The Agricultural and Related Industries Study Group of the Operational Research Society held a one-day meeting on ‘Operational Research, Agriculture and the Environment’ on 27 November 1998 at Silsoe Research Institute, Bedfordshire, UK. The group promotes the use of the scientific method in solving management problems. The aim of this meeting was to look at models concerned with the effects of management of the environment in agriculture. Two looked at decision support systems – one for land use balancing different interests and one from the point of view of biodiversity. Andrew Moxey however highlighted the difficulties of interdisciplinary projects and the risk of the ‘illusion of technique’ in decision support systems. Three other papers were more specific – concerned with livestock and climate change, nitrogen fertilizer rates and slurry application.