ABSTRACT
What is not in doubt is that European agriculture in the 1990s is at a turning point, both technically and politically. Scientists have now developed and are continuing to develop new techniques, new plant and animal genomes, indeed, new farming systems which will increasingly allow more food to be produced with fewer resources. The main effect of these changes, in the absence of political interference, is to encourage farmers to increase or at least maintain their profits by increasing production. This has posed and is continuing to pose a fundamental question about European agricultural policy: should the state continue to interfere in agriculture and food production and markets or should it leave an untrammelled market to dispose resources and to regulate output?
