ABSTRACT
Agriculture was humanitys first organized enterprise. The future of agricultural policy is not about assistance, it is about rendering services to society, be it in terms of food security, the environment, rural areas. So several agricultural models can coexist. In the United States, services and manufacturing account for just over 99 per cent of economic activity and agriculture less than 1 per cent. In the European Union, services and industry account for 97.8 per cent of GDP with agriculture providing a trifle in percentage terms. The greatest failure of the European Unions Common Agricultural Policy has been the lack of new goals, which would give agriculture a reason to be dynamic and productive, rather than featherbedded through subsidies. Since the 1950s the Common Agricultural Policy has proved to be the most costly of the European Unions initiatives because it has been full of flaws.
