Why Geographical Indications Can Support Sustainable Development in European Agri-Food Landscapes

Lukas Flinzberger,Miguel A Cebrián-Piqueras,Yves Zinngrebe,Cord Peppler-Lisbach

doi:10.3389/fcosc.2021.752377

Abstract

Implementing the European Green Deal and transforming agricultural practices requires a wider and amplified policy toolbox. As many sustainability considerations are context-dependent, there is a need for instruments, which take individual characteristics of production landscapes into account. Food products with a particularly strong relationship to their landscape of origin can be marketed under the “Protected Designation of Origin” label (PDO). In this article, we analyze synergies between PDO production and regional sustainable development by assessing to what extent social-ecological landscape characteristics appear in landscapes with PDO-labeled food production systems. Building upon 12 social-ecological variables we defined three landscape characteristics influential for the presence of PDOs by using a principal component analysis. By running regression models combining those characteristic landscapes with the spatial distribution of PDO certification we were able to explore linkages between landscapes and products. Additionally, a geographically weighted regression delivered insights into the regional differences and product-specific relationships throughout the EU countries. Overall, we could prove the assumed positive correlation between PDO production and ecologically valuable landscapes. Further, we showed that mostly meat PDOs coincide with landscapes influenced by structural change, while cheese PDOs are not well captured by our models despite their large number. We can conclude that PDOs have the potential to jointly support conservation and rural development, especially when they would be tied to sustainable management standards in the future.

Highlights

Agricultural food products are linked to the social and ecological conditions of the production systems they originate from (Andersson et al, 2015; Oteros-Rozas et al, 2019)
We looked for the reasons behind this uneven distribution by analyzing which social-ecological landscape characteristics coincide with the production of Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO)
We found that PDOs appear to be a suitable food labeling strategy in landscapes of high ecological values and landscapes with a strong representation of conservation areas

Summary

Introduction

Agricultural food products are linked to the social and ecological conditions of the production systems they originate from (Andersson et al, 2015; Oteros-Rozas et al, 2019). Some prominent food products even constitute central characteristic elements of particular iconic landscapes, bearing a deep relation with the local traditions of landscape stewardship (Mann and Plieninger, 2017). While both the European Green Deal and its Farm to Fork strategy aim for a sustainable transformation of European agricultural landscapes, the green architecture of EU policies is still limited and ineffective (Pe’er et al, 2020). Without being designed for this purpose, PDOs were found suitable for supporting sustainable forms of production, such as agroforestry systems (Flinzberger et al, 2020). Uneven distribution patterns of PDOs across Europe indicate that potential synergies between PDO systems and sustainability efforts vary across product types, geographical location, or socialecological context

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Conclusion