The Properties of Agroecosystems 131Modern western agriculture
The dominant factor in western agriculture during the latter part of the 20th cen-
tury has been protectionism. In the UK, for example, the experiences of the great
agricultural depressions, notably at the end of the 19th century and in the 1930s,
led to the passing of the Agricultural Act of 1947 which introduced a wide range
of subsidies and guaranteed prices for most major agricultural products. Subse-
quently, the creation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1957 under the
European Economic Commission (EEC) instituted the right to comparability of
income between workers in the agricultural and industrial sectors throughout most
western European countries and ensured this through a complicated system of
external tariff walls, levies, intervention prices and export refunds. European farm-
ers have been protected from the fluctuations in world markets and productivity
has risen dramatically. Over the past three decades nitrogen fertilizer applications
in the UK have risen from 200,000 to over 1,400,000 tons, and cereal yields from
an average 3 tons/ha to 6 tons/ha while the number of farm workers has declined
from 800,000 to under 400,000 (Conway, 1984). Large EEC surpluses, notably of
beef, milk, cereals, sugar and wine, have been created.
Over the same period land prices have risen and farmers’ incomes in Britain
doubled, improving in relation to manual and farm workers, whereas other com-
parable occupations have declined (Bowers and Cheshire, 1983). Although small
and marginal farmers have benefited from the subsidies, the bigger, richer and
more specialized farmers have benefited more. For the UK as a whole, the CAP
system of price guarantees is effectively borne by the public as consumers, rather
than as taxpayers, and hence the impact on income distribution has been regres-
sive.
The increased agricultural productivity has also been at the expense of the
amenity, recreation and conservation values of the countryside. There have been
recent, large-scale losses of ancient woodlands, chalk grasslands, herb rich mead-
ows, heaths, hedgerows, lakes, fens and mires (Nature Conservancy Council,
1984). Moreover, this has occurred at a time when use of the countryside for walk-
ing, angling, camping, horseriding and natural history pursuits involves millions
of the public and is rising dramatically (Conway, 1984). Pollution from agriculture
is also increasing. Water pollution incidents arising from livestock or silage effluent
have doubled since 1979 in the UK (WAA, 1986), while in several parts of the
country nitrate levels in drinking water supplies are close to new European limits
(Young et al, 1976; Oakes, 1981; Wilkinson and Greene, 1982). In these cases the
costs of pollution caused by agriculture are borne by the public rather than by the
farming community.
How sustainable is this high level of production remains open to debate. There
is some evidence for increased soil erosion (Morgan, 1985a, 1985b) and concern
is being expressed over soil quality and the danger of growing pesticide resistance.
More important, however, is the cost of subsidizing production at the present lev-
els. Western European governments have already instituted milk quotas and are