Organic livestock production systems as a model of sustainability development

Abstract

Organic farming and livestock production offer effective means of satisfying consumer demand for healthy and safe foods and reducing the environmental pressure of agricultural production. In Mediterranean areas organic livestock production could be considered a feasible systems to improve rural development in unfavourable areas and to maintain rural landscape. Constrains, like pasture availability during the year, determine the evolution of different strategies in livestock rearing to improve or maintain net income of population. Moreover the evaluation of the sustainability using a holistic approach using assessment criteria like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Emergy Assessment could be considered models to evaluate organic and conventional livestock production sustainability and at the same time new research fields.