Agriculture: Externalities

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer
asked Her Majesty's Government:

What recent assessment they have made of the costs of externalities associated with different farming methods; and whether they will commission research into this issue. [HL2727]

The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker)
Farming gives rise to a range of complex impacts relating to the environment and health. These impacts can be positive as well as negative and many of them are external to farming so that the costs or benefits are met by other sectors or the general public

Defra and the devolved Administrations commissioned research by Eftec to develop A Framework for Environmental Accounts for Agriculture. Published in July 2004, the study provided initial evidence on significant positive and negative environmental externalities of UK agriculture. The costs of externalities, including water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, were estimated at £1.4 billion and the positive impacts, including biodiversity and landscape, were valued at £1 billion. This study was seen as a first step in a long-term development process, and a further independent study has now been commissioned by Defra. This study, to be completed in summer 2007, will aim to refine and develop environmental accounts. As more reliable estimates are developed, the accounts will have a valuable role in setting priorities for agricultural policy and as an evidence base for measuring the sustainability of agriculture. The study will also consider the feasibility of developing sector valuations to provide evidence in terms of different types of agriculture.

As part of an ongoing research project, Cranfield University has used life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the resource use and environmental burdens arising from the production of key agricultural commodities. The research has modelled organic and non-organic (contemporary conventional) production in the UK, and thus explicitly sets out the resource use and burdens arising from the relevant systems.

Farming also gives rise to externalities relating to animal health and welfare. By way of illustration, Defra commissioned the Scottish Agricultural College to undertake research into the benefits of tighter welfare standards in the production of meat chickens, measured by the public’s willingness to pay for lower stocking densities.