Europe’s agricultural policy facing new alternatives

“If the right decisions are not now taken, the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community may collapse. The hour of truth has struck for agriculture.” So the Commissioner for Agriculture, Gundelach, in the spring of 1980 when appealing to the Members of the European Parliament “to support the Commission’s moderate proposals for price increases and the proposed measures for reducing the agricultural surpluses”¹. This scenario gives great topical value to findings set out in a publication, “Europe’s Agricultural Policy Facing New Alternatives”², of which we present here a summary. Its wellknown authors have tried to map out routes to a less contentious agricultural policy for the future.