Organic food systems are recognised as an important component in meeting United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. A leverage points perspective can help to identify approaches which have the potential to facilitate transformative systemic change towards organic and sustainable farming. Using fuzzy cognitive maps developed from expert stakeholder opinions, we modelled a system of drivers of organic food production and consumption in the United Kingdom, according to the UN Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems framework. The most influential concepts in the uptake of organic systems were related to system norms and values and social structures, such as short-term economic thinking, landowner engagement, and relationships with certification bodies. However, in a scenario analysis, organic stakeholders identified relatively shallower leverage points as more likely to change under a sustainable future, resulting in limited systemic change. This demonstrates the need for policies targeting system norms, values and social structures relating to food systems to facilitate the transition to organic and sustainable farming.

CONTEXT: Life cycle analysis (LCA) is increasingly used to assess the environmental impacts of primary food production. As an alternative, impacts can be assessed at the farm level using holistic sustainability assessment tools. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an integrated approach combining a “detailed and narrow” LCA with a “broad and shallow” sustainability assessment could help integrate socioeconomic and ecosystem service evaluations in LCA by including a wide range of impact criteria. METHODS: To address this overarching objective, we present results from whole-farm sustainability assessments using the Public Goods Tool (PGT), a tool developed in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Organic Research Centre, and cradle-to-farm-gate LCAs of beef, carrots and tomatoes for (i) a diverse agroecological case study farm (CSF) and (ii) a specialised agroecological production system. The use of the PGT enabled comparison with similar UK farm systems and was extended to develop biodiversity and social indices to complement the LCA. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results of the CSF demonstrated a relationship between environmental impacts and increased production efficiency, as the climate change impact per kg of product was strongly associated with higher yields, but this was less clear when impacts expressed per ha. The CSF produced less beef than the specialised system but more tomatoes and carrots, which reflects its higher labour input and less intensive production methods. The CSF generally used fewer external inputs, which decreased its overall impacts. Purchased feed contributed disproportionately to the water consumption of beef from the specialised system. PGT results highlighted the environmental benefits that can be delivered by 'diverse' agricultural systems and added detail to LCA results; for example the high labour input at the CSF helped generate social capital whilst partially explaining the reduced emissions from tractor operations modelled in the carrot LCA. SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that LCA may not be the most suitable tool to consider these wider aspects of sustainability and can only provide an estimate of environmental impacts. LCA helps understand which parts of the food system have the greatest impacts, and how they could become more sustainable, but it cannot determine sustainable agriculture alone. The addition of rapid farm-level multi-criteria sustainability assessment tools can complement the LCA results, help reveal ‘blind spots’, and encourage adoption by farmers.

The UK government has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Ambitious targets have been set to plant nearly a million hectares of new woodland in the UK by 2050 to meet these net-zero commitments. More than 70% of UK’s land is used for agricultural production and to meet these targets the Climate Change Committee has estimated that by 2050 approximately 21% of agricultural land will be required for tree planting, agroforestry and the extension of farm hedges. Achieving this creates a potential conflict between land for food production and land for carbon sequestration. However, trees and woodlands, when integrated into farming systems, can be multifunctional and play a significant role in helping farmers adapt and become more resilient in the face of climate change. Over the last 100 years numerous government policies and incentive schemes have endeavoured to encourage more tree planting activities amongst farmers and landowners with varying degrees of success. This paper reviews the role of policy in determining the presence of trees in the UK’s agricultural landscape over the past 100 years. We quantify the current extent of woodland and tree cover and aim to put the UK’s net-zero tree planting targets in the context of historical agricultural land use patterns. We evaluate drivers behind the current extent of trees, woodland and agroforestry on UK farms and identify key elements of success in current and previous policies and incentive schemes to help inform future policy mechanisms for the UK to meet its tree planting targets. Farmers are increasingly under pressure to deliver a wide range of environmental goals as well as producing food. The effectiveness of financial incentives to influence tree planting is dependent on the pre-existing interest and values of the farmer or landowner and grants alone may not be sufficient to encourage farmers to plant trees. Scheme complexity, bureaucracy and insufficient payment rates are barriers to the success of woodland grants and agri-environment schemes. Simplicity is important to encourage uptake, however oversimplification of schemes can lead to unintended consequences. Advice and guidance are key elements in the successful adoption of any new land management methods. A key to future progress will be scheme flexibility to enable farmers to choose to plant trees where it best suits local conditions, to align policy tools with farmer values and to ensure that farmers and landowners have the knowledge and support to make these decisions.

CONTEXT: Agroforestry is gaining interest in in Europe however the trade-offs associated with its uptake are still uncertain. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the sustainability trade-offs and synergies associated with a range of agroforestry systems in Europe and assess the underlying reasons for different performance regarding environmental, economic, social and governance domains. METHODS: Five case-studies of agroforestry from nothern, eastern and southern Europe were assessed using an established sustainability assessment tool, the Public Goods tool (PG tool). The case studies were selected to represent a range of innovative and traditional systems, encompassing arable and livestock, wood fuel and tree fruit crops. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: All five of the case studies were performing well across a diverse range of sustainability criteria, with average scores of three out of five or higher across the assessment categories. Social capital and animal health and welfare management scores were particularly high, due to high rates of on-farm employment of between 0.4 and 2.3 full-time labour units per hectare, and a high volume of local sales alongside effective health planning and husbandry through health planning and a lack of restrictions on natural behaviour. Land Equivalent Ratios were greater than 1 within each case and were particularly high for established silvopasture systems (over 1.5). Fossil fuel use was considerably lower than the industry average in most of the case studies (between 17 and 92% of the country-average per hectare for three of the cases). Economic performance was highly variable, with high labour costs contributing to negative margins. SIGNIFICANCE: The assessments show that agroforestry systems have considerable potential to contribute to multiple sustainability objectives, and that environmental and social sustainability objectives are particularly well addressed through increased efficiency of land-use, increased opportunities for on-farm employment and engagement with local communities. However considerable financial barriers still exist and may prevent its further uptake. Promoting the future uptake of agroforestry in Europe therefore requires the commitment of multiple actors in supply chains to plan policies, farm-practices and knowledge exchange that can support the delivery of sustainability benefits.