2. Development of Organic Farming in the Republic of Ireland2
Most of the Directives that followed Ireland's entry into the EEC in
1973 concentrated on stimulating agricultural output and supporting
farm incomes (Emerson and Gillmor, 1999). The rural economic and
social benefits brought about by the modernisation of Irish agriculture
were substantial but there have also been detrimental impacts on the
rural environment (Bleasdale and Sheehy-Skeffington, 1995). However,
fromthe early 1980s the CAP has been under increasing public pressure
to reform its protectionist policies due to huge budgetary costs, negative
welfare measures, distortionary effects on international trade and high
environmental costs (European Commission, 1997). This has lead to a
process of agricultural reforms which has introduced measures to curb
surplus production and protectionist policies, initiatedmeasures to fully
decouple incomesupport to farmers fromprice support to direct income
support and the CAP now includes a number of agri-environmental
measures (Brouwer and Lowe, 2000; Buller, 2000; Buller et al., 2000;
Lowe and Brouwer, 2000).