ABSTRACT. The fast pace of urbanization is posing unprecedented challenges worldwide. Some of the major issues include: (1) Natural resources (e.g. productive land, water, forests) are diminishing, which not only affects food production but also other vital parts of human life, including overall resilience to climate change; (2) Unbalanced rural and urban development exacerbates rural to urban migration enhancing the pressure on both urban and rural areas; (3) Dietary changes comes with urbanization in part because increasing income in urban context reflects on increasing request of high-protein and natural resource-intensive food, while the urban poor relies more on processed and less nutritious foods that are more convenient and affordable. Obesity and related non-communicable diseases are rising in many cities; (4) Food safety is strongly compromised by inadequate food production and supply chains in which food co-exists with non-food activities in urban and surrounding areas; (5) Urban poor population are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in the global food market as was witnessed in the 2007-8 price shock. They are also heavily affected by natural or human disasters. On the other hand, many opportunities emerge in developing inclusive and sustainable food systems to meet the food needs of the urbanized populations and the growing cities. These opportunities lie both in the implementation and further development of key policies and technologies, and in building upon the increased understanding of trends in global food systems and their overall impacts. Improving small scale farmers’ and small and medium enterprise private sector access to urban markets through alternate or diversified distribution systems such as e-commerce can contribute to a more balanced rural and urban development. New climate-smart technologies (that allow more efficient use of energy and natural resources) afforded by, and adapted to, small scale producers may become key for ensuring equal opportunities to participate in the food systems. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, involving technologies and novel business models such as hydroponics, vertical farming, vegetable gardens in residential subdivisions, and low cost/energy greenhouses, is increasingly gaining attention globally. These opportunities can create jobs for the marginalized population in both rural and urban areas. Despite the many evident issues affecting equal access to nutritious and safe food in many cities enabling an efficient, inclusive and sustainable food system is often not taken into consideration in urban development planning. In analyzing and addressing urban food security issues there is a need for taking a holistic, rather than sectoral and fragmented, and an inclusive rather than biased approach. Some of the recommendations we could offer to municipal authorities and decision makers to take advantage of these opportunities would include, inter alia, first to identify and measure “hot spots” in food insecurity, and “missing linkages” along the food value chain so as to develop evidence based and well informed intervention strategies and measures; to understand the prevailing food systems, formal and informal, servicing the society. Such a benchmarking process will enable municipal governments and local stakeholders to discern what is needed from what is urgent for investment and lay ground for effective policy making. This process cannot be conducted by only one sector. Inclusive governance is fundamental for success, and the research community can play a vital role in understanding urban food insecurity and the complexity of today’s food systems, providing innovative ideas and well-tested findings and recommendations.

ABSTRACT. Internationally researchers and scholars are attempting to reconceptualise ways of creating agriculture, food and provisioning relations that go beyond and replace existing arrangements. The paper draws on insights from New Zealand agrifood research, to raise questions designed to open up space to create new knowledge and initiatives implied by imaginative re-conceptualisation. New Zealand, an open economy widely exposed to globalising processes, and increasingly inserted into free trade agreements, is a site where the literature and empirical realities collide, revealing surprising knowledge and cognitive gaps and invisibilities, around values-means-ends possibilities over agriculture, food and provisioning. Here, to use the language of Michael Carolan, it is hard to tune into ideas of collective or social imaginaries, nurture new moral and political projects that have breakaway potential, and foster investment and institutional experimentation to trial alternatives. Nonetheless this is a setting of re-organising and re-territorialising complexity, in agency, investment and institutions. It is also a setting that allows the luxury of a broad overview and re-assessment of constraints and opportunities in new economy making. To direct critical and constructive questions in this milieu about who is involved, why, how, and for whom, relations of agriculture, food and provisioning might be re-connected, re-aligned or seen afresh, the conference’s explicit theme, or be otherwise, the conference’s implicit intellectual invitation, is to challenge and deviate from much intellectual orthodoxy and business as usual narratives and practices. I start with brief situated vignettes that sketch instances of assembling agency, values, dynamics, organisation and territorialities. I then go on to argue that trying to think and act economy making as lines of difference, for refreshed and new purposes and principles, in and yet away from existing structural and discursive realities, requires assembling knowledge differently. This is seen as vital and integral to any new enactive endeavours. The paper concludes with a discussion about re-framings that might enable academic, policy and community research priorities to be re-thought, and new research commitments made.

