Are Geographical Indication Products Fostering Public Goods? Some Evidence from Europe

Abstract

Within the framework of multifunctional conceptualisation, the authors have investigated the level of public goods embedded in Agri-food geographical indication products. Moving from the concept of the local Agri-food system, the generation of public goods are observed both on the value chain and on the territory. Three different dimensions of public goods are considered: Cultural heritage issues, socio-economic themes, and natural resources. To pursue this aim, the FAO-SAFA method is adopted. A single index for the three dimensions is computed in order to provide an easy and quick interpretation of the three dimensions. Preliminary empirical evidence on two cases studies suggests different public goods levels embedded in geographical indications, depending on the dimensions analysed. The method proposed aims to be a simple and effective tool to support good practice for policy makers and indicate fields for intervention where indexes show that improvements could be made.

Sustainability, Innovation and Rural Development: The Case of Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO

“…The SAFA indicators aims to describe the economic, social, governance-related, and environmental features of the agricultural and food systems, with a list of over 100 indicators computed on a self-assessment basis. The SAFA indicators concern 21 themes and 58 sub-themes covering the four above-mentioned dimensions [18]. The S2F project used 23 indicators representing the contribution to sustainable development in the environmental, social and economic dimensions of different food systems [19].…”

“…Moreover, when agri-food systems generate public goods, all the sustainable dimensions of the LAFS become part of the territorial asset [10,18] since the quality of food is closely linked to the quality of both the environment and social relationships among actors. Hence, the LAFS becomes a suitable dimension for interpreting economic changes and strategies within a rural community of citizens and entrepreneurs involved in a process of cumulative knowledge.…”

Quality Labels as Drivers of Peri-Urban Livestock Systems Resilience

“…This result is interesting for the LAFS literature, since it provides new insights about how farmers with different production strategies can operate in the framework of the same label and coordinate their actions. In other words, following the LAFS approach, the project has made it possible to further territorialize the agricultural production according to the specific production conditions of farmers [36,59]. While several scholars [43,44] have observed the risk of LAFS literature to simplify the inherent complexity of place, assigning the same production capacity to a farming system operating in different places, this study sustains a possible way to integrate different places of production, such as peri-urban and rural areas.…”

“…When participating in a product specification all these actors need to adhere to rules and coordinate themselves to ensure the economic reliability of the system. This is especially sustained by the literature that studies the Localized Agro-Food System (LAFS) [35,36].…”

Sustainability, Innovation and Rural Development: The Case of Parmigiano-Reggiano Pdo

“…Moreover, when agri-food systems generate public goods, all the sustainable dimensions of LAFS become part of the territorial asset [16], [17] since the quality of food is closely linked to quality of the environment and the quality of social relationship among actors. Hence, the LAFS becomes a suitable dimension for interpreting economic changes and strategies within a rural community of citizens and entrepreneurs involved in a process of cumulative knowledge, where economic actors specialize in the production of certain types of goods (or services), which satisfy the needs (or desires) of citizens and consumers inside and outside the local area, with such logic of sustainable development.…”