and from markets associated with intensive systems have increased risks of large epidemics, even though biosecurity at individual units has been improved (e.g., Defra, 2006). It has been argued that intensive systems have also produced new and dangerous diseases such as E.coli 0157:H57 and BSE (Walker et al., 2005). These epidemics have sometimes devastated livestock sectors in Europe and have largely been controlled by a slaughter policy, although for some pig and poultry diseases vaccination and the routine use of antibi­otics have become common practice since the 1950s. The use of antibiotics as growth promoters and disease control agents in NAE livestock production has caused serious con­cern because of the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans (Khachatourians, 1998; Mellon et al., 2001).
     Food safety issues are also important in the meat industry in North America. In 1995, an outbreak of E coli 0157:H57 killed several children who had eaten fast food hamburgers in Washington state. This event led to a revolution in food safety procedures in red meat, seafood and poultry in the US with the creation and adoption of new food safety rules (see 2.8.4). Food safety concerns about Salmonella and Listeria continue to be of concern throughout the NAE livestock sector (Johnston, 2000; Raijaic et al., 2007).
     Advances in productivity in the NAE livestock sector would not have been possible without public investments in AKST. In particular, many new genetic selection tech­niques were developed through public universities and dis­seminated through extension services. Today, much of the actual genetics has been privatized and is now maintained primarily in the private sector, although performance mea­sures for stud selection are still provided in the public realm. In the same way, the research that developed the HACCP approach to food safety was performed by public entities like USDA-Agricultural Research Service and enforcement is still performed through USDA. Finally, many of the en­gineering advances that allowed the development of large-scale climate controlled buildings for poultry and swine and for handling wastes from these systems were developed in the public sector and disseminated widely.

2.5.3 Key changes in the NAE livestock sector
Livestock productivity and output in NAE has increased enormously since  1945  driven by policy (especially the CAP),  government  subsidies  (Starmer  and Wise,  2007) and increasing population and wealth. AKST has been a key driver of growth in the livestock sector and is likely to remain so in the future. Europe and North America have been exporters of livestock sector AKST to the rest of the world.
     For the past 30 years much of NAE has been producing far more meat and dairy products than it needs with the EU and NAFTA blocks becoming some of the world's leading exporters, particularly in pork (EU), chicken and beef (NA). The search for more market sector has led to dumping of these products in less wealthy countries with consequent damage to the economic status of their agricultural produc­ers. In common with the rest of the developed world, milk, beef, pig meat and poultry are among the most valuable agricultural commodities produced by European farmers.
     Much of European lowland and landless livestock pro­duction is the most intensive in the world and this has had

serious adverse impacts on the European environment. Simi­lar situations exist in N. America because of the increased geographical concentration of livestock production. Across NAE, livestock enterprises have become fewer and larger due to economies of scale and this trend is likely to continue especially in the CEE region of EU-25.
     Developments in genetics, management systems and meat handling in NAE, combined with the geographical shifts in production, allowed significant restructuring in the beef, pork and poultry sectors leading to the develop­ment of confined animal feeding operations, contractual relationships in marketing and specialization in livestock agriculture.
     Subsidy-led policies are moving away from production-led subsidies towards a more market-led and environmen­tally friendly system, but there are still substantial direct and indirect subsidies paid to most livestock sectors that reduces the competitiveness of developing countries.

2.6   Changes in Forestry Systems
In North America and Europe, forests and woodlands have always been the dominant vegetation cover. NAE forests are largely derived from natural vegetation dominated by deciduous trees in the south and west and vast areas of co­nifers towards the north and east that make up over 50% of total forest cover.
     NAE forests have been exploited by humans for timber supplies, fuel, food (e.g., nuts, fungi and berries), for cork (the EU is the largest producer of cork with over 80% of the world market) and for paper fiber, while still providing a significant proportion of the renewable energy used by both industrial and domestic consumers. Forests also pro­vide valuable and irreplaceable ecosystem services such as water resource protection, biodiversity and carbon dioxide fixation (MA, 2005). For example, approximately 140,000 species of plants, animal and micro-organisms are estimated to occur in Canada of which approximately 66% are found in the forests (Canadian Forest Service, 2003).

2.6.1 Main trends in NAE forests and forestry production
NAE is the only world region where there has been an in­crease in forest area since the 1960s. In 1630, when conver­sion of North American forests to agricultural land began, 50% of US lands were forests. Today, forests are approxi­mately 33%, but since the 1980s have been increasing by 0.3% per annum. The US growing stock volume increased 39% from 1953 to 2002. The 415 million ha of Canadian forests represent 10% of the world's forests, with 20% of the world's fresh water flowing from its watersheds. For­ests cover 45% of the land mass of Canada (Lowe et al., 1996) although it is unclear whether forest cover in Canada is stable or contracting (CANFI, 2004).
     Forests in Europe have been expanding over the past 40 years by around 0.8% p.a., about 880,000 ha per year. This has been mainly due to an increase in plantations, reversion of agricultural land and decreased harvesting activity espe­cially in the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation accounts for over 90% of an estimated 1.5m ha per year natural re-colonization of non-forest land in Europe (Kuu-sela 1994; TBFRA, 2000; UNEP, 2002). It has more than