Bibliography

This deliverable gather the 5 Policy Briefs elaborated for each of the 5 Clusters of VCs established in WP5:
• Cluster S: Social and Demographic aspects
• Cluster V: Value and Quality products
• Cluster I: Innovation and Infrastructures
• Cluster N: Nature and Ecosystem Services
• Cluster G: Governance, Cooperation and Territoriality
Every documents stand as an individual one.

This deliverable assembles the outcomes of a critical benchmarking process involving the cross-regional analysis of five clusters of mountain value chains. The analysis focused on assessing the contributions of these value chains to the sustainability and resilience of European mountain areas. The examination also delved into the trade-offs between the provision of public and private goods by value chains. This work is part of the WP5-Cross-case Comparison and Benchmarking of the MOVING project.

The objective of WP5 was to critically benchmark cross-regional clusters of value chains, focusing on vulnerability, sustainability and resilience criteria and analysing the trade-offs between the provision of public and private goods in mountain areas.
To achieve this objective, the 23 value chains were classified into five clusters addressing key challenges faced by mountain areas: Social and Demographic aspects (Cluster S), Value and Quality Products (Cluster V), Innovation and Infrastructures (Cluster I), Nature and Ecosystem Services (Cluster N), and Governance, Cooperation, and Territoriality (Cluster G). Each cluster grouped five to seven value chains.

Within each cluster, a comparative participatory analysis was conducted, evaluating the contribution of value chains to the sustainability and resilience of mountain areas. This analysis focused on identifying how the value chains within each cluster impacted seven objectives, previously defined as crucial to enhance both aspects: Human Capital, Cooperation, Sustainable Use of Local Assets, Inclusiveness, Adaptive Capacity, Ecological Resilience, and Attractiveness and Wellbeing. Additionally, each cluster identified trade-offs, challenges and solutions, and the provision of public goods by value chains.

In addition to this document, each cluster has elaborated a Policy Brief (D5.2).

The circular economy (CE) has shown promise for achieving several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, replacing the linear system and reducing negative impacts on the environment. This research aims to assess the effective adoption of CE principles in three cheeses with geographical indication (GI) through an analysis of the practices identified in their respective value chains. Qualitative interviews show the persistence of historical practices that preserve the heritage behind the product, maintain autonomy in relation to external inputs and save energy or make intelligent use of by-products. Radical adoption of CE principles requires innovation to reduce the use of new inputs and greenhouse gas emissions. GI food products are generally not constrained by standards beyond those set by law, but their specifications can be modified, while respecting practices consistent with the link to the terroir. However, the remoteness of small businesses in deep rural areas, far from research centers, is slowing down the transfer of knowledge and the adoption of the latest technologies, particularly in mountainous areas. More participatory research and innovative initiatives are needed to ensure the transition to a circular economy for traditional mountain products, which are strongly linked to local culinary traditions and cultural identity.

It aims to provide guidance for public authorities in examining requests for the registration of geographical indications while advocating for public institutions to support the creation of enabling environments for GIs to contribute the development of sustainable food systems.

It presents best practices and lessons learned drawn from the implementation of a comprehensive approach to GIs for over 10 years. The policy guidance provided through the brief highlights the importance of endogenous interventions that put local producers at the centre of geographical indications processes, as well as the need for public institutions to play a key role in the implementation of geographical indications approaches.

This paper combines knowledge obtained by several groups in a broad EU study and the reflections on policy-related results by EU-stakeholders, streamlined by a Delphi analysis. Current work presents research-based policy recommendations and statements on various quality schemes, introductory inferred from expert opinions throughout Europe, gauged through a modified policy Delphi framework. A roadmap of policy and practical proposals have been identified for all key stakeholders involved in these initiatives, implying the need to reshape the supply chain dynamics to continuously improve producers, processors, retailers, and consumers within the EU and definitively worldwide. Furthermore, implementing a holistic approach considering environmental and socio-economic features can improve the effectiveness of EU food quality policies.

