Agriculture exploits natural resources with the aim of food production whilst exerting an influence on the environment and the remaining functions of the agroecosystem. Although obvious advances have been achieved in the past, policymakers and society expect the agriculture and food sector to continue to improve its sustainability and to close up the expected gaps in terms of environmental targets, resource efficiency and climate strategy.
In order to assess the impact of previous measures and identify the need for action, we must be able to record and model the extent and development over time of the environmental impacts and material flows of the agriculture and food sector with the aid of suitable indicators, inventories and monitoring activities.
New findings on main causes, interactions and influencing factors for the relevant agricultural emissions form the basis for the targeted development of decision-making tools and solution strategies for policy-makers and practitioners, so that the resource efficiency of the agriculture and food sector can be optimised with regard to location and environmental pollution can be reduced. Comprehensive life-cycle analyses with assessments of all relevant environmental impacts form a significant basis for the comparison of solution strategies.
In addition, a concept for the system-oriented assessment of farms or their ecodesign in terms of the three pillars of sustainability is to be developed, with the aim of acquiring holistic and implementable recommendations for the further development of the agricultural sector.