Effects of organic farming on ecosystem services and multifunctionality in Switzerland: the ServiceGrass project.
In: Proceedings of the 28th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation - Grassland Science in Europe, Volume 25. 19.10., Ed. The Organising Committee of the 28th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 2020, 505-507.
Sustainable agriculture delivers not only market goods but also many public ecosystem services and nonmarket goods. Agricultural intensification undermines the delivery of many public ecosystem services at local level. Organic farming might decrease the environmental impact of intensive food and feed production on grasslands and could therefore be able to sustain both private and public ecosystem services. A systematic literature search of scientific publications revealed the absence of literature on the impact of organic farming on ecosystem services in grasslands. Thus, the project ServiceGrass was initiated to explore effects of organic grassland farming on several ecosystem services and their simultaneous provisioning, i.e. multifunctionality, in Switzerland. The principal aim of the project is to compare
the ability of organic and conventional grasslands to deliver ecosystem services at plot and farm levels, including management intensification as a major driver. We aim at up-scaling results from grassland plots to farm- and sector-level in order to draw conclusions on the realized ecosystem services portfolio of both farming systems. Findings of this project will underline strengths and weaknesses of organic and conventional farming systems in delivering multiple ecosystem services for sustainable future grassland management.