To identify whether EU certified food – here organic and geographical indications – is more sustainable than a conventional reference, we developed 25 indicators covering the three sustainability pillars. Original data was collected on 52 products at farm, processing and retail levels, allowing the estimation of circa 2000 indicator values. Most strikingly, we show that, in our sample, certified food outperforms its non-certified reference on most economic and social indicators. On major environmental indicators – carbon and water footprint – their performance is similar. Although certified food is 61% more expensive, the extra-performance per euro is similar to classical policy interventions to improve diet sustainability such as subsidies or taxes. Cumulatively, our findings legitimate the recent initiatives by standards to cover broader sustainability aspects.

The present study was commissioned to Arcadia International E.E.I.G. by the European Federation of Origin Wines (EFOW), which members are Conferencia Española de Consejos Reguladores Vitivinícolas (CECRV), Confédération Nationale des producteurs de vins et eaux de vie de vin à Appellations d’Origine Contrôlées (CNAOC), Confederazione Nazionale dei Consorzi Volontari per la Tutela delle Denominazioni dei Vini Italiani (Federdoc), and Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP), in partnership with the German winegrowers’ association Deutscher Weinbauverband e.V (DWV). The objective of the study is to provide a better understanding of the initiatives undertaken or available to the wine appellation sector to address sustainability. This report presents the results of the study based on the work carried out by the study team during the period June 2021- January 2022. It is structured as follows:

● Section 1 presents the objectives and the scope of the study taking into account the specifications drafted by EFOW and DWV;

● Section 2 describes the overall methodological approach applied to reach the objectives of the study and the workplan;

● Section 3 provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge and practices in the field of sustainability in the wine sector;

● Section 4 presents the main findings of the study with regard to the sustainability practices currently implemented or available to producer groups of protected designation of origin (PDO) wines in the five main producing European countries on which the research primarily focused on;

● Section 5 considers and discusses the main challenges and impacts that the EU’s sustainability agenda poses to the wine appellation sector;

● Section 6 considers and discusses the policy options available to the wine appellation sector to further contribute to the implementation of the EU’s sustainability agenda; and,

● Section 7 finally presents the main conclusions of the study

Geographical Indications (GIs) are widely considered as tools to contribute to sustainability (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations—FAO, 2009; 2017), if established and well managed. While the literature may not always agree on the positive effects of GIs in all sustainability dimensions (e.g., economic, social, and environmental), there is evidence that engaging GI producers in a sustainability strategy can maximize their contribution to different components of sustainable development. FAO and oriGIn developed the sustainability strategy for GI (SSGI) to support GI producers and their associations so that they could engage in a place-based and participative approach in order to generate concrete progress and results. This paper presents original research for building both a framework and database for the selection and use of relevant sustainability indicators for GIs. A number of SSGI principles have guided the work throughout an iterative process for reviewing, selecting, and improving relevant indicators, while the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture (SAFA) has provided the structure to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other widely used and recognized sustainability frameworks. As a result of this work, a database of 372 robust sustainability indicators that are relevant to GIs have been characterized to facilitate their use by practitioners. The discussion highlights the importance of the place-based approach, and the participative, inclusive process that represents the key to empowerment and the ability to develop alliances. It also focuses on action, and the need to strengthen both internal and external communication.

The actual contribution of Geographical Indications (GIs) to sustainable development (SD) is a topic that is gaining increasing attention in the context of growing societal and political pressures. While empirical knowledge is still subject, there is evidence that GIs should assess their sustainability performances to communicate the inherent sustainable attributes of their products to consumers. However, measuring the sustainability of any system is a “wicked” issue and would require soft-system approaches, which are often missing in the current literature. These limitations pointed out, the present work aimed to consolidate the Qualimentaire Sustainability Assessment Tool (QSAT) in order to design a tool that is easy to use, robust, holistic, inclusive and action-oriented, and applicable to all dairy and cheese GI in France and beyond. To this end, Participatory Action Research was conducted with the Maroilles PDO. It resulted in an innovative evaluation framework, composed of 241 indicators based on the five dimensions of Economy, Environment, Social, but also Governance and Territory, and taking into account all GI stakeholders. The discussion underlines the importance of a bottom-up participatory approach as an essential prerequisite for the applicability of the results on the field and the appropriation of the tool by local actors. Results of this study showed that the QSAT functions as a catalyst for exchanges among GI actors and collective learning about SD and thus goes far beyond a simple evaluation grid. However, a number of trade-offs were observed regarding the initial research objectives, which called for the need to not only develop an evaluation grid but a whole methodology drew on the stepwise and participatory process presented here.

