Relationships between economic performance, environmental performance and animal welfare

Abstract

Farmers face multiple expectations from society, such as preserving the environment and animal welfare, and at the same time having to ensure their economic survival. The aim of this article is to review the state of the art on the relationships between the three dimensions of performance: economic performance, environmental performance, and animal welfare. There is no single overall relationship between the three dimensions, but rather a multitude of relationships between the various indicators that define them. Farming practices and conditions impact these indicators differently, and the cumulative effect of the multiple relationships varies according to the production system. Differences in the choice of indicators and in the production systems may explain the discrepancies in the results of the literature. However, these differences do not invalidate the results as long as they are properly taken into account when interpreting the results and their implications. The results on relationships also diverge according to the level of performance present in the population studied; there tends to be synergies where the level of performance is still low and antagonisms where the level of performance is already high. In the end, it is not so much the relationships between the dimensions that are important, but rather the means of obtaining good performances in all dimensions concomitantly.