Agri-environmental measures

They are one response[2] to the growing concerns of the public, consumers, local authorities and certain elected representatives about the ecological impact of the intensification of agriculture, which developed strongly throughout the 20th century, relying on crop mechanization, chemical inputs, off-farm breeding and, more recently, biotechnologies integrating the transfer of genes from one species to another (transgenesis).

Qualitative and financial assessments are difficult to establish[6] for several reasons: In the United States, agricultural subsidies (and even crop insurance[7]) are much more subject to cross-compliance than in Europe.

Thus, the public may legitimately want crop insurance payments to be conditional on environmentally sound agricultural performance, argues Bruce Knight,[7] Director of Strategic Conservation Solutions and former Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2006 to 2009, after having headed the Natural Resources Conservation Service (from 2002 to 2006).

However, for reasons of subsidiarity, it is the member states of the European Union who define the precise content of the programs, and who must ensure, through appropriate controls, that they are properly applied on their territory.

[3] In 2019, an econometric study carried out in Lorraine also attempted to measure the impact of this policy on land use, which conditions the production of ecosystem services, from 1988 to 2015, based on data collected from the Fadn and Annual Agricultural Statistics (Dussine, 2019).

Similarly, compensatory allowances paid for natural handicaps (Ichn) seem to have a very positive impact on grassland, wasteland, and deciduous trees and even seem to be able to slow down the artificialization of land, but the amounts involved are small and many farmers consider them insufficient.

A few new features have appeared locally and briefly, including the possibility (in 2010 only) of MAE Rotationnelle (MAER), a 5-year contract for farms producing 60% or more of cereals and oilseeds in the 2010 UAA.

Farmers must declare on the RPG (Registre parcellaire graphique) the outline of the "parcelles culturales" that are the subject of a commitment (MAE, PHAE, Bio, etc.