WP4: Sustainability assessment of innovations and farm systems for improved policy design

Research Question: What are the system interactions and trade-offs between land use, environment, profitability, and social well-being when adopting grassland innovations?

This research investigates the interactions and trade-offs between land use, environment, profitability, and social well-being when adopting grassland innovations. It aims to inform policy design for a net zero transition by assessing the sustainability of various practices and farm systems. The project will use a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate practices for a net zero transition, utilizing results from the Global Farm Metric research tool (GFM RT) and outputs from previous experiments. Representative farms will be identified for in-depth LCA assessment, analyzing their current situation and potential to meet net zero through scenario analysis. The FarmLCA tool will explore environmental and economic impacts, considering factors such as warming potentials, soil carbon sequestration, and functional units. Social LCA approaches will also be applied to assess multiple impact categories and identify trade-offs.

In addition to LCA, the project will conduct choice experiments to determine the value that citizens place on ecosystem services delivered by different grassland management systems. Using data from the GFM RT and an online sample of 1,000 participants, these experiments will identify public priorities and trade-offs regarding ecosystem services. This valuation will contribute to a broader assessment of grassland management systems and help inform future support measures and policy decisions.

The research will also calculate the ‘carbon opportunity cost’ (COC) of using land for agriculture, which is the quantity of carbon that could be sequestered if the land were used for regenerating forests. Scenarios will be applied using COC results, combined with ecosystem service valuations and LCA data, to assess impacts at regional and national scales within the UK. An adapted version of the Optimal Land Use Model (OLUM) will be used to determine the wider impact of upscaled innovations on GHG emissions, total production, financial performance, COC, and ecosystem services.