RISULTATI RICERCA

We depict the different models of likely future value chains for agro food sector. The starting points of the reflection are the main coming geo-physical constraints acknowledged by most scientists (rising sea level; climate disaster higher frequency; scarcity of concentrated energy and other material resources). Thus the effects of the coming changes (and especially the effects of the global warming) on agriculture are a regular study topic, while the effects of the other constraints, and the likely evolution of the food systems as a whole, remain quite overlooked. When there is a general scarcity of resources (as it is the case for oil and minerals over the coming decades), the present value chains may no longer function. We draw from these evidences to design 6 models of food value chains (including farming, processing and delivery systems). We therefore describe the models: "Today" (any food, in-store selling everywhere, at any time); "Amazon" (any food, at home in metropoles, at any time); "Cart" (mainly local food, in streets of cities and villages, seasonal products); "Roman villa" (local food, at farm, seasonal products); "Survival" (energetic food, specific location, in response to disasters or to "hunger gap"); "Export foods" (spices, salt etc., at any time). Only the last four together will be frugal enough to be compliant with the future geo-physical constraints. We also explore some consequences in terms of the future way of life, around the topics of agricultural work and cities.

Evidence-based policy development is promoted by organic research, according to studies in ten countries (in Africa, America and Europe). A seven country study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (unctad, 2008) on how governments can assist organic sectors, gave guidelines about regulation, special support for small scale farmers and under-pinning the emergence of a market for organic produce without distorting this market. Eight years later, unctad published a further report on financing Organic Agriculture (OA) in Africa, which concluded that lack of finance hinders the development of OA in Africa. These reports emphasise the need for OA research; research into broccoli seed-breeding had a positive impact on the perceptions of commercial seed producers, and may help to improve regulatory frameworks. Three long-term research projects are then analysed. The Swiss research trials showed many benefits of organic farming, but also limitations; they cite many researchers around the world who show the benefits of OA, and argue for the establishment of a global platform for organic farming research, innovation and technology transfer. Longterm research has had a major impact on production, processing, marketing and consumption of organic produce world-wide, as shown by Danish research through four research programmes at Aarhus University (which contributed to Danish sales of organic produce increasing from €67 million in 1996 to €821 million in 2010), and this helped Danish farmers to expand production and understand the needs of the market. In the United States, the Rodale Institute carried out long-term research trials to show that OA can be economically competitive, while benefiting the environment and the health of consumers. All three studies had close links with agricultural policy, but the Danish and Swiss studies were more sympathetically received and resulted directly in positive changes to agricultural policies in those countries.

The consumer, without any objective reason, is fearful of what is on their plate. Agriculture has been swept aside in favour of food. Much as we love the myth of the smallholder, we prefer to ignore the reality of what farming involves. The blissful consumer prefers from afar to submit to the artefacts of food propriety: labels such as organic, Fairtrade, Rain Forest Alliance, Zero pesticides, etc. Besides their own wellbeing, the consumer is often unable to say how this certification has positive impacts on cropping systems, the agricultural labourers or natural environments. They are buying a promise, a concept, an image which unfortunately sometimes is a mere illusion. Rightly or wrongly, that is what get things moving. Cropping systems are being constantly reinvented to meet increasingly strict constraints more and more closely: withdrawals of phytosanitary product approvals, bans on certain modes of treatment, lowering of maximum residue limits, etc. The case of the Guadeloupe and Martinique banana industry is symbolic of this permanent disruption. The results are there to see: a more than 50% reduction in pesticides use and implementation of numerous innovative solutions throughout the territory. While the concept of agroecology is now tried and tested, we should nonetheless not push the frameworks of constraints to the extreme, or these industries could disappear. Especially since a label such as organic can be easily harnessed among consumers, which is not the case with the concept of agro-ecology or ecological intensification. Indeed, the different pedo-climatic and social contexts mean that specific cropping systems have to be designed, which are hard to harness under a single label. However, it seems clear that the future of cropping systems will take the agro-ecology route. The intermediate operators of these industries, and primarily the distribution sector, must not now shrink from the task at hand: to make consumers smarter

From 48 years of farming systems research and extension practice, the author distils two conceptual models of the progression of small scale farmers in sustainable agriculture and of the characteristics of production, equity, natural resource management and sustainability, and their implications are discussed. The models inform a comparative analysis of a conventional and an organic development programme. They are linked to long term comparative organic farming systems research trials, which have been running for four years in South Africa’s Southern Cape. These trials compare organic and conventional farming systems, crop rotation and mono-cropping, biological and chemical pest and disease control and water use efficiency in cabbage, sweet potato and cowpea crops. In Africa the high cost and limited availability of agricultural inputs make agro-ecological approaches attractive, as they are practically possible (with low levels of external inputs) and improve carbon sequestration, dietary diversity and food quality. The challenges for viable organic farming systems are thus seen to include: improving soil fertility (especially available soil phosphate), controlling pests and diseases and convincing consumers of the quality of organic products. Benefits include: reduced dependency on externally-purchased agricultural inputs, lower soil acidity, higher soil water retention, sequestration of soil carbon, improved soil microbiology, better agrobiodiversity and elimination of poisons from the food chain. Support for small scale farmers will require technical and training support, market linkages and quality management.

L’articolo rende conto della politica penitenziaria iniziata in Belgio nel 1998, volta a orientare la cultura della detenzione verso "una cultura di giustizia riparativa". Questa analisi fa luce innanzitutto sul rapporto tra saperi scientifici e politiche pubbliche, ma anche sulla verticalizzazione di una tale politica. L’articolo inoltre considera l’incorporazione delle idee e delle pratiche di giustizia riparatrice nelle politiche carcerarie fiamminghe e francofone. La discussione infine mette in evidenza alcune questioni critiche che riguardano il concetto di giustizia riparativa, le sue implicazioni politiche e giuridiche (Freeman & Sturdy, 2015), e alcuni dei paradossi che comporta in termini di "alternativa istituzio-nalizzata" (Bastard & Cardia-Vonèche, 2000) e di "retribuzione e/o riparazione" (Albrecht, 2011, Pavlich, 2013).

L’articolo affronta il fenomeno della massiccia detenzione in Brasile, il paese con la terza più grande popolazione carceraria del mondo e con una rapida crescita della privazione dei tassi di libertà. Partendo dai fattori storici della struttura sociale brasiliana si illustrerà l’evoluzione dell’istituzione carceraria e si analizzeranno i fattori che hanno condizionato il limite delle pene alternative e la ristrettezza dei diritti degli imputati, non riuscendo di conseguenza a modificare il modello punitivo che caratterizza il Brasile.