ABSTRACT
Rural areas have changed dramatically over the past fi fty years. Challenges have shifted and new opportunities have emerged. The role of the family farm has been eroded. Indeed the role of agriculture in the rural economy has diminished with less than 10% of the rural workforce in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries employed in agriculture. Meanwhile in the European Union (EU) while 96% of land is in agriculture, only 13% of rural employment is in agriculture (OECD, 2006). People believe there should be a greater good emerging from agriculture than simply food production; they want to gain from the landscape aesthetically and they also want to be able to use rural areas as an amenity. In other words rural resources are seen as being multi-functional as they give private and public benefi ts. Meanwhile as the effects of ‘Agfl ation’, that is, the rising cost of agricultural production due to the global credit crunch and the rising cost of fuel, are felt by all nations, the consumer is increasingly demanding cheaper and higher quality food. Food security arguments have re-emerged in recent years within international trade negotiations as a means of justifying subsidies. Issues of public health and animal welfare have risen to prominence, for example the outbreak of footand-mouth disease in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2001 and the avian infl uenza (H5N1) outbreak in Southeast Asia in mid-2003 (which since spread in Asia and to Europe). A sneeze in one country very quickly reverberates around the globe.
