Agri-food systems in Norway, like those globally, face mounting ecological, economic, and social challenges, underscoring the need for more comprehensive approaches to sustainability assessment. A recent study explored the applicability of FAO’s Tool for Agroecological Performance Evaluation (TAPE) within a Norwegian organic dairy farm context, aiming to evaluate how well such a framework captures the complexities of agroecological transitions in localized settings.

TAPE’s multi-step approach, ranging from characterizing farm practices to assessing performance against sustainability criteria, evealed notable insights. The farm scored well on economic efficiency but lower on diversity and circular economy due to a reliance on grassland monocultures and mainstream value chains for dairy and meat distribution. However, stakeholders highlighted that clover-grass leys contribute to biodiversity and that farmer cooperatives inherently promote solidarity, suggesting room for interpretative flexibility in the scoring.

The study concluded that TAPE serves as a useful heuristic tool for fostering discussions on sustainability rather than a rigid evaluation framework. When adapted to account for local ecological and socio-cultural factors, it can enhance dialogue between farmers, researchers, and policymakers, guiding more context-specific agroecological transitions in Norway’s diverse agricultural landscape.