The school meal system: analysis of calls for tender as a tool for improving quality

The quality of school meals is a very complex issue. Call for tenders are a key instrument impacting food and meal quality

The footprint of organic farms. Some ecological indicators to evaluate it Department of Food crops – State University of Milan

Agro-ecological indicators are a tool which provides an agile evaluation of the ecological footprint of a farm. This paper analyses the preliminary results of a survey in which 7 agro-ecological indicators were calculated for 81 organic farms in the region of Lombardy in the northern part of Italy. The indicators chosen (all indicators of State) are: hedges and rows, energy input, energy output, energy output/input ratio, N balance, P2O5 balance, works unit per hectare. The preliminary results suggest that these indicators allow to discriminate between different farms on the basis of the productive orientation (cropping classes). In perspective, the use of indicators may enable farmers to improve the management of their farm, evaluating the ecological footprint in order to reduce it gradually

Organising supply chains of organic products for Italian school meals - The case of the province and of the city of Piacenza

The paper is part of the proceedings of an iPOPY seminar. The authors describe, how supply chains of organic school food might be organised in a sustainable way in order to serve high quality food to pupils. They present a best practice case of controlled food chains (filiera controllata) from Italy, the European champion of organic school food. From the province and the city of Piacenza in the region of Emilia-Romagna, we can learn a lot about a short and certified organic food-chain, a wide range of regional and organic products provided through a shared logistic organisation among local partners, and specific tender procedures

School catering supply chains: study on 5 cases

This study presents accurate data on the school catering systems of five different municipalities which decided to invest on service quality and sustainable development. The aim is to provide a compendium to be considered by other local authorities and then used as an educational tool for drafting new templates for tender specifications. Regional laws as drivers for promoting organic consumption in school canteens and waste reduction through self service systems are two examples of interesting models for sustainable school food catering. This work does not present a unique best practice model but constellations of reference models for each different situation: in such way each municipality can consult the most fit case study and search the best solution according to specific variables

Main constraints in developing public organic procurement

The present study investigates how to increase and improve school catering supply chains, to understand hindering factors and their perception in order to reveal drivers and constraints for POP. These include policy implementation instruments, changed values and attitudes, healthy nutrition policies, supply chain bottle necks, premium prices (to producers), successful procurement strategies and certification procedures. This work is based on a two-step survey concerning the Italian school food service system. Initially questionnaires were submitted to a qualified group of 50 producers and 50 caterers (managers of national and international companies of food service for school, local administrators who manage food services for the schools). The results of the questionnaires have subsequently been the basis to plan in-depth interviews with few decision makers who could represent both caterers and producers. The aim of this second step being to view how identified problems could be solved. The results show how the understanding and the acceptance of the organic food concept among the catering staff is crucial for the degree of success in each step of public organic procurement. The introduction of organic food in serving outlets needs appropriate support (such as qualification of key actors and a specific financial support). Other key aspects in this regard are laws and regulations promoting the procurement of quality food, policy interventions tackling more than one aspect of the problem, education programs, calls for tenders, negotiated procurement contracts and quality standards

Agroecologia per nuovi paradigmi distrettuali integrati

Agroecology is a new sphere of thought and action embracing multiple dimensions: some scholars present it as a new science, others as crucible of experiences in motion, others as an integrated whole of knowledge and practices based on a new approach, required for transforming agro-food systems in the direction of sustainability and equity. Agroecology is all that and, for this reason, it can assume the structure and function of a new paradigm, rooted in systemic sciences and deploying them departing from production and consumption models. As such, agroecology lays the theoretical and practical foundation for entirely subverting the reductionist approach that produced the so called green revolution, started in North America in the middle of last century and still present in many spheres of our everyday acting and thinking. The characteristics of agroecology can sustain the desirable evolution of new concepts and the future developments of districts, which could shift from sector to multi-sector, taking on the role of drivers for the cultural, landscape and socioeconomic development of territories. In this framework, it is worth recalling some information related to: 1) features, processes, effects of the green revolution in Italy; 2) the new paradigm of agroecology; 3) guidelines for the development of the forthcoming multi-sector and integrated territorial districts

