Evaluating Farming Practices: Use of Health and Ecological Risk Concepts

Methodologies for evaluating farming practices are reviewed to provide systematic perspectives on agri-environmental issues in which diversified research topics have been discussed. As a representative method for selecting farm management systems, multicriteria analysis is surveyed and difficulties in weighting procedure are outlined. To resolve the difficulties, applicability of risk concepts for health and ecological issues is examined. After clarifying relationships between farming practices and their environmental impacts by a mapping technique, problems with valuations of human health and the environment are investigated. Since a common measure is difficult to obtain, problems with weighting are revisited and a dilemma in applying economic evaluation methods and decision analytic approaches is discussed.