The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was fundamentally reformed in 2003. From 2005, farmers will receive decoupled income support payments instead of production premiums if basic standards for environment, food safety, animal health and welfare are met. Farmers are likely to adjust production and management practices to the new policy framework. We describe how this reform fits into the EU stra...

The greatest challenge for agriculture is to reduce the trade-offs between productivity and long-term sustainability. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse organic agriculture which is a given set of farm practices that emphasise ecological sustainability. Organic agriculture can be characterised as being less driven by off-farm inputs and being better embedded in ecosystem functions. The lit...

The effect of two antifungals (boscalid+kresoxim-methyl and metrafenone) applied onto vines under Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) on the volatile composition of Tempranillo and Graciano red wines was studied. Changes in aroma profile in the wines were assessed from the combined odour activity values (OAVs) for the volatile compounds in each of seven different odorant series (viz., ripe fruit...

Question: The biodiversity of mountain hay meadows has historically been maintained through traditional, low-intensity farming practices. In recent decades, however, agricultural intensification for hay production has led to dramatic declines in their biodiversity. This study asks: which management practices can contribute to maintaining the biodiversity value of mountain hay meadows without je...

CPY is an organophosphorus insecticide that is widely used in North American agriculture. It is non-systemic, comes in several sprayable and granular formulations,and is used on a number of high-acreage crops on which pollinators can forage,including tree fruits, alfalfa, corn, sunflower, and almonds. Bees (Apoidea) are the most important pollinators of agricultural crops in North America and w...

Greece is ranked third after Spain and Italy in virgin olive oil production. The number of Greek olive cultivars-excluding clonal selections-is greater than 40; however, more than 90% of the acreage is cultivated with 20 cultivars, adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. Greek virgin olive oils, produced mainly with traditional, non-intensive cultivation practices, are mostly of ex...