Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools

Jan Landert; Catherine Pfeifer; Johannes Carolus; Gerald Schwarz; Fabrizio Albanito; Adrian Muller; Pete Smith; Juern Sanders; Christian Schader; Francesco Vanni; Jaroslav Prazan; Lukas Baumgart; Johan Blockeel; Rainer Weisshaidinger; Ruth Bartel-Kratochvil; Alexander Hollaus; Andreas Mayer; Andrea Hrabalova; Janne Helin; Jyrki Aakkula; Kristina Svels; Emmanuel Guisepelli; Alexandra Smyrniotopoulou; George Vlahos; Yiannis Iordanidis; Alfred Szilagyi; Laszlo Podmaniczky; Katalin Balazs; Francesco Galioto; Davide Longhitano; Letizia Rossignolo; Andrea Povellato; Andis Zilans; null Grazvy-das Jegelevicius; Mihaela Fratila; Uxue Iragui Yoldi; Carlos Astrain Massa; Jon Bienzobas Adrian; Kajsa Resare Sahlin; Elin Roos; Rebekka Frick; Richard Bircher; Inge Aalders; Katherine N. Irvine; Carol Kyle; David Miller

doi:10.3220/LBF1612794225000

Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools

Jan Landert^*, Catherine Pfeifer, Johannes Carolus, Gerald Schwarz, Fabrizio Albanito, Adrian Muller, Pete Smith, Juern Sanders, Christian Schader, Francesco Vanni, Jaroslav Prazan, Lukas Baumgart, Johan Blockeel, Rainer Weisshaidinger, Ruth Bartel-Kratochvil, Alexander Hollaus, Andreas Mayer, Andrea Hrabalova, Janne Helin, Jyrki AakkulaKristina Svels, Emmanuel Guisepelli, Alexandra Smyrniotopoulou, George Vlahos, Yiannis Iordanidis, Alfred Szilagyi, Laszlo Podmaniczky, Katalin Balazs, Francesco Galioto, Davide Longhitano, Letizia Rossignolo, Andrea Povellato, Andis Zilans, Grazvy-das Jegelevicius, Mihaela Fratila, Uxue Iragui Yoldi, Carlos Astrain Massa, Jon Bienzobas Adrian, Kajsa Resare Sahlin, Elin Roos, Rebekka Frick, Richard Bircher, Inge Aalders, Katherine N. Irvine, Carol Kyle, David Miller

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision of public goods in farming. This study combines the use of three tools for the assessment of farm sustainability. It provides first insights into the sustainability performance of farms at different stages of agro-ecological transitions in 15 case studies covering a range of different farming systems across Europe. Each case study reflects a different-transition towards agro-ecological farming. The tools applied were COMPAS (an economic farm assessment tool); Cool Farm Tool (a greenhouse gas inventory, water footprint and biodiversity assessment tool); and the SMART Farm Tool (a multidimensional sustainability assessment tool).

First results of the use of combined sustainability assessments deepen the understanding of different farming systems. Sustainability performance varies greatly between farms, but overall, agro-ecological farms tend to enhance biodiversity and water quality. For soil quality, no clear patterns could be identified. The same applies to economic performance at different stages of the agro-ecological transition. Quality of life was generally rated medium to high on all investigated farms. The combined sustainability assessment enabled the identification of areas for further policy development.

Aligning the tools required harmonising definitions, simplification and assumptions with regard to the input data of the tools.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	129-144
Number of pages	16
Journal	Landbauforschung-Journal of sustainable and organic agricultural systems
Volume	70
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3220/LBF1612794225000
Publication status	Published - 2020

Bibliographical note

This paper is based on results from the research project UNISECO, which is funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 773901.We would like to thank all the farmers, farm organisations and stakeholders of the multi-actor platforms of the UNISECO project who contributed to the data collection. We also like to thank Andreas Basler whose corrections improved the comprehensibility of the paper.

