Non-trade concerns (NTC) are legitimate issues for the WTO. Despite no technical definition being given, food security and environmental protection are referred to as NTC in the Agreement on Agriculture. Trade and policy implications for NTC are under discussion and regarded as the centrepiece...

Production ecological analyses reveal great differences in food production potential and food requirement between global regions, which implies the need for redistribution of food between surplus and deficit regions. The surplus production potential, current production and trade volumes of...

This paper provides a mapping of the different uses of the word multifunctionality. To explore the diversity of meanings and interpretations, a comparative analysis was conducted through five national case studies in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. The analysis conducted...

Multifunctional agricultural systems seek to expand upon production-based benefits to enhance family wellbeing and animal health, reduce inputs, and improve environmental services such as biodiversity and water quality. However, in many countries a landscape-level conversion is uneven at best...

In this paper we analyse the recent dynamics of agriculture in Southern Italy following a two-fold path: one is in the line of the of productivist modernisation paradigm, aiming to verify to what extent the gap between the Italian Mezzogiorno and the rest of Italy can be ascertained also in the...

A status-quo analysis of the way the question of the multifunctionality of agriculture and of rural space is dealt with in policy evaluation is given. Focus is on conceptual frameworks, tools and methods. The paper builds on a review of policy evaluation practice and experiences in six different...

The purpose of this article is to explain why Japan, with its food self-sufficiency rate at 40%, is at risk from severe tariff reductions and why it should be accorded special dispensations in WTO agreements on agriculture. The main issue evaluated is whether substantial net food importing...

This last paper aims to summarise reflexions made in the preceding papers of this Special Issue. We will first show the common conclusions of the different reviews on multifunctionality, and discuss the global state-of-the-art: multifuntionality does not yet appear as a very stabilised concept,...

Multifunctionality in agriculture has become a catchword. This paper focuses on public arrangements to finance this service provision by agriculture as dependent on trade negotiations. Multifunctionality implies a reallocation of resources from food production to amenity provision and has...

This article focuses on how to achieve non-trade concerns (NTC) and multifunctional goals that countries may have with minimal trade-distortion. The term 'multifunctional agriculture' focuses on the issue that agriculture, in addition to the production of food and fibre, also may provide...