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

Abstract

Sustainability is becoming a pivotal guide for driving the governance strategies of value chains. Sustainable policy should have as its objective the perpetuation of production models over time to maintain its environmental, economic and social dimensions. Therefore, measuring the sustainability of a production system is fundamental to deepening the understanding of ongoing trends, considering the pressure exerted by agricultural policies, market dynamics and innovations introduced in the production system. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic framework for assessing the sustainability of food quality schemes (FQS), including the role of both stakeholders within the value chain, and the territorial dimension. This paper discusses the use of dimensional indicators and proposes synthetic indexes to provide an overall picture of the evolution of sustainability of a specific production system. Particularly, the evolution of sustainability in the Parmigiano Reggiano Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) production system is evaluated over the period 2000-2018. It is assumed that its evolution is due to the effect of 20 years of innovations which have impacted on product quality, value chain performance and rural development, modifying the sustainability of the whole production system.

Choice Drivers for Quality-Labelled Food: A Cross-Cultural Comparison on PDO Cheese

“…The Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) PDO cheese is a hard granular cheese produced in a limited number of Northern Italian provinces with strict farming and processing rules [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The production in 2018 was 144 thousand tons with a final market value of EUR 2.44 bln, representing alone approx.…”

Resilience in Retrospective: The Trajectory of Agro-Pastoral Systems in the Centro Region of Portugal

“…Another important trend in Serra da Estrela is the exclusion of local communities from the system dynamics, in the sense that the new vision is based on quantity, standardization, semi-industrialization and export to other regions in the country and in the world, where consumers are willing to pay high prices for quality food. As showed by [79], regarding the case of Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO, the effect of innovations and market evolution in the structure of the production systems and the territory is not neutral, since the value chain is embedded in the territory and, therefore, the sustainability of the value chain affects the sustainability of the territory and vice versa. In Serra da Estrela, like in other places [55], one of the consequences of market expansion has been that businesses have become less integrated with the local economy, the social community and the territory.…”

“…In Switzerland, for instance, many people are leaving mountain agriculture as the constraints of farming to the needs of the state increase and small-scale holdings are unable to successfully exploit the new politicaleconomy settings [78]. The same tendency is showed by [79] regarding the Italian Emilia Romagna Region.…”

Trust and Food Quality in the Valorisation of Geographical Indication Initiatives

“…GIs have become one of the most used tools for initiatives to valorise products with a delimited geographical origin [4,14]. The existing variety of certified quality seals are important public policy instruments at the European level, particularly Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) and Protected Denominations of Origin (PDO) [2,15]. However, in other latitudes, valorisation initiatives can be guided by different logic depending on the context, categories, and sort of actors involved [16,17].…”

“…It involves spatial concentration of a diffused entrepreneurial and institutional mesh of agricultural farms, agri-food industries, marketing companies, auxiliary industries and service enterprises to farmers and food firms, sectoral institutions and local development agencies, all located in one single territory and presenting a relatively high degree of spatial specialisation of production" [1]. LAS is also related to value chains and non-territorialised actors [2], which influence the dynamics of origin products. In this paper we will not develop a theoretical-conceptual discussion on LAS, we use this term for its conceptual contribution that differentiates our case studies and by its relation to initiatives for the valorisation of GIs.…”