ABSTRACT. This speech will address the challenges to set up new food strategies in order to give a step forward towards the recent achievements, especially those regards the scale-up of local and regional procurement policies as well as the role of consumers in shaping more sustainable food supply. An important aspect to be discussed refers to the role of the State in the regulation and governance of the food system and the role of organizations and social movements to demand more of organic foods and new sustainable consumption practices. What will be the next step, beyond the current initiatives and achievements that have been conquered? This topic will be discussed taking the Brazilian experience as background in strengthening food security strategy that obtained success in recent years by providing food from family farms for urban supply schools and disadvantaged populations.

ABSTRACT. The growing influence of global food value chains has raised concerns about the sustainability of food systems. Food production and consumption have large impacts on various sustainability issues such as climate change, water use, soil quality, biodiversity, etc. To take just one example, in an urbanizing society more and more food needs to be transported to urban centres. At the same time, urban areas are producing larger amounts of organic and sewage waste that need to be processed and transported away from cities. Until now the cycle of organic material and its constituent compounds like phosphorus and nitrogen is far from closed. The current urban food cycle is causing accumulation, environmental pollution, and depletion of resources such as phosphorus. Growing out of such concerns, vibrant food movements have developed a radical critique of global food operations. These have influenced both consumers and policy makers, who then exert pressure on actors in the food chain to address this issue. One of the strategies to challenge Global Value Chains has been the relocalisation of food systems, opposing ‘short’ with ‘long’, ‘local’ to ‘global’, and ‘different’ to ‘standard’. It is claimed, in fact, that local food systems reduce food miles, foster direct communication channels between consumers and producers, increase biological and cultural diversity, enlarge consumers freedom of choice, and re-balance the power of big players. In response, many larger food businesses have started to address the sustainability issue seriously, investing in technologies, measurement tools, certification schemes, social reporting, and so forth, to improve their sustainability performance, and to conquer ‘minds and hearts’ of consumers. At the same time, research has addressed the conceptual limits of relocalisation, raising the concern that localizing food markets may not yield greater efficiency in economic or energy terms. For example, is it more defensible to produce tomatoes in a nearby greenhouse heated with fossil fuels, or to import them from open fields in a warm climate? Is preserving and storing local products for off-season use more desirable than importing fresh products? Should “local” be defined in kilometers, or in terms of the social and commercial networks that are inherent to community-based food trade? The paper will provide a review of the papers presented in the working group 1

ABSTRACT. In the realm of a globalized food system, growing attention has been paid to re-localisation of food systems, which are claimed to be more sustainable. This is also reflected in changes that have occurred in public procurement of food in European countries. Also in Denmark the policy aiming at sustainable solutions in public procurement of food has been developed and implemented. National policies (2020 Action Plan for Organic Conversion) are suggesting all public institutions in Denmark to convert 60 per cent of their foods to organic, by the means of a state funded teaching program. New goals for sustainable public food procurement are debated as well, in which possibilities for including more local products in the public kitchens is focal point.

In this paper we discuss the process and complexities connected to development of policies enhancing sustainable public food procurement in the City of Copenhagen. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews, literature review and a case study of the school food programme “EAT”. Based on the conducted interviews with different stakeholder and analysis of the case study different challenges and possibilities for creating new sustainable solutions in the public procurement of food are discussed. The initial results of the study indicate that among various actors involved in public procurement of food, there is a growing awareness about the needs for new sustainable solutions. Special attention is paid to the possibility of including more local food products in the public diets. However, the complexities of the public food procurement set number of challenges in developing the new solutions. These may relate to the multi-level governance, communication between various stakeholders and their different needs as well as growing competition on a global food market.

