Abstract
The paper introduces an approach, developed in Agriculture & Quality programme, to evaluate the environmental sustainability of Apulian quality agro-food products that is integrated in the regional quality scheme “Quality Products”. It highlights the methodological approach adopted, the sustainability themes identified and the indicators selected. Indicators measurable at the farm/firm level were selected in relation to the following environmental themes: biodiversity, land use and management, energy use and climate change, use of chemical inputs, and responsible management of by-products and waste. A scoring scale was developed for each indicator; going from 0 (unsustainable) to 10 (very sustainable) with 5 corresponding to the sustainability threshold or reference value. The presented approach is both robust and user friendly and is in line with the principle entailing continuous improvement; the key sustainability thresholds will be periodically reviewed and updated. It represents a practical and innovative way to develop an information scheme for typical agri-food products and can be, with some refinement and contextualisation, easily scaled up to other territories.
Highlights
Agriculture is facing an unprecedented confluence of environmental pressures and challenges such as land degradation, climate change, water scarcity and pollution, biodiversity loss (FAO, 2014a); and there are several interconnected and mutually reinforcing trends in food production and consumption, which pose serious challenges on the overall sustainability of food systems (Friedmann and Mcnair, 2008)
The present paper introduces a robust, yet user friendly method, for the assessment of environmental sustainability of agro-food products in Apulia region that is integrated in the regional quality scheme and is suitable to communicate to stakeholders, primarily consumers and policy makers, the environmental performance and quality of these products
Environmental sustainability consists in the capacity to maintain over time the quality and reproducibility of natural resources through their rational use as well as paying due attention to the negative impacts on the environmental resources
Summary
Agriculture is facing an unprecedented confluence of environmental pressures and challenges such as land degradation, climate change, water scarcity and pollution, biodiversity loss (FAO, 2014a); and there are several interconnected and mutually reinforcing trends in food production and consumption (e.g. unhealthy and unsustainable diets, unbalanced supply chains), which pose serious challenges on the overall sustainability of food systems (Friedmann and Mcnair, 2008). Sustainable agri-food systems are needed to provide economic benefits for rural dwellers, to ensure socially appropriate solutions to the food and nutrition security challenges and to limit the negative environmental effects of agriculture (FAO, 2014a; 2014b). In the complex socio-economic and environmental landscape in which food systems operate today, traditional local products present an interesting option for rural development to reverse negative environmental and socio-economic trends. The environmental quality of typical products is strictly linked to the territorial context into which production and consumption activities are embedded ‒ its natural geomorphologic, chemical, biological resources constitute an important part of the product ‘typicality’, while continuous reproduction and care for such resources is an important characteristic of the environmental quality of typical food production systems (van der Ploeg et al, 2009)
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