Agricultural and Fisheries Policy: Towards Market Liberalism

This chapter analyses select national policy fields, demonstrating increased market liberalism in the Danish agricultural sector and in the fisheries sector. Policies aimed at reducing nitrogen leaching from farmland are shifting from reliance on universal measures to more emphasis on site-specific regulation. An important aim of this more differentiated approach is to reduce compliance costs for farmers. The family farm has traditionally been the bedrock of the Danish farm sector. To maintain its viability, restrictions on farm ownership were in place for decades. Most of these have now been dismantled and opened for new ownership models and injection of capital. Danish organic farming and food policy is distinct as it is actively pursuing a market-driven development by facilitating farm conversion, and importantly, supporting various types of initiatives aimed at increasing the demand for organic food. Danish fisheries policy has evolved into a property rights-based and market-based management system for fisheries. The drivers for introducing more market liberalism have been to maintain the international competitiveness of the two industries, and in the farm sector, a realization that incomes must increasingly be derived from the market in the future.