The TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework, recognized with the Future Policy Vision Award in 2018, offers a comprehensive tool for understanding the full impact of agricultural and food systems on sustainability, health, and the economy. It supports achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting 'true cost accounting,’ aligning with Future Just Lawmaking Principles and Agroecology Elements.
Why Use the Framework?
Current assessments of agriculture and food systems often miss crucial interactions with the economy, society, environment, and health, focusing narrowly on aspects like yield per hectare or specific resource use. The TEEBAgriFood Framework encourages broader, integrated approaches to capture the full range of system impacts from production to consumption, improving policy decisions.
Framework Components:
- Stocks: The four capitals (produced, natural, human, social) that underpin the system.
- Flows: The movement of resources, including production, consumption, ecosystem services, and waste.
- Outcomes: Changes in capital stocks
- Impacts: Contribution to human well-being.
Framework Purpose:
The TEEBAgriFood Framework is designed to capture the complexity of eco-agri-food systems, recognizing their heterogeneity in outputs, production systems, and value chains. It acknowledges that the relevance of each element within the framework will vary depending on the specific context of the assessment. For example, while the health impacts of corn used for syrup are significant, they would not be for corn used for ethanol in biofuel production.
The Framework provides a structured approach to assess all possible interactions within eco-agri-food systems, offering a standardized starting point for evaluations. It guides users in identifying the most pertinent elements for their specific assessments.
To align with the TEEBAgriFood project, assessments must:
- Be Broad and Systemic: They should cover a wide range of factors and interactions within the system rather than focusing narrowly on specific elements.
- Reflect All Four Capitals: They must consider the contributions from natural, human, social, and manufactured capital.
- Examine Full Value Chain Connections: This includes analyzing the entire journey from production to consumption, specifically the impact of food consumption on human health.
Assessments lacking these features are considered partial and not fully consistent with the TEEBAgriFood project's objectives.
Framework Application:
The TEEBAgriFood Framework guides the evaluation of diverse eco-agri-food systems, acknowledging variations in outputs and processes. It's designed to adapt to different assessment objectives, stressing that not all framework elements are universally applicable.
Essential points include:
- Eco-agri-food systems vary widely; the framework allows for this diversity in assessments.
- It offers a structured approach to evaluate interactions within these systems, serving as a common foundation.
- Assessments must be comprehensive, account for all types of capital (natural, human, social, and manufactured), and cover the entire value chain, including the health impacts of food consumption. Anything less is considered a partial assessment.
To effectively use the Framework:
- Define the Evaluation's Goal: Specify the purpose, which will vary by audience (e.g., researchers, businesses, consumer groups).
- Select Entry Point and Spatial Scale: Determine the focus and geographical boundaries for the study.
- Outline the Value Chain: Describe the chain from production to consumption, drawing on existing literature.
- Identify Key Elements:
- Map out flows from and impacts on the four capitals at each value chain step.
- Determine outcomes related to social, produced, natural, and human capital, requiring system understanding.
- Acknowledge spatial dimensions of interactions; impacts and services often reach beyond immediate locales.
- Acknowledge spatial dimensions of interactions; impacts and services often reach beyond immediate locales.
- Pick Evaluation Methods: Opt for techniques that assess system interactions, focusing on the impacts on human well-being.
- Gather Data and Perform Evaluation: Data collection is shaped by the defined scope; recognizing data gaps can inspire further research.
- Communicate Results: Make findings accessible to diverse stakeholders, including policymakers, experts, and the community, with tailored communication strategies.
This approach ensures evaluations are detailed, relevant, and consistent with TEEBAgriFood's principles, facilitating comprehensive assessments of eco-agri-food systems.
For more information to support the application and implementation of the Framework and the associated discussions among stakeholders, it may be helpful to use the tables and text from section 6.3 of the chapter that explains the framework's various components.
Benefits for Users:
The TEEBAgriFood Framework offers a comprehensive approach to evaluating food systems by incorporating all types of material interactions. This universality facilitates comparisons, identifies research gaps, and highlights decision-making blind spots across various capital domains (economic, social, etc.). It enables researchers and decision-makers to contextualize and link their assessments to broader food system dynamics, enhancing transparency and research integration. The Framework also serves as a foundation for developing sector-specific guidelines, encouraging its adoption across diverse groups such as firms, cooperatives, and local governments. Designed for interdisciplinary use, it promotes participatory engagement in defining the scope and methods of assessments. Ultimately, the Framework aims to enrich global discussions and policies on agriculture and food systems by acknowledging their complex interconnections with economies, societies, health, and the environment, thus facilitating informed decision-making.
