Approaching environmental sustainability of agriculture: environmental burden, eco-efficiency or eco-effectiveness

Abstract

The main goal of the article is to compare three approaches to measuring environmental sustainability in agriculture: i) the environmental burden index; ii) the sustainable value of eco-efficient production; and iii) the sustainable value of the eco-effective farm, applied to the sample of 130 EUFADN (European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network) regions in 2015. The study indicates a fundamental problem: the notion of environmental sustainability in agriculture differs depending on the criterion we apply. We recognized a principle trade-off in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which consists of compensating for the strain on the natural environment with production or with public goods provision. Studies on these two effects seem to be crucial to draw a consistent development path for the CAP. Our major finding is that public goods-oriented farming is more likely to expand after improving eco-efficiency. This is still a challenge because in European regions, eco-efficient has not meant environmentally sustainable yet.