Indicators used by EU policies do not sufficiently match those needed to expand agroecology

Abstract

Agroecology is key for developing more sustainable food systems. Yet, the ability of public policies to support agroecology expansion remains uncertain. Assessing this ability requires multiple indicators, adequately covering all dimensions of agroecology. Here, we focus on four dimensions of agroecology: biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and farm socio-economic performance. We use the scientific literature on agroecology indicators to identify all relevant themes within each dimension. For each theme, we then compare indicators used for monitoring the main agricultural and environmental policies in the European Union (EU) and indicators considered most relevant by agroecology practitioners across 11 European living laboratories. We identified 28 relevant themes and showed that all are associated with at least one type of mismatch. We found theme mismatches for 8 themes, indicandum (i.e. phenomenon) mismatches for 18 themes, indicator mismatches for 15 themes and scale mismatches for 17 themes. For instance, policy indicators are missing for the theme “temperature regulation” and for several indicanda, e.g. “farm robustness” and “income satisfaction”. Indicator mismatches regarding “farm management” and scale mismatches regarding “greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production” and “soil health” are also likely to hinder the monitoring of agroecology expansion. These results show that indicators currently used in EU policies inadequately cover the multiple dimensions of agroecology. We propose 16 new and six revised policy indicators based on available data and methods. This should improve the transparency, performance evaluation of result-based approaches and ability of policies to support agroecology expansion in the EU and outside.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Ecological Indicators, 2026 · DOI ↗