Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: integrated evaluation

Bonneau, Michel; Klauke, T.; González, J.; Rydhmer, Lotta; Ilari-Antoine, E.; Dourmad, Jean-Yves; Greef, K.H. de; Houwers, H.W.J.; Çınar, Mustafa; Fàbrega, E.; Zimmer, Christoph; Hviid, M.; Oever, B. van der; Edwards, Sandra A.

doi:10.1017/s1751731114002122

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In the Q-PorkChains project the 15 farming systems included in this study have been evaluated separately against seven other themes of sustainability (Bonneau et al, 2014a and2014b). Most of the data collected for those themes were recorded quantitatively, for example, frequency of pigs with skin lesions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: breeding programmes

Rydhmer

Gourdine

Greef

et al. 2014

Animal

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The sustainability of breeding activities in 15 pig farming systems in five European countries was evaluated. One conventional and two differentiated systems per country were studied. The Conventional systems were the standard systems in their countries. The differentiated systems were of three categories: Adapted Conventional with focus on animal welfare, meat quality or environment (five systems); Traditional with local breeds in small-scale production (three systems) and Organic (two systems). Data were collected with a questionnaire from nine breeding organisations providing animals and semen to the studied farming systems and from, on average, five farmers per farming system. The sustainability assessment of breeding activities was performed in four dimensions. The first dimension described whether the market for the product was well defined, and whether the breeding goal reflected the farming system and the farmers' demands. The second dimension described recording and selection procedures, together with genetic change in traits that were important in the system. The third dimension described genetic variation, both within and between pig breeds. The fourth dimension described the management of the breeding organisation, including communication, transparency, and technical and human resources. The results show substantial differences in the sustainability of breeding activities, both between farming systems within the same category and between different categories of farming systems. The breeding activities are assessed to be more sustainable for conventional systems than for differentiated systems in three of the four dimensions. In most differentiated farming systems, breeding goals are not related to the system, as these systems use the same genetic material as conventional systems. The breeds used in Traditional farming systems are important for genetic biodiversity, but the small scale of these systems renders them vulnerable. It is hoped that, by reflecting on different aspects of sustainability, this study will encourage sustainable developments in pig production.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Selection for improved meat quality, or improved welfare, could, for example, be necessary if a high price for a product in a niche market is to be introduced, and this will inevitably have a bearing on farm incomes. For an overall assessment including all themes, see Bonneau et al (2014b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: breeding programmes

Rydhmer

Gourdine

Greef

et al. 2014

Animal

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“…The indicator 24 proposes a framework for the evaluation of the employment in agricultural activities as a relevant indicator for the social development of rural areas, where the level of employment has fallen considerably in the last decades [47,60,61].…”

Section: Social Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tool for the Sustainability Assessment of Farms: Selection, Adaptation and Use of Indicators for an Italian Case Study

2017

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Indicator-based tools are widely used for the assessment of farm sustainability, but analysts still face methodological and conceptual issues, including data availability, the complexity of the concept of sustainability and the heterogeneity of agricultural systems. This study contributes to this debate through the illustration of a procedure for farm sustainability assessment focussed on the case study of the South Milan Agricultural Park, Italy. The application is based on a set of environmental, social and economic indicators retrieved from the literature review. The framework is based on three main steps: (i) Data collection mainly through interviews with farmers and institutions; (ii) data elaboration through an aggregative structure; and (iii) score analysis. The latter step includes a descriptive analysis that allows a comparison among farms or groups of farms and a principal components analysis that helps to confirm the dimensions in which indicators were previously included (components). Results derived from the sampled farms show that the framework can provide easy-to-read results useful at different levels. The study highlighted the procedures for the framework construction that is compatible with the region's context and objectives, using an analytical approach that aims at the use of balanced features of availability and reliability of data.

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“…Within each of the 37 dimensions, the results obtained from the various questions or observations were aggregated in one primary indicator, which contributed to the integrated evaluation, as described in a study by Bonneau et al (2014). publication are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.…”

Section: The Tools Used For Sustainability Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: the procedure, the evaluated systems and the evaluation tools

Bonneau

Greef

Brinkman

et al. 2014

Animal

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Although a few studies consider the sustainability of animal farming systems along the three classical main pillars (economy, environment and society), most studies on pig farming systems address only one of these pillars. The present paper is the introduction to a series of companion papers presenting the results of a study undertaken within the EU-supported project Q-PorkChains, aiming at building a comprehensive tool for the evaluation of pig farming systems, which is robust to accommodate the large variability of systems existing in Europe. The tool is mostly based on questions to farmers and comprises a total of 37 dimensions distributed along eight themes: Animal Welfare, Animal Health, Breeding Programmes, Environmental Sustainability, Meat Safety, Market Conformity, Economy and Working Conditions. The paper describes the procedure that was used for building the tool, using it on 15 contrasted pig farming systems and analysing the results. The evaluated systems are briefly described and a short overview of the dimensions is provided. Detailed descriptions of the theme-wise tools and results, as well as the results of an integrated evaluation, are available in the companion papers.

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Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: integrated evaluation

Cited by 19 publications

References 22 publications

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: breeding programmes

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: breeding programmes

A Tool for the Sustainability Assessment of Farms: Selection, Adaptation and Use of Indicators for an Italian Case Study

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: the procedure, the evaluated systems and the evaluation tools

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