Organic farming policies and the growth of the organic sector in Denmark and the UK: a comparative analysis

Summary

There has been little systematic analysis of the extent to which organic farming policies have influenced growth in the organic sector. Analyses of organic farming policy instruments, for the most part, provide extensive and detailed reviews of instruments applied either in a single country or across countries. Hence, there is a great need to examine systematically whether there is a relationship between the introduction of organic farming policies and the growth of the organic food sector, and whether particular designs of organic farming policies are more effective than others. In this paper, we take the first step in the endeavour of analysing the effects of organic farming by undertaking an econometric analysis of the relationship between organic farming policies in Denmark and the UK and their effects on the number of farmers and growers converting to organic production.