Assessing the socio-economic dimensions of the rise of organic farming in the European Union

Organic farming is considered one of the most important rural development tools in the European Union, often connected to the socio-economic objectives of small-farm support and employment generation. Using an EU-27 regional panel data-set from 2000 to 2010, I show that the share of a region’s agricultural area under organic methods is positively associated with average farm size. Furthermore, I show that the share of organic farming in a region is not associated with higher application of agricultural labor per hectare. Both results question the connection between organic farming and the aforementioned objectives, and point to the conventionalization of European organic farming.