Sustainability assessment for organic farming - integrating financial, environmental, social and animal welfare benchmarking

Summary

Real improvement in agricultural sustainability requires that its assessment should involve more than monitoring changes for research and policy evaluation purposes. Producers need practical information and guidance on how to change their systems to affect non-fi nancial and fi nancial outcomes. Recent organic farming benchmarking projects have shown how practical tools can be developed with the participation of stakeholders: these include farm income and fi nancial benchmarking projects at University of Wales, Aberystwyth; animal welfare assessments at Duchy College; socio-economic foot-printing at the University of Exeter; and fi rst attempts to combine the different elements including environmental aspects by Mark Measures Associates and Elm Farm Research Centre. The experiences from these projects provide a basis for developing coherent, integrated approaches to sustainability assessment at farm level, with the aim of developing practical management tools.