The short food supply chains’ phenomenon: a multidisciplinary approach to explore consumer behaviour and preferences

L’odierna sfiducia dei consumatori verso i sistemi agroalimentari industriali e la loro crescente riflessività o “quality turn”, hanno portato negli ultimi anni allo sviluppo delle filiere corte (FC), in alternativa ai mercati convenzionali. Le FC hanno la capacità di aumentare la sostenibilità dei sistemi convenzionali in termini sia di equità socio-economica sia di sviluppo ambientale e locale, incontrando le abitudini e le motivazioni di acquisto del consumatore post-moderno, le quali sono per definizione molto eterogenee. Viepiù, la nuova Politica Agricola Comunitaria 2014-2020 incoraggia oggi la promozione delle FC, attraverso specifici supporti finanziari previsti all’interno del secondo pilastro, al fine di favorire uno sviluppo sostenibile. Questa ricerca indaga, attraverso un approccio multidisciplinare, le preferenze e il comportamento del consumatore verso l’acquisto in questi canali di vendita alternativi. Sulla base di alcuni risultati preliminari di natura qualitativa, tale ricerca esplora più in dettaglio determinati fattori che influenzano il comportamento del consumatore (sostenibilità, fiducia, equità). L’obiettivo più ampio è quello di fornire nuova conoscenza sulle FC, focalizzando l’attenzione in particolar modo all’Italia, al fine di spiegarne il crescente appeal sul consumatore e il continuo sviluppo. Questa ricerca passa da un approccio socio-psicologico (Teoria del Comportamento Pianificato) alla teoria economia, applicando la tecnica dell’esperimento di scelta basato su un mercato ipotetico e relativo ai mercati dei contadini. È stato svolto anche un confronto tra Italia e Brasile e Italia e Germania. I risultati mostrano l’importante ruolo della sostenibilità e della fiducia nell’influenzare gli acquisti alimentari presso le FC, cosi come una rinnovata enfasi su alcuni fattori legati al marketing tradizionale (contatto diretto con il produttore) e la possibilità per i consumatori di contribuire al reddito degli agricoltori.In recent years, the erosion of consumers’ confidence in industrialized agro-food systems and their increasing reflexivity known as “quality turn” have led to the promotion of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) as opposite to conventional markets. SFSCs have the potential to enhance the sustainability of conventional food systems in terms of socio-economic equity and environmental and local development, addressing post-modern consumer’s habits and purchasing motivations that are extremely heterogeneous in natures. In addition, the renewed EU Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020 encourages the promotion of SFSCs for the first time through a specific financial support within its II pillar, providing a publicly funded stimulus for sustainable development. This research aims at contributing to the growing literature on SFSCs, investigating consumer preferences and behavior towards purchasing food in such alternative schemes through a multidisciplinary approach. Based on some preliminary qualitative findings, this research explores the importance of some major drivers in influencing consumers’ preferences and purchasing behavior (i.e., sustainability, trust, fairness) more in depth. The broader objective is to provide new knowledge around SFSCs’ growing appeal among consumers, focusing especially on Italy, to explain their recent increasing in number. From a socio-psychological approach, i.e. the Theory of Planned Behavior, the research turns to economic theory with a choice experiment (CE) based on an hypothetical market situation and focusing on farmers’ markets. Italian consumers have been also compared with Brazilian and German consumers. Generally speaking, findings show the important role of sustainability and trust in influencing food purchases at SFSCs, as well as consumers’ renewed emphasis on both some traditional marketing patterns (i.e., face-to-face interactions with the producer) and the possibility to contribute to farmers’ income

Toward the implementation of the income stabilization tool: An analysis of factors affecting the probability of farm income losses in Italy

Over the last years, EU agricultural farms suffered an increased sensitivity to market fluctuations in terms of both production flows and incomes, due especially to climate change and market globalisation. In addition to previous instruments as insurances and mutual funds, the new reform of European Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020 proposes a new instrument, namely the Income Stabilisation Tool (IST), in order to specifically support farmers' severe income drops. This study aims at contributing to the lively debate on risk management linked to the implementation of the IST by estimating the probability of income loss in relation to farm attributes in Italy

Exploring the Interplay of Risk Attitude and Organic Food Consumption

This exploratory study seeks to advance the research on consumers’ preference for organic food eating by investigating the potential association between organic food consumption (OC) frequency and the individual risk attitude. Moreover, inspired by the literature, we investigate also the association between OC and the perceived OC related health improvement (i.e. the avoidance of health risks), subjective trust toward the certification, social norms and several lifestyle factors. Based on a direct survey of 223 Italian college students, a lottery task was used to characterize the individual risk attitude and a simultaneous equation model was estimated. This study marks a beginning by showing a significant relationship between being risk averse and a high organic food eating, offering a hint for future research avenues in the organic domain

PAC II pilastro: prime valutazioni nella programmazione 2007-2013

Nowadays, there is no doubt that Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents the main support to rural development across the whole Italian territory. Offering the potential to learn from experience, the paper is here concerned with the quantitative evaluation of Italian regional programs under the 2007-2013 CAP’s Pillar II, considering both national and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development’s funding to Pillar II at the end of December 2013. The empirical analysis shows some relevant discrepancies in funding allocation among both rural development’s axis and measures and different regions in Italy, and also between planned and declared expenditure. This reflects a scarce efficiency of public spending and some unsatisfactory rural development’s performance

A Numerical Exposure Assessment of Portable Self-Protection, High-Range, and Broadband Electromagnetic Devices

