ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the 1990s, organic farming has rapidly developed in almost all European countries. Almost 7.4 million hectares (1.6 percent of the agricultural land) were managed organically by more than 200′000 farms in 2006. In the European Union (EU-27), almost 180′000 farms managed 6.8 million hectares organically, constituting four percent of the agricultural area.
