ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conditions under which one might expect US and European Union (EU) farm policy reform to continue but sounds a note of caution that the possibility of a return to at least some of the old-style policies cannot be entirely ruled out. Farm organizations are well-organized, understand the complexities of agricultural policy and have vast experience working with agricultural policy-makers. The climate for the reform of farm policies includes both political and economic conditions. The German Agriculture Ministry has been renamed the Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture and the UK Ministry of Food and Farming has been recast as the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Structural changes in the agricultural and food markets of the world will also have a major impact on the continuation of the process of reform. The 1990s would have proved to be the turning point in the long march toward more liberal agricultural policies.