In this paper we perform a safety assessment of portable self-protection, high-range and broadband electromagnetic devices. Such instrumentation is particularly common in military equipment, for instance in the form of back-pack systems. Our aim is to analyze the effect on human body of high-power and broadband radiating systems, especially considering their near-field operating region. Hence, differently from the typical approach in the literature, we design through a numerical electromagnetic solver a common back-pack device operating over a large bandwidth (40–2700 MHz), employing ad-hoc compact and broadband antennas. Moreover, we place close to this system a realistic body phantom model (Hugo) in order to accurately characterize the effects in terms of SAR deposition and hot-spots localization, considering the tissues dispersive properties. The results show that the SAR limits can be likely overcome by the typical power levels of these systems, thus requiring a careful safety assessment. Guidelines are provided in the manuscript in order to decrease the SAR levels by opportunely selecting the back-pack radiating elements position. This study can be helpful to serve as a reference to accomplish a complete and accurate analysis on the e.m. safety of similar devices and, further, to undertake suitable containment measures to reduce exposition

A preliminary test on risk and ambiguity attitudes, and time preferences in decisions under uncertainty: towards a better explanation of participation in crop insurance schemes

The exposure of farmers to different (and increasing) risks has been recognized by the EU policy, which supports several risk management tools through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Despite the vulnerability of the agricultural sector, and the attention paid at the EU level, the uptake of such tools is generally low across EU countries. The Italian case is emblematic: the uptake of subsidized crop insurance contracts is low, limited to few products, and concentrated in few areas. Coherently, the interest of policy makers toward explaining these characteristics and in gaining insights on the interventions that may help promoting participation is intense. This contribution investigates behavioral aspects linked to choices under risk and ambiguity, and account for time preferences in order to mimic the scenario faced by the potential adopters of the subsidized crop insurance contracts in Italy. Data are collected through questionnaires submitted to students from agricultural colleges in three administrative regions located in northern, central and southern Italy. Results show that attitude toward risk, ambiguity, and impatience are correlated with the intrinsic characteristics of respondents. In addition, some of those attitudes may help explaining decisions under uncertainty. Despite the empirical analysis is preliminary and focused on students, it allowed to validate a promising methodological approach capable of explaining farmer’s willingness to adopt (or renew) insurance contracts. By accounting for (currently under-investigated) behavioral aspects, it is likely to prove useful to re-design or implementing, more effectively, the current policies

A preliminary test on risk and ambiguity attitudes, and time preferences in decisions under uncertainty: towards a better explanation of participation in crop insurance schemes

The exposure of farmers to different (and increasing) risks has been recognized by the EU policy, which supports several risk management tools through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Despite the vulnerability of the agricultural sector, and the attention paid at the EU level, the uptake of such tools is generally low across EU countries. The Italian case is emblematic: the uptake of subsidized crop insurance contracts is low, limited to few products, and concentrated in few areas. Coherently, the interest of policy makers toward explaining these characteristics and in gaining insights on the interventions that may help promoting participation is intense. This contribution investigates behavioral aspects linked to choices under risk and ambiguity, and account for time preferences in order to mimic the scenario faced by the potential adopters of the subsidized crop insurance contracts in Italy. Data are collected through questionnaires submitted to students from agricultural colleges in three administrative regions located in northern, central and southern Italy. Results show that attitude toward risk, ambiguity, and impatience are correlated with the intrinsic characteristics of respondents. In addition, some of those attitudes may help explaining decisions under uncertainty. Despite the empirical analysis is preliminary and focused on students, it allowed to validate a promising methodological approach capable of explaining farmer’s willingness to adopt (or renew) insurance contracts. By accounting for (currently under-investigated) behavioral aspects, it is likely to prove useful to re-design or implementing, more effectively, the current policies

Comparing Italian and Brazilian consumers’ attitudes towards Short Food Supply Chains

According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, this work investigates consumers’ attitudes towards the intention to buy local food in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), carrying out a survey among university students in Italy and Brazil. Results show that sustainability and food safety mostly influence consumers’ behavior in both countries. However, the main differences emerged are related to the fact that Italian consumers recognized the SFSCs as a catalyst for new employment opportunities and local development, whereas the role of short chains on life quality and wellbeing is stressed by Brazilian ones

Consumers’ Sense of Farmers’ Markets: Tasting Sustainability or Just Purchasing Food?

Sustainable food consumption has attracted widespread attention over the last decades by scholars, policy makers and consumers. In line with this, farmers’ markets (FMs) have the potential to encourage sustainable agricultural production and consumption. By reducing the number of actors and distances along the food chain, these alternative food systems foster the reconnection between farmers and consumers and contribute to different social, economic and environmentally sustainable goals. This paper provides insights into how consumers’ sustainability concerns are related to their motivation for shopping at FMs. By means of a choice experiment, we analyze the determinants of consumers’ preferences for buying apples at FMs. We are particularly interested in understanding how attitudes towards the three sustainability dimensions are related to consumer preferences in this context. We find that consumer attitudes towards direct contact with producers, contributing to farmers’ income, and environmental benefits, can be directly related to product characteristics that are specific to FMs

Progetto e realizzazione di un'antenna miniaturizzata a banda larga per la diagnostica a microonde di eventi cerebrovascolari

L’ictus è una delle principali cause di disabilità permanente ed è la seconda causa di morte nel mondo. Le tecnologie fino ad ora utilizzate per la sua rilevazione sono la RM e la TAC, le quali però sono lente, ingombranti, costose e non trasportabili. Per questo motivo servirebbe una tecnologia che consenta di diagnosticare tale fenomeno preventivamente. Questo lavoro di tesi prevede la progettazione di un’antenna miniaturizzata per la rilevazione di eventi cerebrali da integrare in sistemi di imaging a microonde, che lavori nella banda che va da 1 GHz a circa 3 GHz, al fine di produrre immagini del cervello