The strategic guide on Food Quality Schemes (FQS) is a tool for practitioners, policymakers and researchers to explore the links between sustainability and FQS. It was developed by a team of researchers at the University of Parma in collaboration with several academic and non-academic partners, in the context of the 5-year EU Horizon 2020 research project “Strenght2Food”. The guide presents the findings on an extensive research investigating the positive impacts of FQS linked to good production and consumption practices. Based on the results of 26 benchmarked value chains, involving different FQS (organic, PDO and PGI products) in 14 countries, the guide reports methods, tools and case studies to explore the sustainability performance of FQS. The research identified three main dimensions of public goods linked to FQS production: cultural and heritage preservation; socio-economic; and natural resources. Presenting best practices, recommendations and case studies related to each of these dimensions, the guide represents a unique opportunity of “learning from practice” and strengthening the positive impacts of FQS.

Geographic Indications (GIs) are an internationally recognised form of protection for goods based on their quality or reputation and a fairly recent instrument in Brazilian law. In this context, there is an ongoing discussion in academia regarding the relevance of GIs as a tool to promote the sustainable development of territories. This debate considers that there is a strong connection between a good’s reputation and quality and its traditional and sustainable production practices. This research aims to understand how Brazilian GI regulation of agricultural products protects and encompasses socio-environmental sustainability dimensions, discussing the main gaps and opportunities thereof. For that, from an interdisciplinary perspective, this study provides a small-N qualitative content analysis of 30 Brazilian GIs, identifying their socio-environmental provisions, and debating whether GIs can become a mechanism for greater environmental protection in Brazil.

Within the framework of multifunctional conceptualisation, the authors have investigated the level of public goods embedded in Agri-food geographical indication products. Moving from the concept of the local Agri-food system, the generation of public goods is observed both on the value chain and on the territory. Three different dimensions of public goods are considered: Cultural heritage issues, socio-economic themes, and natural resources. To pursue this aim, the FAO-SAFA method is adopted. A single index for the three dimensions is computed in order to provide an easy and quick interpretation of the three dimensions. Preliminary empirical evidence on two case studies suggests different public goods levels embedded in geographical indications, depending on the dimensions analysed. The method proposed aims to be a simple and effective tool to support good practice for policymakers and indicate fields for intervention where indexes show that improvements could be made.

Considering the features of GIs and organic production, Deliverable 5.2 analyses the relationship between Public Goods (PGs) and Food Quality Schemes (FQS). The deliverable evaluates the impacts of the cases study described in Deliverable 5.1 in terms of their contribution to rural development and territorial cohesion given by the capacity to generate positive externalities and hence PGs. The analysis focuses on: contribution to local economies, generation of environmental, social, cultural externalities; contribution of different governance mechanisms to ensure the valorisation of producers’ know-how and local resources; social cohesion in terms of creation of social capital and social networks.

The aim of this chapter is to describe how the interactions between different models of local agri-food production systems can produce synergies that are able to meet new agri-food system challenges and consumer expectations. In particular, the short food supply chain (SFSC) of a product bearing a geographical indication (GI) and its relationship with a localized agri-food system (LAFS) is analyzed. The chapter consists of two parts. The first part presents the theoretical framework underpinning the relationships and synergies between LAFS and SFSCs. The second part presents a case study of Parmigiano-Reggiano (PR) cheese and explores the synergies between an SFSC of this cheese and the LAFS in which such an SFSC is embedded. SFSCs can be a model which meets the requirements of consumers while giving producers a sizable share of added value. However, the SFSC model is based on the specific nature of the product, the social environment and the organization of the supply chain.

