Food supply for the growing world population significantly contributes to ecological and societal challenges. At the same time, there is a growing demand from policies, society and the food sector to improve sustainability in agriculture. Through operational management, farmers can contribute to an improvement of sustainability while adapting their farm to future challenges.

However, farmers are finding it difficult to assess their sustainability performance in a comparable manner. It is also not always clear for the consumers and they are unable to judge how sustainable a given agricultural commodity or food product really is.

Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems (SAFA) Guidelines have been developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to “provide a common language for sustainability” (FAO). The guidelines are divided into themes such as “water”, “materials & energy”, “biodiversity” and “animal welfare”, each of these are also divided into sub-themes.