LIBRI DI FRANCESCO MARANGON

The agribusiness sector needs substantial funding to initiate an ecological transition involving healthy diets and the creation of local circuits and linkages. One sector that has yet to be studied from this perspective is vending, whose importance is confirmed by its profits, especially in Italy. At present, the vending sector cannot be considered sustainable as it rarely contributes to the development of healthy diets and local economies with low environmental impact. There are cases of products with suitable characteristics that can push the sector towards more sustainable dynamics, but such products often do not achieve the success they deserve for various socioeconomic reasons. Access to financial investment or alternative modes of financing could help small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector overcome these difficulties.

Gli assetti economici neoliberisti hanno prodotto negli ultimi decenni una sempre maggiore diffusione di forme di precarizzazione che dalla sfera lavorativa si sono estese alle altre sfere di vita delle persone. Il volume prende in analisi questo fenomeno per mettere a disposizione di studiosi e studenti una serie di riflessioni maturate nel corso degli anni insieme a esperti del settore, con l’obiettivo di stimolare il dibattito sui temi legati ai processi di precarizzazione e alle nuove disuguaglianze.

One way to make food sector more sustainable is to orient consumers towards di-ets that respect people, the planet, and society. According to recent research stud-ies, consumers have started to evaluate food products based on sustainable claims given on the packaging, but no study has focused on food products obtained through vending machines. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse which types of sustainable claims, if any, food products sold at vending machines show on their packaging. A content analysis was performed to this end, focusing on four locations within a town in northeast Italy. The results obtained from the analysis of 171 food products highlighted that, in general, products sold at vending ma-chines heavily lack textual and graphical information on sustainability.

Il volume affronta due aspetti cruciali nella definizione dell’identità dell’Unione europea, così come nella costruzione di una sfera pubblica e di un assetto istituzionale che riduca il deficit democratico all’interno di essa: le riforme istituzionali e il ruolo internazionale dell’Unione. Partendo dall’analisi delle posizioni assunte da gruppi parlamentari e da singoli deputati rispetto alle tematiche di natura istituzionale, il testo ricostruisce il dibattito parlamentare, la coesione dei gruppi e le dinamiche delle relazioni tra il Parlamento, da un lato, e le altre istituzioni dell’UE e i governi nazionali, dall’altro.

This study investigates the preferences of Italian home-owners when choosing to buy wood for home heating systems. The focus is on understanding the influence of different dimensions of sustainability on consumer choices. For this purpose, we designed a survey including a discrete choice experiment and administered it to residents in Italy. Our findings reveal that, on average, respondents pay particular attention to wood cultivation systems. However, forest property regime was considered second in terms of importance after wood price. Further analysis found that our sample presents four clusters of wood consumers. These findings showed considerable heterogeneity among respondents, the majority of whom considered important wood cultivation practices and appreciated forest landscape beauties for their decision. Local origin of wood was considered important by the majority of respondents, even if, surprisingly, a group of interviewees preferred foreign wood. To achieve better results and effectiveness in improving sustainable practices of the domestic heating systems, a combination of policies should be used simultaneously. Our results support the hypothesis that policymakers could achieve better results in terms of sustainability by applying a combined policy that levers the importance citizens accord to the different characteristics of wood in home heating systems.

The presence of counterfeit food appears to be rising and has not been opposed by close cooperation between producers, governments, or consumers organizations concerned with trade, health, and counterfeiting. The aim of this study is to identify and classify the relationships between the purchase of counterfeit food and the consumers’ characteristics in order to provide public and private decision makers a support in deciding strategies to counteract this problem. To reach this objective a survey was carried out in Italy during 2014-2016 with a sample of 405 consumers. A multiple correspondence analysis has been carried out. The preliminary findings point out the presence of different groups of consumers illustrating heterogeneous behaviors toward counterfeit food. In addition, the results point out that the purchase of counterfeit food seems to be linked to lower income and a lack of information. Due to negative public effects of this phenomenon, it seems to be necessary to prevent dishonest trading and counterfeit food productions encouraging cooperative approaches to provide consumers with sufficient information to improve their awareness.

