Showing how the method of sustainability assessment plays a key role in choosing the best agricultural productive mode, Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems guides the reader through the process of selecting, from among the various approaches for building farming systems, the method of decision-making that will result in the most appropriate outcome, given the context.
Case studies hail from polities as diverse as Portugal and Canada, Argentina and Lebanon. Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems thus offers a valuable critical survey of the assessment methods that account for sustainability and economics, and which have developed considerably in the last two decades. The heterogeneous approaches covered here make Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems appropriate for consultation in a wide variety of social, political and geographical contexts.
Acknowledgments
Preface
1 The Needs for Building Sustainable Farming Systems: Issues and Scope
Part I European Context for Sustainability Assessment Of Farming Systems
2 Agricultural and Environmental Policies in the European Union
3 Approaches for Sustainable Farming Systems Assessment
Part II Multiple Aspects to Develop Methodologies for Sustainability Assessment of Farming Systems
4 Normative, Systemic and Procedural Aspects: A Review of Indicator-Based Sustainability Assessments in Agriculture
5 Assessing the Sustainability of Activity Systems to Support Households' Farming Projects
6 Multilevel and Multi-User Sustainability Assessment of Farming Systems
Part III Application of Methodologies for Sustainability Assessment of Farming Systems in Real Contexts
7 Learning and Experimentation Strategy (LES). Outline of a Method to Develop Sustainable Livestock Production Systems
8 Factors Affecting the Implementation of Measures for Improving Sustainability on Farms Following the Rise Sustainability Evaluation
9 A Multi-Attribute Decision Method for Assessing the Overall Sustainability of Crop Protection Strategies: A Case Study Based on Apple Production in Europe
Part IV Sustainability Assessment in Organic and Multifunctional Systems
10 Are Organic Suckler Cattle Farming Systems More Sustainable Than Conventional Systems? Productive, Environmental and Economic Performances Assessments: A Model-Based Study
11 Assessing Multifunctionality in Relation to Resource Use - A Holistic Approach to Measure Efficiency, Developed by Participatory Research
12 Indicator-Based Method for Assessing Organic Farming Sustainability
Part V Decision Support Methods for Sustainable Farming Systems
13 X-Farm: Modelling Sustainable Farming Systems
14 Ecological-Economic Modelling for Farming Systems Of Montemuro Mountain (Portugal)
15 Evaluating Socio-Economic and Environmental Sustainability of the Sheep Farming Activity in Greece: A Whole Farm Mathematical Programming Approach
Part VI Sustainability Assessment in Non-European Farming Systems
16 Method for the Evaluation of Farm Sustainability in Quebec, Canada: The Social Aspect
17 Adapting a European Sustainability Model to a Local Context in Semi-Arid Areas of Lebanon
18 Tendency of Production Decisions of the Farmers of the Southeast Pampa Region in Argentina Under Uncertainty Conditions
19 Methodologies for Building Sustainable Farming Systems: The Main Critical Points and Questions