Numerous reports and scientific papers have emphasized the impacts of organic agriculture on the farms sustainability, but only a few studies have been conducted in Lebanon so far. For this reason, in Batroun region, Lebanon, three organic and three conventional grapevine farms and wineries were compared to assess their sustainability. A French model called ‘IDEA’ (Indicateurs de Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles) was used to compare the sustainability between and within the selected farms/wineries. The IDEA method assigns a sustainability score to each farm/winery on the basis of three different dimensions (agro-ecological, socio-territorial and economic), which are in turn subdivided into three or four related components. Hence, a total of 10 components were assessed for each farm/winery and subdivided into forty-one indicators.
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Data were collected through field visits and questionnaires. The results showed a better performance of the organic farms/wineries as for the agro-ecological dimension. ‘Farming practices’ appeared to be a relevant component with higher scores for the organic management; the organic farms/wineries achieved better results with the indicators; “Quality of foodstuffs produced” and “Measures to protect the natural heritage”.
