The heft: a multifunctional management tool

Potter and Burnley (2002) describe agricultural multifunctionality as 'producing not only food but also sustaining rural landscapes, protecting biodiversity, generating employment and contributing to the viability of rural areas'. This concept is commonly accepted as part of the resource function of forests and woods (Buttond 2002), and recent discussions in the academic agricultural literature have highlighted its value to support marginal farming in the European Union (Vos and Meekes 1999; Rizov 2004). Wiggering et al. (2006) demonstrated how this multifunctional concept allows for continued financial support of marginal farmers whilst abiding by World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements to reduce trade barriers and subsidies, achieving this through farm support of non-food products, such as public goods or rural development. An example of where this is happening is upland agriculture in Cumbria, England.