IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i10p5988-d815967.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool

Author

Listed:
  • Antonia Katharina Ruckli

    (Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Str. 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Stefan Josef Hörtenhuber

    (Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Str. 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Paolo Ferrari

    (Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali—C.R.P.A. S.p.A., 42121 Reggio Emilia, Italy)

  • Jonathan Guy

    (Food and Rural Development, School of Agriculture, Newcastle University, Kings Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK)

  • Juliane Helmerichs

    (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Dörnbergstr. 25/27, 29223 Celle, Germany)

  • Robert Hoste

    (Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 35, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Carmen Hubbard

    (Food and Rural Development, School of Agriculture, Newcastle University, Kings Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK)

  • Nadja Kasperczyk

    (Professur für ökologischen Landbau, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Karl-Glöckner-Str. 21 C, 35394 Gießen, Germany)

  • Christine Leeb

    (Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Str. 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria)

  • Agata Malak-Rawlikowska

    (Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Anna Valros

    (Department of Production Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 57, FI-00100 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Sabine Dippel

    (Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Dörnbergstr. 25/27, 29223 Celle, Germany)

Abstract

Societal interest in all aspects of sustainability has increased. Therefore, pig farmers need to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses in all dimensions of sustainability: economy, environment, social wellbeing, and animal health and welfare. Our aim was to describe and critically discuss the development of a sustainability assessment tool for pig farms and to evaluate its suitability by applying it to 63 European pig farms (13 breeding, 27 breeding-to-finishing, and 23 finishing farms). The multi-criteria assessment tool was developed in several steps (the selection and scaling of indicators and their aggregation and weighting) in order to summarise the indicators into subtheme and theme scores. The indicators contributing the most to the subtheme/theme scores were identified and discussed in order to evaluate the procedure of the development. For example, some indicators, such as Ecological compensation area, Fairness of prices, and Tail docking, for which farms were scored low, were also identified as “real world problems” in other studies. For other sustainability aspects with low performance, the threshold might have been set too ambitiously, e.g., for Number of sows per annual working unit. Furthermore, to analyse the suitability of the tool, we assessed the best and worst median theme scores (good and poor performances) for each dimension, as well as the variability of the performances of the farms within the themes. Some themes were found to be moderate, such as Pig comfort, Biodiversity, or Resilience, whereas others were found to be good, e.g., Water and the Human–animal relationship, as well as several themes of the social wellbeing dimension. Overall, the sustainability tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of pig production. Furthermore, this publication contributes to both the theory (development of a robust sustainability tool) and the practice (provision of a tool to assess and benchmark the sustainability on farms). As a next step, a sensitivity analysis should be performed, and the tool should be applied for further development.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonia Katharina Ruckli & Stefan Josef Hörtenhuber & Paolo Ferrari & Jonathan Guy & Juliane Helmerichs & Robert Hoste & Carmen Hubbard & Nadja Kasperczyk & Christine Leeb & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & , 2022. "Integrative Sustainability Analysis of European Pig Farms: Development of a Multi-Criteria Assessment Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-26, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5988-:d:815967
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5988/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5988/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bradley J. Cardinale & J. Emmett Duffy & Andrew Gonzalez & David U. Hooper & Charles Perrings & Patrick Venail & Anita Narwani & Georgina M. Mace & David Tilman & David A. Wardle & Ann P. Kinzig & Gre, 2012. "Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 486(7401), pages 59-67, June.
