Farm Sustainability Assessment using the IDEA Method. From the concept of farm sustainability to case studies on French farms

Although many indicator sets have been developed to characterize sustainability, a lack of available methods and operational tools to assess the sustainability of a farm is often reported. The use of specific indicators can be an interesting if farmers can use them in a process of self-assessment. First, the French IDEA method (Indicateurs de Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles) of farm sustainability indicators illustrates the scientific approach adopted by the authors in this paper to translate the concept of farm sustainability into a system of 41 sustainability indicators covering three dimensions of sustainability. Secondly, some results are presented from different case studies illustrating tests of the IDEA method. Thirdly, the way of building the indicators is discussed on the basis of some results and feed back from users. In conclusion, a recent work linking the IDEA method with national data bases is noted