Understanding the use of emerging technologies in the agrifood industry: a case study

The research aim is to understand how emerging technologies, and in particular the blockchain, affect business organization in the agrifood industry. In particular, it explores how decentration, distribution and digitalization ledged could be integrated in the precision agriculture in order to allow organizations to share information with stakeholder, to improve relationship with customers, and to develop a network with other firms. After, reviewing the IS literature on emerging technologies in agri-food industry, with peculiar reference to the blockchain technology for precision agriculture, it is analyzed the case of BioLu, a small innovative Italian farm located in Campa- nia Region. Our results shown how emerging technologies support precision ag- riculture through data collection and exploitation for entrepreneur (e.g., decision- making) and consumers (e.g., food traceability), rather than agrifood supply chain

Influence of Wind Turbines on Farmlands’ Value: Exploring the Behaviour of a Rural Community through the Decision Tree

The relationship between wind energy and rural areas leads to the controversial debate on the effects declared by rural communities after wind farms or single turbines are operative. The literature on this topic lacks dedicated studies analysing how the behaviour of rural communities towards wind turbines can affect the market value of farmlands. This research aims to examine to the extent to which the easement of wind turbines can influence the market value of farmlands in terms of willingness to pay (WTP) by a small rural community, and to identify the main factors affecting the WTP. Starting from data collected via face-to-face interviews, a decision tree is then applied to investigate the WTP for seven types of farmland in a rural town of Puglia Region (Southern Italy) hosting a wind farm. Results of the interviews show a broad acceptance of the wind farm, while the decision tree classification shows a significant reduction of WTP for all farmlands. The main factors influencing the WTP are the education level, the possibility to increase the income, the concerns for impacts on human health and for maintenance workmen. National and local policy measures have to be put in place to inform rural communities about the ‘magnitude’ of the effects they identified as crucial, so that policy-makers and private bodies will contribute to make the farmland market more equitable

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL FEASIBILITY OF SEABASS FRY PRODUCTION ACCORDING TO ORGANIC TECHNIQUES

Over the past few years, consumers have been increasing their awareness about environmental, health and safety concerns and they have been gradually changing their habits in favor of organic food. In aquaculture sector, the most recent legislative framework regarding the organic production in Europe is the Commission Regulation (EC) 710/2009, where chapter for aquaculture animals include requirement for animal welfare conditions in husbandry and maximum stocking densities. In Italy, only ten farms are involved in the supply of certified organic fish and only some pilot projects were carried out for organic farming of different species. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to define or verify the principal standards for organic seabass farming, evaluating technical feasibility and production costs, comparing them with conventional production. This study contains the first considerations about organic production and its relative costs for sea bass fry, one of the most reared species of the country. Conversion to organic production naturally involves additional costs concerning the conversion process itself, the production of a new type of product and the lower output. In fact, results have shown that certification and feed costs represented the most significant difference between conventional and organic production. Finally, the current market situation is characterized by a low demand, an inadequately product differentiation from conventional (domestic or foreign) ones, a legislation still in progress, an unstructured and lower offer of organic products which does not allow to consider organic aquaculture as an activity that today can assure adequate profitability for the most part of Italian aquaculture firms

Efficacia degli indicatori di valutazione delle politiche. Un’analisi delle misure previste per la forestazione nel PSR 2007-’13 della Regione Puglia

In the latest Apulian programs for rural development a newer attention was put on forestry sector, in order to better hinder the global changes due to the peculiar sectorial ability. Three different instruments has been set to improve the forest value, to increase the forestry land and to boost the multifunctional rule of forestry. Aim of this work is to stress the difference between the proposed indicators in regional programs and some other characterized by a different level of realization, understanding, reliability and communication

Individual Differences, Economic Stability, and Fear of Contagion as Risk Factors for PTSD Symptoms in the COVID-19 Emergency

On January 30th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Italy has been one of the most affected countries in the world. To contain further spread of the virus, the Italian government has imposed an unprecedented long-period lockdown for the entire country. This dramatic scenario may have caused a strong psychological distress, with potential negative long-term mental health consequences. The aim of the present study is to report the prevalence of high psychological distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the general population, especially considering that this aspect is consistently associated with PTSD symptoms. Furthermore, the present study aims to identify the risk factors for high PTSD symptoms, including individual differences and subjective perception of both economic and psychological aspects. We administered an online survey to 1253 participants during the peak period of the contagion in Italy. A logistic regression on the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) scores was used to test the risk factors that predict the possibility to develop PTSD symptoms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gender (female), lower perceived economic stability, higher neuroticism, and fear and consequences of contagion were predictors of high PTSD symptomatology. The results, highlighted in the present study, extend our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the population’s mental health, by identifying individuals at high-risk of developing PTSD. This may help with the implementation of specific protocols to prevent the possibility of developing symptoms of PTSD in target populations

La sostenibilità ambientale del biologico. Un' analisi LCA di differenti stili alimentari.Crea-INEA

UNA ANALISI LCA DI DIFFERENTI STILI ALIMENTAR