Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development of Organic - 1.

additional money, and research should focus on reduction of greenhouse gas emission, while
preserving animal welfare.
The framework used to assess sustainability of introduction of AMS on organic dairy farms
appeared suitable to identify relevant economic, environmental and social consequences of AMS use.
In general, introduction of innovative technology is not assessed in such a holistic way (Demont et al.,
2001, see also introduction, chapter I). Identification of relevant economic, environmental and social
consequences, however, is of importance before introduction of an innovative technology, as it avoids
mismatch between user and technology (Eastwood et al., 2006). In addition, it could maybe have
avoided social disturbances in developing countries when introducing high yielding varieties
(Anonymous, 2002) or possibly have avoided environmental havoc (Carson, 1962).
Furthermore, by exploring various scenarios, insight is obtained in possible trade-offs between
different aspects of sustainability, such as between animal welfare and environmental performance.
Trade-offs, which are not always possible to quantify as economy and social equity or animal ethics are
entities with different dimensions. Efforts to model different dimensions with a mutual scale have been
made, for example on sustainability of Dutch dairy farming (Van Calker, 2005) and on trying to
prioritize importance of world wide problems (CCC, 2008). The process is arbitrary as value of
importance cannot always be expressed in money. Result of the difficulty of trade-offs can be a choice
for different systems simultaneously, like we can see in most countries where organic agriculture exists
parallel to conventional agriculture and factory farming parallel to free range. Even within the organic
sector there still might be a group which does not want to implement AMS, specifically because of
certain principles, such as negative effect on milk quality by disruption of fat globules causing higher
free fatty acid concentrations (FFA).
The final step of the framework used to evaluate AMS use will be the presentation of the results in
popular sector magazines and presentations at congresses and meetings for further dissemination. Here
the feed-back from users and constructors can supplement the final evaluation.
6.3 Grazing in relation to sustainability when using AMS
6.3.1 Perceptions on grazing
The participative analysis of sustainability issues using focus groups composed of farmers and advisors
indicated that grazing was a central theme, which was affirmed when quantifying indicators to measure
sustainability effects.
When the participants of the focus groups (Oudshoorn et al., 2008 a ) were asked to prioritize nine
sustainability issues selected from a literature review, grazing was ranked as second most important,
just after farm profitability. All groups responded that grazing is closely connected to the image of
organic dairy farming, expressed very succinctly by the following remarks: ‘it is the face of organic
dairy,’ ‘no discussion possible,’ ‘definitely crucial,’ and ‘essential.’ There were also differences of
opinion regarding the relation between grazing and animal health and welfare and product quality.
Danish farmers stated that combining AMS use and grazing was sometimes labour intensive, difficult
to manage correctly, and was not always animal-friendly. Recurrently doubts concerning economy of
grazing were mentioned. However, no participants were in doubt that grazing was necessary for
organic dairy farming to survive. Some participants specifically mentioned the positive effects on milk
quality.
114 Sustainable Technology in Organic Dairy Farming