Ritorno alla terra fertile

Nei decenni della modernizzazione e della ricomposizione fondiaria, l’agricoltura italiana ha subito perdite evidenti e danni meno apparenti, ma altrettanto gravi. Ha perso superficie agricola utilizzata (SAU) passando da 17.500.000 ha nel 1970 a circa 13.000.000 ha nel 2010; le aziende agricole si sono contratte da 4.300.000 del 1960 alle attuali 1.600.000 erodendo in tal modo il carattere peculiare di attività diffusa; ha perso o frammentato i sistemi interni di siepi/filari, ha perso una fetta consistente di agro-biodiversità, si è ridotta o atrofizzata la preziosa eredità di saperi agronomici endogeni e le strategie locali di adattamento ai luoghi, l’arte rurale della località. La finestra che possiamo aprire su un futuro sostenibile dovrebbe ruotare su almeno due cardini: il primo riguarda la necessità di uscire dalla prospettiva strettamente economicista che lega il benessere solo ai nostri livelli di reddito e di consumo; il secondo richiama l’esigenza di promuovere una qualità diffusa del vivere e non riservata ad alcuni o circoscritta ad alcune isole felici di territorio. Si passa, in questo modo, dal promuovere o spingere tecnologie a creare opportunità attraverso lo sviluppo istituzionale (questo significa applicare uno schema d’integrazione di aspetti tecnici, organizzativo-istituzionali, politici) e attraverso l’attivazione di reti e di progetti territoriali. Il ritorno alla terra fertile vedrà quindi la nascita di nuove identità, di scelte responsabili e valori condivisi, nuove e precise politiche, progettualità che considereranno i diversi ambiti territoriali ove nasceranno nuove professioni.In the decades of modernisation and land consolidation, Italian agriculture has suffered evident losses and damages less apparent, but equally serious. It lost utilized agricultural area (UAA), going from 17.5 million ha. in 1970 to about 13 million ha. in 2010; farms shrank from 4,300,000 in 1960 to the current 1.6 million, thus eroding the peculiar character of widespread activity; lost or fragmented the internal systems of hedges/rows, lost a large chunk of agro-biodiversity, whilst the precious inheritance of agronomic endogenous knowledge and strategies to adapt to local places, rural art of locality, decreased or atrophied. The window we can open on a sustainable future should turn around two hinges at least: the first concerns the need to get out of the strictly economic perspective that connects welfare only to our levels of income and consumption, the second refers to the need to promote a quality of life really widespread and not reserved for few or confined to some happy islands of territory. This way, we switch from promoting or pushing technologies to create opportunities through an institutional development (this means to apply a scheme of integration for technical, organisational/institutional, political aspects) and through the activation of territorial networks and projects. The return to the fertile land will then see the emergence of new identities, responsible choices and shared values , new and specific policies, projects able to consider the different territorial areas where new jobs will be born

Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Italy

Political organisation and policies about school catering and public organic procurement in Italy. The report is produced within the project ―innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth‖, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

Politiche di sviluppo place-based e distrettualità in agricoltura. Il caso lombardo

The Local Agro-food Systems (LAS), defined as systems alternative to the global food model, are based on the organization, management, optimization of the complex relationships among agricultural production, transformation, distribution and consumption in a Region, represent an efficient leverage for real innovative place based policies. The developing process occurring around the Milan metropolitan area, including many farmers, local authorities, citizens, local boards, is activating new innovation dynamics for the entire area.I Sistemi Agro-alimentari Locali (SAL), processi che si sviluppano nei territori su modello alternativo a quello agro-alimentare globalizzato, si fondano sulla costituzione, gestione e ottimizzazione dei complessi rapporti fra produzione agricola, trasformazione, distribuzione e consumo in una determinata area geografica; essi rappresentano un efficace cardine per le future politiche place-based. Viene presentato l’attuale quadro dinamico che si è creato intorno all’area metropolitana milanese, quadro che coinvolge numerose aziende agricole, le autorità locali, la cittadinanza, altri enti collegati attivando processi innovativi per l’intero territorio

Agro-ecology, sustainable agro-food systems, new relationships between the countryside and the city

Today agroecology is recognized as a new scientific paradigm useful to respond to the new sustainability challenges of both the agriculture and the agro-food system domains. Aims and contents of this discipline have changed over time and are still evolving today: conceptual tools and methodologies offered by agroecology may be usefully adopted within interdisciplinary studies related to sustainable production, consumption, exchange, settlement systems. In this paper we briefly review the history of agroecology and stress the role it plays nowadays in managing food systems and in particular short-distance food networks, intended as a new way the relationships between the countryside and the city performs.All’agroecologia viene oggi riconosciuto il valore di nuovo paradigma scientifico con il quale poter affrontare le sfide della sostenibilità dell’agricoltura e dei sistemi agroalimentari. Obiettivi e contenuti dell’agroecologia sono cambiati e stanno ancora rapidamente mutando: gli strumenti concettuali e i metodi offerti da questa disciplina possono essere utilmente adottati negli studi interdisciplinari relativi alla sostenibilità dei sistemi di produzione, di consumo, di mercato e di insediamento. In questo lavoro, dopo una sintetica analisi dello sviluppo storico della disciplina, se ne indica il possibile ruolo che attualmente essa può assumere nella pianificazione e gestione dei sistemi agro-alimentari moderni, con particolare riferimento alle reti locali, intese come strumenti di nuova relazione fra insediamento urbano e campagna circostante