Sustainability is becoming a pivotal guide for driving the governance strategies of value chains. The sustainable policy should have as its objective the perpetuation of production models overtime to maintain its environmental, economic and social dimensions. Therefore, measuring the sustainability of a production system is fundamental to deepening the understanding of ongoing trends, considering the pressure exerted by agricultural policies, market dynamics and innovations introduced in the production system. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic framework for assessing the sustainability of food quality schemes (FQS), including the role of both stakeholders within the value chain, and the territorial dimension. This paper discusses the use of dimensional indicators and proposes synthetic indexes to provide an overall picture of the evolution of sustainability of a specific production system. Particularly, the evolution of sustainability in the Parmigiano Reggiano Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) production system is evaluated over the period 2000-2018. It is assumed that its evolution is due to the effect of 20 years of innovations that have impacted product quality, value chain performance and rural development, modifying the sustainability of the whole production system.

La question de l’évaluation ex ante de l’impact des IG, qui se pose dans de nombreux projets de développement, est complexe. La nécessaire capacité de mobilisation et d’action collective des acteurs économiques peut être évaluée, mais la concurrence des filières conventionnelles et le cumul d’objectifs au sein des IG peuvent la réduire. Des processus d’innovation sont conjointement nécessaires et assurés par une tension permanente entre gouvernance sectorielle et gouvernance territoriale, induisant une multiplicité de trajectoires d’évolution. Many development projects try to assess ex ante the Geographical Indications’ impact which is a complex challenge. The economic actors’ involvement and collective action capacity is determining and may be estimated, but the competition with conventional supply chains and stakes’ multiplication within GI projects can reduce it. Innovation processes are jointly needed and allowed by a permanent tension between sectorial and territorial governances, leading to a multiplicity of evolution trajectories.

The purpose of this volume is to present a broad-based critical analysis of the relationship between the agri-food sector and the socio-economic environment when local agri-food production systems are connecter with global markets. The local dimension of agri-food systems is considered assuming that all the variables related to agri-food production are closely connected and dependent on local production systems. In this perspective Local Agri-Food Systems (LAFS also become the focus of the analysis in order to evaluate the level of sustainability and policy requirements. Whether LAFS produce, transform or simply consume food, there are big implications for the socio-economic environment and socio-economic sustainability. The volume examines the interrelation between LAFS and agri-socio-economic aspects from two main points of view. It, therefore, consists of two parts: theoretical analysis of the different models at the basis of LAFS and empirical evidence of the role played by LAFS on local and global markets.

The objectives of this guide are: 1. to explain what origin-linked quality and the GI concept are; 2. to raise awareness regarding the potential of origin-linked products for rural development and conditions for sustainability; 3. to facilitate implementation of GI processes at local level by providing tools and a concrete methodology. Based on multidisciplinary research and empirical evidence from all over the world, this guide is intended for practitioners, rural development specialists from the public or private sectors, representatives of value chains, policy makers, rural community leaders and trainers. It is intended more particularly for those involved in the development of agricultural and food systems who have an interest in promoting and preserving local food products and resources (traditions, know-how and natural resources) within a perspective of rural development. The role of these facilitators is of paramount importance in helping local stakeholders to become aware of the potential of originlinked products, organize themselves and carry out collective actions, understand the importance of appropriate rules and pilot the GI system towards economic, sociocultural and environmental sustainability. This practical guide avoids prescriptive or normative solutions, instead offering an approach that provides step-by-step answers to the main questions facing development actors seeking to identify, define and protect products of origin-linked quality through the adoption of various measures allowing their sustainable development.

Increasing competition on the production cost side resulting from an increasingly open market, together with changes to the EU agricultural policy, which de facto decouples the granting of aid from the realisation of specific productions, leads companies to look for new ways to compete. The text aims to briefly show the protection tools that the EU has made available to businesses by listing the significant costs and benefits of PDO and PGI quality systems.