Sustainability of sheep and goat production in North European countries—From the Arctic to the Alps

Sheep, and to a lesser extent goats, have contributed substantially to the grassland-based agricultural production in North European countries for centuries. Most of these countries are now members of the European Union and both EU policy and global trade negotiations with the World Trade Organization are bound to influence in many ways the future development of the present production systems. This paper will review briefly the present situation with special reference to the sheep meat sector. Sustainability of production will be analyzed and discussed in terms of several criteria such as economics and farm income, resource utilization, environmental impact, landscape conservation, marketing of local value-added products and the maintenance of the rural population. Attention will be paid to the influence of increased world trade and competition, as a result of WTO negotiations, and changes in the direction of support through EU policy reform (CAP), namely the decoupling of subsidies from production to sustainable development (“the green box”). Finally, the economic problems experienced by sheep and goat farmers in countries ranging from the Arctic to the Alps will be discussed in the face of these challenges.