Local economies and consumer participation: the organic food fairs

New consumption habits stand out against the idea of a rational consumer, which is aimed at maximizing utility according to budget constraint. Presently, people have the tendency to behave differently according to various purchase opportunities; a significant role is played by both ethical sides and selfless motivations. These new trends fall within the context of a new social paradigm that foresees postmodern society’s rise. Consumers have the tendency to use the market as an arena in which political, ethical and environmental issues may arise, starting a new trend of an alternative consumption called “political consumerism”. In this paper we’ll try to understand how new consumption habits mirror features of postmodern society, starting with research work on specialized fairs of organic food in Sicily

Reaping the benefits of microorganisms in cropping systems: Is the regulatory policy adequate?

Within food plant cropping systems, microorganisms provide vital functions and ecosystem services, such as biological pest and disease control, promotion of plant growth and crop quality, and biodegradation of organic matter and pollutants. The beneficial effects of microorganisms can be achieved and/or enhanced by agricultural management measures that target the resident microbial biodiversity or by augmentation with domesticated and propagated microbial strains. This study presents a critical review of the current legislation and regulatory policies pertaining to the utilization of plant-beneficial microorganisms in the European Union (EU). For augmentative approaches, the nature of the intended effect and the product claim determine how a microbiological product is categorized and regulated, and pre-market authorization may be mandatory. Typically, microbial products have been incorporated into frameworks that were designed for evaluating non-living substances, and are therefore not well suited to the specific properties of live microorganisms. We suggest that regulatory harmonization across the sector could stimulate technical development and facilitate implementation of crop management methods employing microorganisms. Possible scenarios for regulatory reform in the longer term are discussed, but more investigation into their feasibility is needed. The findings of this study should serve as a catalyst for more efficient future use of plant-beneficial microorganisms, to the benefit of agriculture as well as the environment

Measuring consumer effort in circular economy initiatives in the food domain: An exploratory analysis

: The transition towards a Circular Economy (CE) system requires a change in consumers' behavioural pattern that implies a certain level of effort which, in turn, could affect initiatives' success. Although consumers' role in CE is increasingly drawing the attention of scholars, limited knowledge is available on the evaluation of consumer's effort in CE initiatives. The current research provides an identification and measurement of the core parameters affecting consumer effort, offering a comprehensive Effort Index applied to 20 CE companies operating in food domain. Companies were classified in 5 categories (Quantity of food, Appearance of food, Edibility of food, Living with food and Local and sustainable food); the analysis of the companies revealed 14 parameters building the Effort Index. Results showed that initiatives ascribable to the category "Local and sustainable food" require higher levels of consumer effort; in contrast, case studies belonging to "Edibility of food" group are less effort-requiring

Bioenergy chain building: a collective action perspective

Depletion of natural resources has become a key issue on the European policy agenda. Bottom-up measures have emerged in several countries with a view to promoting awareness campaigns and environmental sustainability, with the agenda set by individuals who start up collective initiatives at the local level. Such collective action provides an incentive to free-ride on the contribution of others. Social norms and the consequent behavior of individuals involved in collective action assume a key role in ensuring sustainable use of a public good, achieving significant, long-lasting success. The present study aims to ascertain which determinants most affect farmers’ willingness to contribute to common resources. The empirical study was conducted in an area in the province of Avellino (southern Italy) most affected by soil erosion problems. The study focused on the willingness of farmers to contribute to the public good through biomass production (Giant Cane). In all, 175 face-to-face questionnaires were administered to farmers in September-November 2013. Schwartz’s norm-activation model variables were collected. A Tobit model was implemented in which the dependent variable was the land farmers stated they were willing to cultivate with Giant Cane. Four on five psychological constructs, based on the NAM, proved statistically significant with the expected sign, showing that an altruistic behavioral approach is useful to predict the individual’s decision to adopt cooperation norms

Bioenergy chain building: a collective action perspective

Depletion of natural resources has become a key issue on the European policy agenda. Bottom-up measures have emerged in several countries with a view to promoting awareness campaigns and environmental sustainability, with the agenda set by individuals who start up collective initiatives at the local level. Such collective action provides an incentive to free-ride on the contribution of others. Social norms and the consequent behavior of individuals involved in collective action assume a key role in ensuring sustainable use of a public good, achieving significant, long-lasting success. The present study aims to ascertain which determinants most affect farmers’ willingness to contribute to common resources. The empirical study was conducted in an area in the province of Avellino (southern Italy) most affected by soil erosion problems. The study focused on the willingness of farmers to contribute to the public good through biomass production (Giant Cane). In all, 175 face-to-face questionnaires were administered to farmers in September-November 2013. Schwartz’s norm-activation model variables were collected. A Tobit model was implemented in which the dependent variable was the land farmers stated they were willing to cultivate with Giant Cane. Four on five psychological constructs, based on the NAM, proved statistically significant with the expected sign, showing that an altruistic behavioral approach is useful to predict the individual’s decision to adopt cooperation norms

