ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines some major trends in agri-environmental policy in order to illustrate the growing influence of the market reform narrative before going on to outline in more detail the logic of market instruments and their assumptions. Market reform is one of the pre-eminent policy narratives of our time; an essential reference point in the design and articulation of virtually all governmental action. Market-based instruments are represented by their proponents as the policy vanguard, offering opportunities to depoliticize environmental governance, target expenditure more effectively, and address hitherto intractable policy problems. Environmental issues associated with agriculture and particularly with the intensification and industrialization of agriculture have a long history as matters of policy concern and action. Market instruments take a variety of forms. Some are used to fix problems in existing markets, the idea being that once perverse incentives are removed, markets can more-or-less be left to them without causing environmental or social harm.