Developing policies to enhance sustainable food procurement in public institutions is complex and a long lasting process. Due to the many stakeholders involved, it will demand a high level of collaboration between them. Moreover, having to include both organic and local ingredients in the procurement agreements will put additional constraint on all actors influencing the public procurement policies.

Acknowledgments: The data analysed in the article were gathered in connection to the research project “Global and Local food chain Assessment: a MUltidimensional performance-based approach” (GLAMUR), financed from EU 7th Framework Programme.

ABSTRACT. This study aims at contributing to the knowledge of Solidarity Purchasing Group organizational dimensions, a field that allows the group to carry out its activities and to achieve its outcomes, but that was only partially considered in literature (Forssell, Lankorski, 2015; Brunori et al., 2012). Beyond the food availability, health and environment outcomes associated to food are of increasing interest for the consumers. The distribution and consumption of food affects multiple dimensions of human life (Mintz and DuBois 2002), connects the production and distribution systems with the nutrition system (Sobal et al. 1998) and have impacts on the environment (Marlow et al. 2009; McMichael, 2007; Goodland, 1997; Cahrer, Coveney, 2004). Scientific advertise and public authorities encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices to improve the environment capability of provisioning services to human communities (Pretty, 2008; de Groot et al., 2002; Perrings et al., 2010). SPGs organize food provision by seeking to achieve specific objectives along these dimensions. SPGs provide their members with food in a context of direct contact with the producers, sharing ethical and sustainable approaches to the production process and resource uses (Renting et al. 2003, Goodman 2003). In this context, the objective of this study is to investigate the constitutional organizational processes setting up a group. Our analytical strategy is to focus on SPG organizational constitutional processes (Grandori, 2010) and on the role of the food practices (Warde, 2005; Giddens, 1990) hold in these processes. The organizational constitutional processes establish the group and allow it to undertake the food provision and the achievements of further, food related objectives. The resources ranking with respect to the potential uses is central to constitution of the organziation. The empirical analysis was carried out at SPGs active in Umbria (Central Italy). To this purpose we elaborate on the concept of resources uses objetives as the instrument of the resources ranking withing the group. Having examined the main characteristics of the groups in Umbria, we investigated within a specific group the relationships between practice and evaluation of the objectives as a critical step of the constitutional process undertaken by the groups.

ABSTRACT. The study follows the debate on how communal feeding in public facilities, such as Viennese schools, can contribute to an ecologically sustainable society. In this study, the question is addressed through the theoretical framework of social metabolism. It examines public schools in Austria with the focus on Vienna. It shows the organizational and socio-economic dimension of midday meals in compulsory Austrian educational schools, as well as the biophysical dimension, using material flow analysis. Central is the question of whether and how it would be possible to make the food supply chain sustainable by seeking locally and organically produced food. The results show that there is enough cultivable land in Vienna and Lower Austria to obtain, locally and organically, the bulk of the products needed for the Viennese school meals at public compulsory schools. It sets out examples like ecological and local cultivation of the raw materials, short or optimized transport routes, reduced meat consumption and reduced food waste that could lead to a more sustainable development of the socio-ecological system school. These examples can serve as an inspiration to practice sustainable public procurement policy and can provide, through new innovation niches, a valuable contribution to the promotion of a sustainable society.