    2. Mariarita Cammarata & Giuseppe Timpanaro & Alessandro Scuderi, 2021. "Assessing Sustainability of Organic Livestock Farming in Sicily: A Case Study Using the FAO SAFA Framework," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, March.
    3. de Olde, Evelien M. & Bokkers, Eddie A.M. & de Boer, Imke J.M., 2017. "The Choice of the Sustainability Assessment Tool Matters: Differences in Thematic Scope and Assessment Results," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 77-85.
    4. Evelien M. De Olde & Frank W. Oudshoorn & Eddie A. M. Bokkers & Anke Stubsgaard & Claus A. G. Sørensen & Imke J. M. De Boer, 2016. "Assessing the Sustainability Performance of Organic Farms in Denmark," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-20, September.
    5. Stefan Gunnarsson & Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist & Torun Wallgren & Helena Hansson & Ulf Sonesson, 2020. "A Systematic Mapping of Research on Sustainability Dimensions at Farm-level in Pig Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Chatzimouratidis, Athanasios I. & Pilavachi, Petros A., 2009. "Sensitivity analysis of technological, economic and sustainability evaluation of power plants using the analytic hierarchy process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 788-798, March.
    7. Pannell, David J. & Glenn, Nicole A., 2000. "A framework for the economic evaluation and selection of sustainability indicators in agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 135-149, April.
    8. Antonia Katharina Ruckli & Sabine Dippel & Nora Durec & Monika Gebska & Jonathan Guy & Juliane Helmerichs & Christine Leeb & Herman Vermeer & Stefan Hörtenhuber, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pig Farms in Selected European Countries: Combining LCA and Key Performance Indicators for Biodiversity Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Hani, Fritz & Braga, Francesco S. & Stampfli, Andreas & Keller, Thomas & Fischer, Matthew & Porsche, Hans, 2003. "RISE, a Tool for Holistic Sustainability Assessment at the Farm Level," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 6(4), pages 1-13.
    10. Gwendolyn Rudolph & Stefan Hörtenhuber & Davide Bochicchio & Gillian Butler & Roland Brandhofer & Sabine Dippel & Jean Yves Dourmad & Sandra Edwards & Barbara Früh & Matthias Meier & Armelle Prunier &, 2018. "Effect of Three Husbandry Systems on Environmental Impact of Organic Pigs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    11. David Tilman & Kenneth G. Cassman & Pamela A. Matson & Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky, 2002. "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 671-677, August.
    12. Diaz-Balteiro, L & González-Pachón, J. & Romero, C., 2017. "Measuring systems sustainability with multi-criteria methods: A critical review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 607-616.
    13. Chatzimouratidis, Athanasios I. & Pilavachi, Petros A., 2009. "Technological, economic and sustainability evaluation of power plants using the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 778-787, March.
    14. Bradley J. Cardinale & J. Emmett Duffy & Andrew Gonzalez & David U. Hooper & Charles Perrings & Patrick Venail & Anita Narwani & Georgina M. Mace & David Tilman & David A.Wardle & Ann P. Kinzig & Gret, 2012. "Correction: Corrigendum: Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity," Nature, Nature, vol. 489(7415), pages 326-326, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nelė Jurkėnaitė, 2023. "Analysis of the Nexus between Structural and Climate Changes in EU Pig Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Lefteris Melas & Maria Batsioula & Apostolos Malamakis & Sotiris I. Patsios & Dimitris Geroliolios & Evangelos Alexandropoulos & Stamatia Skoutida & Christos Karkanias & Anna Dedousi & Maria-Zoi Krits, 2023. "Circular Bioeconomy Practices in the Greek Pig Sector: The Environmental Performance of Bakery Meal as Pig Feed Ingredient," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-26, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonia Katharina Ruckli & Sabine Dippel & Nora Durec & Monika Gebska & Jonathan Guy & Juliane Helmerichs & Christine Leeb & Herman Vermeer & Stefan Hörtenhuber, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pig Farms in Selected European Countries: Combining LCA and Key Performance Indicators for Biodiversity Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Hepburn, Cameron & Teytelboym, Alexander & Cohen, Francois, 2018. "Is Natural Capital Really Substitutable?," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-12, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    3. Reed, James & van Vianen, Josh & Foli, Samson & Clendenning, Jessica & Yang, Kevin & MacDonald, Margaret & Petrokofsky, Gillian & Padoch, Christine & Sunderland, Terry, 2017. "Trees for life: The ecosystem service contribution of trees to food production and livelihoods in the tropics," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 62-71.
