How to monitor the ‘success’ of agricultural sustainability: A perspective

Global food security is threatened by widespread degradation of agricultural land and associated loss of ecosystem services. In response, farming approaches such as regenerative agriculture are heralded by industries and governments as mainstream solutions to keep the global food system within planetary boundaries. The low level of consensus on science-based approaches to the monitoring and verification of the efficacy of such solutions, however, has left many initiatives vulnerable to allegations of greenwashing. In this paper, we present a comprehensive perspective on the role of indicators for monitoring agricultural systems. We subsequently propose a flexible yet coherent framework for the transparent, time and context-sensitive selection of indicators for monitoring the extent to which sustainability initiatives contribute to their goals. • Monitoring and verification frameworks lack coherency and flexibility. • Utilising practice, result, and outcome based indicators is essential for monitoring. • Regenerative agriculture needs a flexible framework for monitoring. • Defining the purpose and context is essential in making monitoring meaningful.