ABSTRACT. As part of its business strategy “Good for You, Good for the Planet”, the Barilla Group has put forth since 2011 the educational project “Sì.Mediterraneo”, with the twofold purpose of improving Barilla employees’ well-being and increasing their awareness on the environmental impacts of their food consumptions. This paper will present and discuss some of the most interesting results of the research that has been carried out on the impacts of the experiment. The initiative began in 2011 in the two company cafeterias at the Barilla Group headquarters in Pedrignano (Parma), and in 2013 it became a global commitment of the Group. The scientific basis on which the project relies is the Double Pyramid model promoted by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition. The Double Pyramid shows that food products whose consumption should be limited have a high environmental impact, while food products whose consumption is recommended to be more frequent are also those associated with low environmental impact. Canteen menus were modified to be sustainable from an environmental perspective and balanced from a nutritional point of view. Carbon, Water and Ecological Footprint have been used to assess and communicate the environmental impact of the menus proposed. The canteen spaces were adorned with posters and other notices, to provide information on the nutritional value of the Mediterranean Model and the environmental impacts of different food choices.Results show that nutritional messages do have a significant influence on employees’ eating choices. From environmental point of view, the activity led to significant reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, water use and land ecosystem use. In Pedrignano canteen alone, the project has allowed savings of 65kg of CO2-eq every day, as well as 40m3 of water and 1000m2 of Ecological Footprint per day.

ABSTRACT. In a context of increased consumers’ demand for local food, the distinction between local and global still remains very fuzzy. A strong notion supporting the association of local food with lower ecological impacts is the food-mile concept. Other than this concept used in the LCA field, no metrics exist to quantify the level of “localness” of a product or food value chain. In this study, other criteria of distinction are uncovered from literature in multiple disciplines and five domains of distinction are defined: geographical distance, chain length, supply chain size, identity and governance. These defined criteria are further assessed on two empirical case studies in the Swiss cheese sector. The goal is to compare a local cheese with a more global cheese in order to see if a difference in their degree of localness can be observed with the proposed criteria. The approach has the goal to be participatory in the sense that interviews also helped to identify the relevant criteria and seek to let actors reflect on local and global aspects of their position in the value chain. The assessment of the criteria is converted on a percentage scale in order to aggregate them and it shows that the local cheese obtains a score of 47% and the global one 73% (the most local being at 0%). The distances and chain length show very small differences and the distinction lies more in the qualitative three last criteria. The global cheese is however more global in all of the criteria, which are all relevant. This study shows that the studied value chains have a high level of hybridity, for example by promoting local attributes and values while being embedded in international markets at the beginning and end of the chain. The framework proposed has the advantage to show that a product that could be considered local actually contains some global elements and vice-versa. Further empirical evidence on other commodities would however be necessary to generalise it as a tool to assess the degree of localness of food value chains.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, numerous initiatives, businesses and movements have arised, working on multiple sustainability goals and explicitly creating social value for society. Increasingly social entrepreneurs emerge in the void that is created by the withdrawal of governmental institutions on for example social care or management of parks and nature. In new ways small companies and communities organize concerted activities and generate values and these ways are being researched in the EFESEIIS project.. Business communities of social entrepreneurs we see as the informal cooperative structures, surrounded by the enabling institutions designated here as business ecosystems. The above mentioned EFESEIIS project aims to increase our understanding of the enablingness of the environment. Within social enterprising not only the economic value is of significance, but also values such as living environment, social cohesion, spirituality, authenticity and commitment. Traditional economic models for business development give insufficient information for support and improvement of these new initiatives, because they focus primarily on the individual performance of a business, that may take place in different networks. Moreover, economic views on social enterprising presuppose a trade off between the social impact and taking a profit, as if it were a zero sum game. In this new trend however, networks have become sharing communities that include both enterprises and active community members. In these networks, social entrepreneurs try to combine a high social impact with good profits. A traditional linear business approach from producer to consumer takes insufficient account of the dynamic development of this strategy because of the integration of the business in this kind of communities. This integration results in on-going multiple-connectivity, exchange of information and services, knowledge creation, debate and self-organisation. This puts a lot of theoretical and practical constraints on using business models, by advisors, policy makers and researchers who want to advise these new practices, sometimes creating misunderstanding rather than a good action perspective. Goals of this working group is to discuss the new generation of business models that address multiple forms of value creation in this new generation of business ecosystems. Invited papers should elaborated on elements like: • Presentation of best practices and grass root initiatives. • Theoretical understanding and factors for success/failures. • What business models are better suited to address societal challenges? • How to articulate and valorise social values? • Approaches for co-creation and co-design of new products, services and exchanges. • Critical points/opportunities for scaling.

