Environmental Performance of Agriculture at a Glance

OECD, 2008

Content

• overview of agri-environmental trends in OECD countries since 1990 (nutrients, pesticides, energy, soil, water, air, biodiversity, farm management)

Findings

EU agriculture

• Marked decrease in the use of inorganic nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers
• Slight decrease in the use of pesticides, on-farm energy, and ammonia emissions
• increased water use (agriculture responsible for 30% of total EU water use in 2001-03)

Comment

• the ecological costs of agriculture are slowly diminishing – but by far not fast enough and not in all areas (water use, soil erosion, biodiversity)