This book contains the proceedings of the LIV Conference SIDEA and the XXV Convention SIEA, with the formula of a joint Conference titled “Cooperative strategies and value creation in sustainable food supply chain”. Cooperation in all its forms represents a valuable paradigm to define new horizons of development and build new organizational models of value creation according to a sustainable approach not referred to a single unit, but to the entire supply chain. The thematic areas have allowed us to investigate the issue in all its aspects, starting from the analysis of the main production and consumption models, up to organizational models, forms of territorial, sectoral and environmental cooperation, and policies with which to add value to the supply chain.

This paper represents the first attempt to simulate the introduction of an incentive-based environmental tax to the hydropower sector. As hydropower can negatively affect fluvial ecosystems, the paper shows how to design and determine per unit tax values for a taxation system that would then be able to provide producers with incentives to opt for more environmentally friendly solutions. The simulation is carried out in the Province of Sondrio (home to 20% of the Italian hydropower production). First, the paper determines the monetary value of the fluvial ecosystem by means of a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE); then, it compares the models estimated in WTP and preference spaces in order to opt for the most effective punctual values to be used as inputs in a newly designed incentive-based environmental tax; finally, it simulates the effects of the introduction of such a tax to a real case. According to our results, the magnitude of the environmental tax is such that it would certainly stimulate environmentally friendly production, without hindering operators’ profitability.

The increasing unavailability of public financing leads decision-makers to cut funds for protected areas without considering the ensuing environmental, economic and social impacts. The research investigated what and how much value the Miramare Natural Marine Reserve (Italy) was able to create from public funds. The environmental accounting approach was adopted, and environmental costs and benefits taken into account. Environmental benefits assessed ecosystem services such as gas regulation, nutrient cycling, biological control, food production, nursery, raw materials, recreation and science. The model demonstrated that the value produced by the Protected Area fully covered the money spent by public authorities by a rate of 2.5.

Organic cosmetics represent an interesting case study of the links between sustainability and the agricultural system beyond food production. Organic agriculture is rapidly growing not only as a segment of the food industry but also as a producer of ecosystem services, and row materials for, among the others, the cosmetic industry. This growth is mainly due to the development of an important trend of environmental consciousness among costumers. This study presents an application of choice experiments to analyze the preferences of costumers between organic and conventional cosmetic products. Our results pointed out that environmental consciousness, especially among young people, was one of the main drivers in determining their purchase behavior toward organic cosmetics. Moreover, the results shown respondents were willing to pay a premium price also for cosmetic products that respect animal welfare.

La protezione del paesaggio è stata per lungo tempo affidata alla Pubblica Amministrazione, che per lo svolgimento di questo compito si è avvalsa degli strumenti vincolistici. Questi ultimi, però, si sono dimostrati incapaci di far fronte alle conseguenze negative derivanti dall’abbandono dei terreni. Questa constatazione ed il declino delle risorse finanziarie stanziate a favore della protezione delle risorse paesaggistico-ambientali hanno favorito l’affermarsi di strumenti alternativi, quali gli strumenti economici per la tutela delle risorse paesaggistico-ambientali, che prevedono un ruolo preponderante degli attori privati. In base agli studi sulla valutazione monetaria e non monetaria dei beni paesaggistico- ambientali condotti negli ultimi anni, che hanno consentito, da un lato, di individuare le caratteristiche che rendono attraente un paesaggio, e, dall’altro lato, di identificare la disponibilità a pagare per fruire di un servizio paesaggistico-ambientale, l’articolo descrive le possibilità di creazione di un mercato per i servizi derivanti dalla protezione del paesaggio. Viene approfondito, in particolare, il caso dei Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), strumenti economici utilizzati a favore della conservazione/ valorizzazione dei servizi forniti dalle risorse paesaggistico-ambientali. Dopo una sintetica analisi di questa strumentazione, l’articolo si sofferma sulle prospettive di sviluppo in Italia di specifiche categorie di PES, che hanno per oggetto alcune risorse paesaggistico- ambientali preferite dagli utenti.