NMR Tracing of Food Geographical Origin: The Impact of Seasonality, Cultivar and Production Year on Data Analysis

The traceability of typical foodstuffs is necessary to protect high quality of traditional products. It is well-known that several factors could influence metabolites content in certified foods, but soil composition, altitude, latitude and coded production protocols constitute the territorial conditions responsible for the peculiar organoleptic and nutritional properties of labelled foods. Instead, regardless of origin, seasonality, cultivar, collection year can affect all agricultural products, so it is appropriate to include them in data analysis in order to obtain a correct interpretation of the differences linked to growing areas alone. Therefore, it is useful to use a flexible all-round technique, and NMR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate statistical analysis is considered a powerful means of assessing food authenticity. The purpose of this review is to investigate the relevance of year, cultivar, and seasonal period in the determination of food geographical origin using NMR spectroscopy. The strategy for testing these three factors may differ from author to author, but a preliminary study of cultivar or collection year effects on NMR spectra is the most popular method before starting the geographical characterization of samples. In summary, based on the available literature, the most significant influence is due to cultivar, followed by harvesting year, however seasonality is not considered a source of variability in data analysis

Environmental effectiveness of the cross compliance Standard 4.6 ‘Minimum livestock stocking rates and/or appropriate regimens’

The paper presents the main results of the monitoring on the effectiveness of the cross compliance Standard 4.6 ‘Minimum livestock stocking rates and/or appropriate regimes’ carried out in two case studies within the project MO.NA.CO: sheep grazing in medium-rich pastures in southern Apennines and in the plain of Sardinia, Italy. The monitoring involved aspects related to soil, flora, livestock and economics (competitiveness differential). The study showed, although in the short term, that the minimum stocking rate 0.2 LU/ha/year was not effective and, conversely, the effectiveness of the maximum level of stocking rate (4 LU/ha) for the maintenance of the habitat. The generalization in applying minimum and maximum rate, not taking into account the climatic conditions, forage resources or farming system (including the species of grazing animal) may lead to a serious nullification of the conditions of the Standard. The authors recommend to identify homogeneous areas and eligible specific stocking rates from all Italian regions, also considering the animal species

Environmental effectiveness of GAEC cross-compliance Standard 4.1 (b, c) ‘Protection of permanent pasture land’ and economic evaluation of the competitiveness gap for farmers

The paper presents the main results of the monitoring on the effectiveness of the cross-compliance Standard 4.1 ‘Permanent pasture protection: lett. b, c’ carried out in two case studies within the project MO.NA.CO. Soil, botanical, productive and economic (competitiveness gap) parameters have been monitored. In the short term, the Standard 4.1 showed its effectiveness on soil quality, biomass productivity and competitiveness gap in both case studies. Botanical parameters showed differing results, therefore their generalization is not applicable to the heterogeneity of the pasture land Italian system. Shallow soil tillage could be suggested, every 40-50 years, when an appropriate soil organic matter content and the absence of runoff phenomena occur

Environmental effectiveness of GAEC cross-compliance standard 2.2 "Maintaining the level of soil organic matter through crop rotation" and economic evaluation of the competitiveness gap for farmers

Within the Project MO.NA.CO was evaluated the Environmental effectiveness of GAEC cross-compliance standard 2.2 “Maintaining the level of soil organic matter through crop rotation” and economic evaluation of the competitiveness gap for farmers who support or not the cross-compliance regime. The monitoring was performed in nine experimental farms of the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) distributed throughout Italy and with different soil and climatic conditions. Were also evaluated the soil organic matter and some yield parameters, in a cereal monocropping (treatment counterfactual) and a two-year rotation cereal-legume or forage (treatment factual). The two-years application of the standard “crop rotations” has produced contrasting results with regards to the storage of soil organic matter through crop rotation and these were not sufficient to demonstrate a statistically significant effect of treatment in any of the farms considered in monitoring, only in those farms subjected to more years of monitoring was recorded only a slight effect of the standard as a trend. The variations of organic matter in soils in response to changes in the culture technique or in the management of the soil may have long lag times and two years of time are not sufficient to demonstrate the dynamics of SOM associated with the treatment, also in consideration of the large inter annual variability recorded in different monitored sites