The environmental effects of agricultural production in developed countries have already been extensively documented in the literature.1 In many areas, the environmental consequences discussed in the previous chapter are the result of several decades of accumulation and environmental loadings may have been high for some time before public concern was raised.2 In other cases, degradation of marginal land and of landscape, retreat of indigenous species from particular areas, or serious groundwater pollution have occurred relatively recently and with alarming rapidity. In the last 15-20 years, awareness of the full extent of these problems has increased throughout the OECD area. Governments are now responding to public pressure – and in some cases taking the lead – in seeking ways of containing or reversing these trends...