    4. Evangelos Alexandropoulos & Vasileios Anestis & Federico Dragoni & Anja Hansen & Saoirse Cummins & Donal O’Brien & Barbara Amon & Thomas Bartzanas, 2023. "Decision Support Systems Based on Gaseous Emissions and Their Impact on the Sustainability Assessment at the Livestock Farm Level: An Evaluation from the User’s Side," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-29, August.
    5. Yang Liu & Jing Zhao & Xi Zheng & Xiaoyang Ou & Yaru Zhang & Jiaying Li, 2023. "Evaluation of Biodiversity Maintenance Capacity in Forest Landscapes: A Case Study in Beijing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Domenech, B. & Ferrer-Martí, L. & Pastor, R., 2015. "Including management and security of supply constraints for designing stand-alone electrification systems in developing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 359-369.
    7. Kedi Liu & Ranran Wang & Inge Schrijver & Rutger Hoekstra, 2024. "Can we project well-being? Towards integral well-being projections in climate models and beyond," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Koo, Jamin & Park, Kyungtae & Shin, Dongil & Yoon, En Sup, 2011. "Economic evaluation of renewable energy systems under varying scenarios and its implications to Korea's renewable energy plan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2254-2260, June.
    9. Ishizaka, Alessio & Siraj, Sajid & Nemery, Philippe, 2016. "Which energy mix for the UK (United Kingdom)? An evolutive descriptive mapping with the integrated GAIA (graphical analysis for interactive aid)–AHP (analytic hierarchy process) visualization tool," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 602-611.
    10. Katarina Arvidsson Segerkvist & Helena Hansson & Ulf Sonesson & Stefan Gunnarsson, 2021. "A Systematic Mapping of Current Literature on Sustainability at Farm-Level in Beef and Lamb Meat Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, February.
    11. Smith, Helen F. & Sullivan, Caroline A., 2014. "Ecosystem services within agricultural landscapes—Farmers' perceptions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 72-80.
    12. Nina Tiel & Fabian Fopp & Philipp Brun & Johan Hoogen & Dirk Nikolaus Karger & Cecilia M. Casadei & Lisha Lyu & Devis Tuia & Niklaus E. Zimmermann & Thomas W. Crowther & Loïc Pellissier, 2024. "Regional uniqueness of tree species composition and response to forest loss and climate change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Paul L. G. Vlek & Asia Khamzina & Hossein Azadi & Anik Bhaduri & Luna Bharati & Ademola Braimoh & Christopher Martius & Terry Sunderland & Fatemeh Taheri, 2017. "Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, November.
    14. Yutong Zhang & Wei Zhou & Danxue Luo, 2023. "The Relationship Research between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth: From Multi-Level Attempts to Key Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    15. Sueur, Cédric & Fourneret, Eric & Espinosa, Romain, 2023. "Animal capital: a new way to define human-animal bond in view of global changes," OSF Preprints svg7x, Center for Open Science.
    16. Abdul, Daud & Wenqi, Jiang & Tanveer, Arsalan, 2022. "Prioritization of renewable energy source for electricity generation through AHP-VIKOR integrated methodology," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1018-1032.
    17. Yiwei Lian & Yang Bai & Zhongde Huang & Maroof Ali & Jie Wang & Haoran Chen, 2024. "Spatio-Temporal Changes and Habitats of Rare and Endangered Species in Yunnan Province Based on MaxEnt Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, February.
    18. Alkan, Ömer & Albayrak, Özlem Karadağ, 2020. "Ranking of renewable energy sources for regions in Turkey by fuzzy entropy based fuzzy COPRAS and fuzzy MULTIMOORA," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 712-726.
    19. Gaeun Kim & Jiwon Kim & Youngjin Ko & Olebogeng Thelma G. Eyman & Sarwat Chowdhury & Julie Adiwal & Wookyun Lee & Yowhan Son, 2021. "How Do Nature-Based Solutions Improve Environmental and Socio-Economic Resilience to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? Reforestation and Afforestation Cases from the Republic of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, November.
    20. Tsita, Katerina G. & Pilavachi, Petros A., 2012. "Evaluation of alternative fuels for the Greek road transport sector using the analytic hierarchy process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 677-686.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5988-:d:815967. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.