The major objective of the article was to assess how farmers perceive the environmental impact of agriculture and to identify the characteristics of farms managed by farmers differing in terms of environmental awareness. The studies covered 600 commercial farms across Poland, participating in the FADN. Awareness of farmers in this area was assessed using the Likert scale. Depending on the included element of the natural environment, from about 30 to 60% of the farmers were aware of the negative environmental impact of agricultural production. According to the farmers surveyed, the main motive justifying a need to protect the environment is care for health – relatively few farmers associate a need to protect the environment with the conditions of economic activities. The analyses carried out also showed that farmers aware of the negative environmental impact of agricultural production managed farms with the higher production potential on average, higher intensity and better economic results. The higher level of awareness of farmers from farms conducting the more intensive production contradicts the argument that intensively farming farmers do not see environmental problems.