Utilizing data from a recent postal survey of farmers in western Germany (n=657), this paper studies the influence of environmental concern on environmental behaviour in a rational choice context. The analyses reveal both an indirect and a direct effect of environmental concern. First, environmental concern increases the preference for environmentally friendly consequences leading to a higher expected utility of environmentally friendly alternatives. Second, even controlling for the influence of utility expectations, environmental concern increases the probability of environmentally friendly behaviour, indicating a direct influence over and above the indirect effect. The direct effect of environmental concern, however, can be observed only if environmentally friendly action alternatives are associated with higher behavioural cost than environmentally degrading alternatives. Apart from that, the effect of environmental attitudes is not moderated by utility considerations and the cost structure of the respective alternatives. In sum, these results do not lend support to the low cost hypothesis.