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Environment and Society Unit Collaborative Research Programmes An Assessment of the Total External Costs of UK Agriculture J.N. Pretty1, C. Brett2, D. Gee3, R.E. Hine1, C.F. Mason4, J.I.L. Morison4, H. Raven5, M.D. Rayment6 and G. van der Bijl7 Agricultural Systems 65 (2), 113-136 Abstract This trans-disciplinary study assesses total external environmental and health costs of modern agriculture in the UK. A wide range of datasets have been analysed to assess cost distribution across sectors. We calculate the annual total external costs of UK agriculture in 1996 to be £2343 million (range for 1990-1996: £1149-3907 million), equivalent to £208 per hectare of arable and permanent pasture. Significant costs arise from contamination of drinking water with pesticides (£120 million per year), nitrate (£16 m), Cryptosporidium (£23 m) and phosphate and soil (£55 m), from damage to wildlife, habitats, hedgerows and drystone walls (£125 m), from emissions of gases (£1113 m), from soil erosion and organic carbon losses (£106 m), from food poisoning (£169 m), and from BSE (£607 m). This study has only estimated those externalities that give rise to financial costs, and so is likely to underestimate the total negative impacts of modern agriculture. These data help to identify policy priorities, particularly over the most efficient way to internalise these external costs into prices. This would imply a redirection of public subsidies towards encouraging those positive externalities under-provided in the market place, combined with a mix of advisory and institutional mechanisms, regulatory and legal measures, and economic instruments to correct negative externalities. Further work examining the marginal costs and benefits of UK agriculture would help to inform future policy development. For a pdf or hard copy of this paper, please e-mail Ian Colbeck: e-mail: colbi (non-Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create a full email address)

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This page was last updated on: 27 September 2006