The Healthy Farm Index.

Meeting the needs of current and future generations demands a reliable food supply, a biologically diverse world, functioning ecosystem services, and strong communities.  To ensure that that future farm assessment addresses these components, the University of Nebraska Lincoln is developing a Healthy Farm Index as part of broader research in sustainable and organic agroecosystems.  The index assesses farm health based on multiple indicators of farm production, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and quality of life. Initial measures collected during on-farm research in Nebraska and Kansas are used as the basis for the Healthy Farm Index. Ultimately, the index will be a mechanism for integrating and communicating interdisciplinary data toward farm practices and policy that optimize the multiple outputs from farm systems