The evolution of the relative position of 15 EU member states regarding organic agriculture

The negative environmental impact of modern agricultural practices, the increased use of non-renewable resources and the long-term productivity of high external inflows in cultivation systems has led many governmental and non-governmental organizations to take various initiatives in order to promote the adoption and expansion of more sustainable agricultural technologies such as the organic agriculture. The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of organic agriculture practices adoption in 15 EU member states during 1998-2008. To succeed in this purpose, the methods of Data Analysis, Factorial Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Classification were used. The research results showed that although organic agriculture is implemented in all member states of the EU, there are many deviations among them concerning the degree of adopting. Moreover, findings revealed that Austria, Sweden and Finland were the countries with the highest performance concerning both their degree of adopting organic agriculture practices and the rates of holdings that integrated into the organic agriculture program.