Abstract
Given the crisis of productivism, organic agriculture has in recent years a remarkable development. It appears in fact as a form of sustainable agriculture alternative to conventional agriculture. But despite this strong development and the growing importance, there is a lack of methods for assessing the sustainability of organic farms. There was an abundant production of methods for assessing the sustainability of farms; but most often, these methods are intended for conventional farming systems and therefore take little account of the specificity of organic farming. In this chapter, we propose a method for assessing farm’s sustainability suitable for organic farming. This method relies on one side of the agricultural sustainability principles and the other side on the principles and characteristics of organic farming. The results of application of this method on a sample of farms in the Midi-Pyrenees region (southern France) show that it takes into account very well the agro-ecological and socio-territorial specificities of organic farming.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The plan aims to increase of surfaces to reach in 2012, 6% of cultivated areas, to provide aids for conversion, farmers’ training, etc.
- 2.
http://www.ifoam.org/about_ifoam/principles/index.htm (accessed in January 2010).
References
Agence Bio. (2009). L’agriculture biologique en France: Chiffres clés 2008. Retrieved December 2011, from www.agencebio.org
Andreoli, M., & Tellarini, V. (2000). Farm sustainability evaluation: Methodology and practice. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 77, 43–52.
Bockstaller, C., Guichard, L., Keichinger, O., Girardin, P., Galan, M. B., & Gaillard, G. (2009). Comparison of methods to assess sustainability of agricultural systems: A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 29, 223–235.
Gafsi, M., Legagneux, B., Nguyen, G., & Robin, P. (2006). Towards sustainable farming systems: Effectiveness and deficiency of the French procedure of sustainable agriculture. Agricultural Systems, 90, 226–242.
Godard, O., & Hubert, B. (2002). Le développement durable et la recherche scientifique à l’INRA. Rapport intermédiaire de mission. Paris: INRA Edition.
Hansen, J. W., & Jones, J. W. (1996). A systems framework for characterizing farm sustainability. Agricultural Systems, 51, 185–201.
Heller, M. C., & Keoleian, G. A. (2003). Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: A life cycle perspective. Agricultural Systems, 76, 1007–1041.
Ikerd, J. E. (1997). Understanding and managing the multi-dimensions of sustainable agriculture. Presentation held at the Southern Region sustainable agriculture professional development program workshop, SARE regional training consortium, Gainesville, FL, January 15, 1997.
Kropff, M. J., Bouma, J., & Jones, J. W. (2001). Systems approaches for the design of sustainable agro-systems. Agricultural Systems, 70, 369–393.
Ness, B., Urbel-Piirsalu, E., Anderberg, S., & Olsson, L. (2007). Categorising tools for sustainability assessment. Ecological Economics, 60, 498–508.
Pacini, C., Wossink, A., Giesen, G., Vazzana, C., & Huirne, R. (2003). Evaluation of sustainability of organic, integrated and conventional farming systems: A farm and field-scale analysis. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 95, 273–288.
Park, J., & Seaton, R. A. F. (1996). Integrative research and sustainable agriculture. Agricultural Systems, 50, 81–100.
Rigby, D., Woodhouse, P., Young, T., & Burton, M. (2001). Constructing a farm level indicator of sustainable agriculture practice. Ecological Economics, 39, 463–478.
Sadok, W., Angevin, F., Bergez, J. E., Bockstaller, C., Colomb, B., Guichard, L., Reau, R., & Dore, T. (2007). Ex ante assessment of the sustainability of alternative cropping systems: Implications for using multi-criteria decision-aid methods. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 27, 1–12.
Sydorovych, O., & Wossink, A. (2008). The meaning of agricultural sustainability: Evidence from a conjoint choice survey. Agricultural Systems, 98, 10–20.
Van Calker, K. J., Berentsen, P. B. M., Romero, C., Giesen, G. W. J., & Huirne, R. (2006). Development and application of multi-attribute sustainability function for Dutch dairy farming systems. Ecological Economics, 57, 640–658.
Van de Fliert, E., & Braun, A. R. (2002). Conceptualizing integrative, farmer participatory research for sustainable agriculture: From opportunities to impact. Agriculture and Human Values, 19, 25–38.
Van der Werf, H., & Petit, J. (2002). Evaluation of the environmental impact of agriculture at the farm level: A comparison and analysis of 12 indicator-based methods. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 93, 131–145.
Vereijken, P. (1997). A methodical way of prototyping integrated and ecological arable farming systems (I/EAFS) in interaction with pilot farms. European Journal of Agronomy, 7, 235–250.
Vilain, L. (2008). La méthode IDEA: indicateurs de durabilité des exploitations agricoles: guide d’utilisation. Dijon: Educagri Editions.
Webster, J. P. G. (1997). Assessing the economic consequences of sustainability in agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 64, 95–102.
Zahm, F., Viaux, P., Vilain, L., Girardin, P., Mouchet C. (2004, November). La méthode IDEA: une méthode de diagnostic pour passer du concept de durabilité à son évaluation à partir d’indicateurs. (Paper presented at Partnership for European Environmental Research – PEER Conference, Helsinki).
Zander, P., & Kachele, H. (1999). Modelling multiple objectives of land use for sustainable development. Agricultural Systems, 59, 311–325.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gafsi, M., Favreau, J.L. (2013). Indicator-Based Method for Assessing Organic Farming Sustainability. In: Marta-Costa, A., Soares da Silva, E. (eds) Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5003-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5003-6_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5002-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5003-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)