That work adapts an earlier approach to developing an index of sustainability
reported in the paper "Creating a farmer sustainability index: A Malaysian
case study" (D.C. Taylor et al., Amer. J. Alt. Agric. 8(4):175-184; 1993).
Warning: ANY attempt to create an index of agricultural sustainability, no
matter how carefully thought through, is sure to draw criticism from someone,
on the grounds that "You didn't include such-and-such," or "You shouldn't
have include this-or-that." Also, certain persons question whether one should
even try to develop an index of sustainability, arguing that it hardly seems
appropriate to reduce to a single number a concept that's supposed to
exorcise the demon of reductionism, and instead is said to be about
complexity, systems-level integration, transdisciplinary phenomena, holism,
multiple goals, diverse kinds of knowledge, etc., etc., etc. They have a
point.
William Lockeretz
Tufts University