empirical testing of
explanatory ideas about the nature of the policy-making process. The policy
networks approach is now the dominant analytical paradigm, not only in
accounts of British agricultural policy but further afield (see for example
Jordan, Maloney and McLaughlin 1994; Smith 1992, 1990; Daugbjerg 1998;
Adshead 1996; Collins 1995). The agricultural sector has also provided the
empirical battlefield for the long-running argument in British political
science about the explanatory utility of the policy networks approach (see
Marsh and Smith 2001, 2000; Dowding 2001).
The analysis adopts a comparative case-study perspective to the organic
agriculture policy sector in the UK and Ireland, located within the general
policy networks approach. Here policy networks are defined primarily in
the British/American tradition as a generic label that encapsulates a variety
of forms of interest intermediation such as policy communities and issue
networks (Marsh 1998a; Rhodes and Marsh 1992b). The approach is used
both as a heuristic device – a ‘sensible way of analysing and categorizing
relations between state actors and other interests’ – and as an explanatory
tool for policy analysis (Marsh 1998b, pp. 186 and 190).
ORGANIC AGRICULTURE POLICY
Although the roots of the organic agriculture movement can be traced back
to the 1920s, rapid expansion of the sector has occurred only since the mid-
Alan Greer is Reader in Politics, University of the West of England, Bristol.
Public Administration Vol. 80 No. 3, 2002 (453–473)
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
454 ALAN GREER
1980s, albeit from a very low base. In the EU as a whole, certified and
policy-supported organic production (including land in conversion)
increased from 100,000 hectares in 1985 to over three million hectares
by 2001. Over the same period the number of organic holdings rose from
just 6,300 to 125,000. Nevertheless organic production accounts for only
around 2 per cent of the total agricultural land and just over 1 per cent of
holdings (Michelsen 2001; Lampkin et al. 1999a, 1999b; Foster and
Lampkin 1999).
In the European context, the UK and Ireland belong to a less advanced
group of countries where organic production remains relatively very small.
By the end of 2000, just over 2 per cent of agricultural land in the UK was
being farmed organically or was in conversion (527,000 hectares compared
with 35,000 hectares in 1993). The number of registered producers increased
from 828 in 1997 to 3563 in December 2000. Valued at around £50 million,
the UK organic sector contributes only 0.4 per cent of total agricultural
output (House of Commons 2001, Vol. I, paras. 11–12). In 2000, in Ireland,
1,100 holdings covering over 30,000 hectares were managed organically,
representing less than 1 per cent of both total agricultural land area and
output (IOFGA 2002).
There has been a concomitant expansion in the processing and retail sec-
tors. In January 2001 there were nearly 2000 registered organic processors
and importers in the UK. The UK organic retail market was worth almost
£550 million in April 2000; in Ireland it has been valued at around IR£20
million. Nonetheless, in 2000, organic food still accounted for less than 3
per cent of the total EU food market. Despite novel distribution practices
such as box-schemes (in which produce is delivered direct to the door of
the consumer), multiple supermarkets dominate the market with nearly 70
per cent of organic sales (House of Commons 2001, Vol. I, para. 34).
Expansion of the organic sector in recent years has been driven by market
forces but also by policy action at both national and supranational levels.
National production support programmes and regulatory regimes were
pioneered in the late 1980s in countries such as Denmark but these have
now been subsumed into EU-level legislation. Influenced by a range of fac-
tors such as the need to reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),
policy intervention has focused primarily on the provision of financial sup-
port and the regulation of production standards.
The 1992 Agri-Environment Regulation (AER, Council Regulation EEC
No. 2078/92) provides the basis for organic subsidy schemes. In both Ire-
land and the UK, aid for organic farming has been provided under pro-
grammes introduced in 1994: the UK Organic Aid Schemes (replaced by
the Organic Farming Schemes, OFS, in 1999), and Supplementary Measure
6 (SM6) of the integrated Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS)
in Ireland. Funding for organic conversion in England (separate schemes
cover Scotland and Northern Ireland) increased from £261,000 in 1995–96
to nearly £13.5 million in 2000, and is projected to reach over £22.5 million
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002
To continue reading
Request your trial