Keywords

agro-ecology
agro-ecological farming practices
sustainability assessment tools
SMART Farm Tool (RRID:SCR_018197)
Cool Farm Tool
AGRICULTURE
BIODIVERSITY
FARMERS
INTENSIFICATION
INDICATORS
EMISSIONS
SYSTEMS
POLICY
SOILS
CROP

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Landert, J., Pfeifer, C., Carolus, J., Schwarz, G., Albanito, F., Muller, A., Smith, P., Sanders, J., Schader, C., Vanni, F., Prazan, J., Baumgart, L., Blockeel, J., Weisshaidinger, R., Bartel-Kratochvil, R., Hollaus, A., Mayer, A., Hrabalova, A., Helin, J., ... Miller, D. (2020). Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools. Landbauforschung-Journal of sustainable and organic agricultural systems, 70(2), 129-144. https://doi.org/10.3220/LBF1612794225000

Landert, J, Pfeifer, C, Carolus, J, Schwarz, G, Albanito, F, Muller, A, Smith, P, Sanders, J, Schader, C, Vanni, F, Prazan, J, Baumgart, L, Blockeel, J, Weisshaidinger, R, Bartel-Kratochvil, R, Hollaus, A, Mayer, A, Hrabalova, A, Helin, J, Aakkula, J, Svels, K, Guisepelli, E, Smyrniotopoulou, A, Vlahos, G, Iordanidis, Y, Szilagyi, A, Podmaniczky, L, Balazs, K, Galioto, F, Longhitano, D, Rossignolo, L, Povellato, A, Zilans, A, Grazvy-das Jegelevicius, Fratila, M, Yoldi, UI, Massa, CA, Adrian, JB, Sahlin, KR, Roos, E, Frick, R, Bircher, R, Aalders, I, Irvine, KN, Kyle, C & Miller, D 2020, 'Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools', Landbauforschung-Journal of sustainable and organic agricultural systems, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 129-144. https://doi.org/10.3220/LBF1612794225000

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abstract = "The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision of public goods in farming. This study combines the use of three tools for the assessment of farm sustainability. It provides first insights into the sustainability performance of farms at different stages of agro-ecological transitions in 15 case studies covering a range of different farming systems across Europe. Each case study reflects a different-transition towards agro-ecological farming. The tools applied were COMPAS (an economic farm assessment tool); Cool Farm Tool (a greenhouse gas inventory, water footprint and biodiversity assessment tool); and the SMART Farm Tool (a multidimensional sustainability assessment tool).First results of the use of combined sustainability assessments deepen the understanding of different farming systems. Sustainability performance varies greatly between farms, but overall, agro-ecological farms tend to enhance biodiversity and water quality. For soil quality, no clear patterns could be identified. The same applies to economic performance at different stages of the agro-ecological transition. Quality of life was generally rated medium to high on all investigated farms. The combined sustainability assessment enabled the identification of areas for further policy development.Aligning the tools required harmonising definitions, simplification and assumptions with regard to the input data of the tools.",

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author = "Jan Landert and Catherine Pfeifer and Johannes Carolus and Gerald Schwarz and Fabrizio Albanito and Adrian Muller and Pete Smith and Juern Sanders and Christian Schader and Francesco Vanni and Jaroslav Prazan and Lukas Baumgart and Johan Blockeel and Rainer Weisshaidinger and Ruth Bartel-Kratochvil and Alexander Hollaus and Andreas Mayer and Andrea Hrabalova and Janne Helin and Jyrki Aakkula and Kristina Svels and Emmanuel Guisepelli and Alexandra Smyrniotopoulou and George Vlahos and Yiannis Iordanidis and Alfred Szilagyi and Laszlo Podmaniczky and Katalin Balazs and Francesco Galioto and Davide Longhitano and Letizia Rossignolo and Andrea Povellato and Andis Zilans and {Grazvy-das Jegelevicius} and Mihaela Fratila and Yoldi, {Uxue Iragui} and Massa, {Carlos Astrain} and Adrian, {Jon Bienzobas} and Sahlin, {Kajsa Resare} and Elin Roos and Rebekka Frick and Richard Bircher and Inge Aalders and Irvine, {Katherine N.} and Carol Kyle and David Miller",

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AU - Sanders, Juern

AU - Schader, Christian

AU - Vanni, Francesco

AU - Prazan, Jaroslav

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AU - Weisshaidinger, Rainer

AU - Bartel-Kratochvil, Ruth

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AU - Smyrniotopoulou, Alexandra

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KW - BIODIVERSITY

KW - FARMERS

KW - INTENSIFICATION

KW - INDICATORS

KW - EMISSIONS

KW - SYSTEMS

KW - POLICY

KW - SOILS

KW - CROP

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Assessing agro-ecological practices using a combination of three sustainability assessment tools

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Cite this