Sustainability assessment of wheat production in the Netherlands - a comparison between organic and conventional production

Summary

Sustainability is increasingly gaining relevance in the agricultural sector and organic agriculture has become one of the most representative sustainable production systems, due to the restrictions and requirements set on the system i.e. absence of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, genetically engineered (GE) organisms, and additives in livestock feed. In this research project, a sustainability assessment was conducted to compare organic and conventional wheat production in the Netherlands. Furthermore, it was investigated if the specific requirements and policy support make organic production more sustainable. This study incorporated the three dimensions of sustainability: people, planet and profit. It was conducted following a protocol developed for evaluating the sustainability of food production systems and by incorporating data into the Balance of Acceptability (BOA) software.