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An approach for comparing agricultural development to societal visions
Julian Helfenstein1, Vasco Diogo2, Matthias Bürgi2,3
1Agroecology and Environment, Agroscope, Zürich, Switzerland.
Agronomy for Sustainable Development
|January 31, 2022
Summary
Assessing agricultural sustainability requires understanding diverse societal visions. This study introduces a method comparing actual farm development against these visions, revealing alignment with free-market ideals over agroecological ones.
Area of Science:
- Agricultural science
- Sustainability science
- Societal values research
Background:
- Defining agricultural sustainability is complex due to differing stakeholder perspectives.
- Normative dimensions of sustainability are often overlooked in assessments.
- This study addresses the need for explicit consideration of societal visions in evaluating agricultural development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a novel approach for assessing agricultural sustainability that incorporates normative dimensions.
- To compare observed agricultural development with distinct societal visions.
- To inform policy-making by highlighting alignment or divergence between current practices and societal goals.
Main Methods:
- Developed a framework to assess agricultural sustainability by contrasting observed changes with societal visions.
- Analyzed farm- and landscape-scale agricultural development in a Swiss case study.
- Compared observed changes with desired developments from a liberal think tank, a farmers' association, and an agroecological movement.
Main Results:
- Observed agricultural developments aligned most closely (72%) with the vision of a liberal think tank.
- Farms increased in size (57%), specialized, and boosted productivity (223%) over 20 years.
- Landscape-level rationalization included larger fields (34%) and removal of solitary trees (18%).
Conclusions:
- Current agricultural development shows varying degrees of alignment with different societal visions.
- Using societal visions as benchmarks can reveal mismatches between desired and actual agricultural progress.
- This approach can inform the public and guide the design of new agricultural policies.
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