Social performance is the pillar of sustainability that is the most often neglected, compared to the evaluation of environmental and economic performances of farming systems. Farmers’ working conditions are rarely studied. In LIFT project (H2020), the aim was to describe farmers’ and farm workers’ working conditions in different farming systems characterised by different degrees of uptake of ecological practices. Primary data were collected during interviews with 160 farmers in five European Union regions (Brittany in France, Puy-de-Dôme in France, Crete in Greece, Ireland, Salzburg area in Austria, Umgebung Steyr-Kirchdorf in Austria). The main outcomes of this comparative analysis were: First, an overall positive feeling expressed by the farmers may seem contradictory at first sight with some of the results showing long working hours, little time for holidays and day off, etc; Second, the comparative analysis highlighted that farmers’ working conditions differ across European regions; Third, the degree of uptake of ecological practices, defined here as organic or non-organic farms and the livestock density, does not discriminate working conditions.  

A focus on dairy farms (99 dairy farms in Austria, Brittany and Puy de Dôme in France) showed that in conventional farms, the average work duration for the family workforce was higher and farmers reported lower satisfaction with their working conditions than in organic farms. Organic farmers also considered their work as less flexible due to less free time (fewer holidays and days off, and lower ability to take hours off during working hours). Despite this, organic farmers felt higher levels of satisfaction to be a farmer than conventional farmers. On-farm working conditions on dairy farms depend not only on the type of practices, but also on the production context (region). Working conditions also depend on the workforce composition. Women, as farm managers, felt higher levels of satisfaction with their work than men, but at the same time higher workload. In dairy farms with less than two family workers, workers reported lower levels of satisfaction or more stress, and less free time. 

In Puy-de-Dôme, a more in-deep analysis was performed. Main results were that all farmers experienced an impact of the adoption of ecological practices on their working conditions, even though these were never fully anticipated. Farmers indicated various impacts on workload, work organisation and the need for special equipment, depending on the nature of the production systems and the applied ecological practices. Improved farmers’ health, the development of skills and increased pleasure derived from work were the most cited positive impacts of the adoption of agroecological farming practices. 

Ecological farming modifies on-farm working conditions as part of the myriad of influences on the working conditions on farms. Even when focusing on specific farm types, there are substantial differences between different contexts (e.g. countries/regions, adopted practices or workforce).