Sustainability assessment tool

1. Sustainability Assessment Tool
Dr Harpinder Sandhu
Flinders University, Australia
Harpinder.Sandhu@flinders.edu.au
The True Cost of American Food, San Francisco 15-16, Aril 2016

2. Key challenges of global agriculture
Declining natural
resources
Climate change
Consumption patterns Market volatility

3. Two research/policy gaps
1. Why we need to measure all externalities in agriculture?
• To reflect true cost of food production
2. Why we need to estimate economic value of externalities?
• To influence economic and policy environment; to improve sustainable
farm practices; and to raise consumer awareness.

4. YIELDINPUTS OUTPUTS
Labour laws
Health and safety laws
Agriculture production systems

5. Soil protection
Biological control of
pests/diseases
Improved biodiversity
Soil microbial
activity
Reduce greenhouse gases
Nutrient
cycling
Water regulation
Aesthetics
Eco tourism
Food
Shelter Firewood
Global estimates of two farmland ES values $34 billionannually
The largest industry on the planet
1.3 billion people involved directly, $4 trillion in global GDP (6 %)
Sandhu, Wratten, Costanza, Pretty, Reganold, Porter 2015 PEER J

6. Farm Sustainability Assessment Tool
Production
DistributionConsumption
Production

7. Ecological and Economic Methods
𝑇𝐶 = (𝑃𝑣+ 𝐸 𝑏 + 𝑆 𝑏) − 𝐸𝑐
𝑇𝐶 = 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒
𝑃𝑣 = 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒
𝐸 𝑏 = 𝐸𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒
𝑆 𝑏 = 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒
𝐸𝑐 = 𝐸𝑛𝑣𝑖𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 $ 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒

8. Categories of externalities
• Production value: 𝑃𝑣 = (𝑃𝑣1 + 𝑃𝑣2 … … … … 𝑃𝑣𝑛 )
• Environmental benefits: Water regulation, Carbon sequestration by soil and
vegetation, Nitrogen fixation, Nutrient cycling, Soil erosion control, Biological
control of pests/diseases. 𝐸 𝑏 = (𝐸 𝑏1 + 𝐸 𝑏2 … … … … 𝐸 𝑏𝑛 )
• Environmental costs: Green house gas emissions, External costs of pesticides
and fertilser 𝐸𝑐 = (𝐸𝑐1 + 𝐸𝑐2 … … … … 𝐸𝑐𝑛 )
• Social benefits: Farm employment, Recreation, Education.
𝑆 𝑏 = (𝑆 𝑏1 + 𝐸 𝑏2 … … … … 𝐸 𝑏𝑛 )

9. Types Ecosystem services
and disservices
Description Method
used for
valuation
Production
benefits
Crop, livestock, milk etc. Provisioning services: These include food and services
for human consumption,
ranging from raw materials and fuel
wood to the conservation of species and genetic
material
Market value
Environmental
benefits
Water regulation: magnitude of
water runoff, flooding, and aquifer
recharge, water storage potential
Regulating services: Ecosystems regulate essential
ecological processes
and life-support systems through bio-geochemical
cycles and other biospheric processes
Avoided cost
Local climate regulation by carbon
sequestration: Regulation of
atmospheric chemical composition
Avoided cost
Soil erosion control: Role
vegetative cover plays in soil
retention
Avoided cost

10. Environmental
benefits
Nitrogen fixation: Biological
nitrogen fixation by legumes
in crops and pastures
Supporting services: These are
the services that are required
to support
the production of other
ecosystem goods and
services
Avoided cost
Nutrient cycling: Organic
matter breakdown to release
stored nutrients for crop use
Avoided cost
Biological control of
pests/diseases: Predators and
parasites that control insect
pests and diseases
Avoided cost

11. Environmental costs Greenhouse gas emissions Carbon-di-oxide
equivalent emissions
from inputs, tillage,
fuel use, livestock on
farm
Direct cost
Damage to water resources Infrastructure to treat
pesticide and nitrate in
water sources
Direct cost
Damage to soil resources Soil losses due to
management practices
Replacement cost
Damage to ecosystems and
biodiversity
Loss of biodiversity
and impacts on other
species
Replacement cost
Damage to human health Pathogens and
agrochemical that can
enter food chain
Replacement cost

12. Social benefits Employment: Employment
generated on farm leads to
benefits to wider
community: Farm workers,
families
Cultural services: Cultural
services contribute to the
maintenance of
human health and well-being
by providing recreation,
aesthetics and education
Market value
Recreation: Recreational
pleasure in agriculture, Farm
tours, visits
Market value
Education: Knowledge
generated on farm can be
disseminated to wider
community through books,
presentations at conferences
etc
Market value

13. Way forward
• to adopt technologies that have less detrimental impacts on the
human health and the environment.
• consumers can make informed decisions to choose products that
have higher environmental and social benefits and less
environmental costs.
• to develop a uniform metric system that can be used by food and
agriculture industry as a label or a standard.
• to develop long term sustainable food and agriculture production
systems.