Various forms of "green farming" employed around the world have proved successful, and all new methods thought to be environmentally sensitive should be subject to sound scientific evaluation to determine whether they are actually meeting the intended goals, the authors say.

"Many environmentally friendly measures sound logical, but modern farming is very intensive and there are many factors that could interfere with the intended effects," said Kleijn.

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SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES Nature European Commission Agriculture Web Site European Union Agriculture Policies