Triggering collective action for bio-energy supply chain through contract schemes

This paper discusses contractual features to manage and coordinate a hypothetical bio-energy supply chain. The present study focuses on farmers operating in two Regions of Italy, namely Sicily and Campania, somewhat representative of areas with high potential of investments in new bioenergy supply value chain. Farmers were asked to choose whether to participate or not in a collective investment regulated by contract schemes. Monetary trade-offs were then computed among contract attributes. A specific questionnaire was submitted to a sample of farmers selected on the basis of their potential capability of investments. A stated preference modelling approach was implemented so that farmers could make a choice between alternative contracts reporting varying attribute levels. If energy-producing companies are paying attention to biofuel production aiming at a diversification of their activities, results show that farmers' participation needs to be managed through contracts that take care of investment length, warranty on investment return, and risk management

Three propositions to unify circular economy research: A review

This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordTransitioning into a circular economy (CE) has been recently proposed as an agenda for reconciling global industrial systems with natural equilibria, but the current understanding of CE is ambiguous among scholars. Informed by recent growing CE literature, this study summarizes through three key propositions a set of indisputable insights emerging from the CE debate. In particular, the paper: remarks how CE takes stock of concepts of other schools of thought to drive policy interventions; depicts CE as a systemic transition of global industrial systems; and highlights the role of eco-effectiveness to upgrade business-centered approaches to sustainability. The proposed propositions are expected to contribute to reducing ambiguities in the CE debate and to convey coherence to future research.e Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR

The Beauty of the Commons? Consumers participation in Food Community Networks

Why are consumers increasingly joining farmers to co-produce and transact sustainable foods world-wide? May these networks be a new tool to promote sustainable practices? As stated by Sandler (2010): “Longitudinal collective action environmental problems are likely to be effectively addressed only by an enormous number of individuals each making a nearly insignificant contribution to resolving them”. Consumers-farmers networks may serve this scope by inducing individual actors to change their preferences towards sustainable products. However participation in these networks is still not well understood. On one hand new institutional economics explains consumers joining farmers in creating a network as a choice of the “most cost-economizing” governance structure to carry out a transaction where credence attributes are involved (i.e. sustainable-produced foodstuff). Thus a credence food is transacted through a consumers-farmers network if this governance structure can ensure the minimization of the transaction costs. However the way different (transactional) contexts can influence the change of consumers perceptions and preferences for credence foods is still not completely addressed. On the other hand behavioral economics underlines the role of social and psychological motivations such as altruism and fairness, to describe this type of decision making process. Still a clear link between transaction costs, motivations and the choice context to describe consumers participation in these networks is not completely understood and analysed. In this paper we use both new institutional and behavioural economics arguments to conceptualize the consumers participation in this new type of governance structures, which we have defined as food community network (FCN). More specifically we have investigated an Italian fast-spreading type of FCN named Solidarity Purchase Group . GAS are associations of consumers whose behavior is characterized by a strong philosophical and ethical agreement in which the territorial, economic and social ties between the individuals involved in it, tend to evolve into networks of participative economy. The present study, which is part of a wider study financed by the Sicilian Regional Authority, analyses the GAS presence in Sicily (a region in Southern Italy), where 32 active GAS are present, representing an estimated number of 1,200 families. Although this phenomenon is still marginal and limited to recent years, it can be particularly interesting because of its rapid proliferation. Attention to this type of participative consumerism is warranted for two reasons: firstly, because of its progressive expansion into rural areas, far from the main cities where the phenomenon originated, and secondly, because of its potential impact on the sustainability of food production in this region. To evaluate the potential impact of this phenomenon in Sicily a sample of involved consumers has been interviewed. This sample included some 200 individuals (those in the household in charge of buying) belonging to the main GAS operating in Sicily. This group represents 946 consumers. More specifically a survey was developed to investigate consumers participation in this GAS. In the questionnaire three main issues have been investigated: transaction costs, motivations and social preferences (i.e. altruism and trust), and choice context features as driving factors of consumers participation. Moreover we controlled for i) attitudes towards environmental protection and nature, industrial food production, technological progress, animal welfare, food and environment; ii) consumption frequencies and type of purchased products (i.e. organic, other certified products, conventional products, environmental friendly products and not certified products); and iii) socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, including food-related lifestyle (FRL). The transaction-costs-related, motivational and choice-context-related variables have used to analyse different level of participation, comparing results from a conditional logit model with a latent-class one. Results indicate different factors affecting participation and profiles of GAS participants, which we can classify as follow: environmentalism and ecological sensitivity (1); gourmet, innovations and creativity (2); cultural patriotism and ethnocentrism (3); animal welfarism (4); cost and price awareness (5); belief in food traditionalism and purity of cuisine (6). Based on these results policy implications have been drawn to promote public support of GAS and food community networks both in the Italian and European contexts