Quantity versus quality and profit versus values ? Do these inherent tensions inevitably play in organic farming?

Summary

The literature shows that the systems advocating the productivity relatively neglect the ecological services whereas those based on these services, as Organic Farming (OF), are generally less productive. Which balance between these two issues should be found and would contribute to a sustainable agriculture? OF as a value-laden agriculture, whose principles are based on ecology, equity, health and care appears as a candidate for combining performances. In the first section we show results at farm level on environmental and agro-economic performances. In the second section, we underline the challenges facing OF to confirm its prototype’s position. OF as a heterogeneous entity presents different types of trade-offs between the performances. Some performances need an up-scaling approach to be confirmed. This up-scaling enables also a more global assessment integrating the externalities of conventional farming that OF tends to internalize. Finally we conclude that other criteria should also be considered to better take into account the values and the long terms sustainability, because the contemporary systems have been constructed on optimizing productivity and maximization of short terms yields.