ABSTRACT. Isenberg’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem concept sets out a number of institutional factors necessary for entrepreneurs to thrive. Set within a positivistic philosophy, and based on a neo-classical ‘developed’ model of the best economic environment, this represents a snapshot, ideal-type output of the project of modernism.

Bringing criticisms of general stage models to the concept, this paper challenges its current utility. This representation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is static, linear and uni-dimensional. Within social ecological system theory the adaptive cycle concept provides a potential approach to liberate the entrepreneurial ecosystem concept from an end-point in a project of development to a fluid and dynamic process of enactment. Taking key principles of the adaptive cycle we theorise an entrepreneurial eco-system as a dynamic entity with a definite life-cycle.

The concept is illustrated using the historic example of grower’s cooperatives operating in the Tamar valley, England. Here a previous entrepreneurial ecosystem has been born, thrived and died. The bones of the old have been used to reconstitute an adapted ecosystem. This contributes to the conference by exploring the complexity of rural entrepreneurship in an urbanising world – where an entrepreneurial ecosystem is less a developmental aim and more of a continuous reinvention.

ABSTRACT. Agriculture plays an important role in the maintenance of non–urbanized areas close to cities. Its importance lies in that its activity is not only producing agricultural commodities; it also produces non commodities services. These other services are very useful to keep the values of these urban fringe areas (landscape, biodiversity, leisure, heritage, soil fertility...). For this reason, it is necessary to preserve and promote the agriculture activities and keep the farmers in these areas. The proximity to the city should not be an obstacle (urban and human pressures and high land prices) to carry out agricultural activities but it should be an incentive for farmers to adapt to the citizens’ needs and provide products and services that urban society demands. Many authors, such as Vandermeulen, et al., (2006), Zasada, (2011), Marraccini et al., (2013), refer to the diversification of farms as a way to preserve farming. This diversification not only refers to agricultural activities such as farming or agribusiness processes, but also off-farm activities. This is especially interesting in peri-urban areas where demand of these activities is relatively close. The aim of this work is to analyze whether the wineries of a peri-urban wine region have diversified their activities, adapting their business model to the proximity of citizens by offering other services beyond the strict agricultural production. This paper also includes a brief description of these cellars and knows what kind of ecosystem services offered to citizens. We analyze wineries because they include all three key stages of agricultural entrepreneurship: production, agro-industry processing and sales and marketing. Semi-structured surveys have been conducted with wineries included in the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Alella. The survey form has been agreed by the group of models of entrepreneurship in urban agriculture within the framework of the European project COST Action TD Urban Agriculture Europe. The municipalities of PDO Alella have 644,891 inhabitants. The area occupied is 307.65 km2, giving a population density of 2,096.18 inhabitants/ km2. Alella Wine Region is very close to Barcelona less than 10 km. The main results show that despite being relatively young wineries, there is a great diversity of surfaces (from 1 ha to 55 ha), as well as the number of wine products (red, white, rosé, sparkling wine, sweet wines ...) are offered by the cellars. With respect to off-farm activities and ecosystem services, there is also a great diversity between the different wineries surveyed.

ABSTRACT. The changes within agricultural field and agriculture’s economic vulnerability worldwide need to be addressed within new contexts. In order to constitute new understandings of and to address new opportunities for agriculture‘s social and economic potential the term multifunctional agriculture has been used during the last years to inspire the development of agricultural sectors. Multifunctional agriculture usually includes activities such as green care, tourism, recreation, education, on-farm sales, and other green services. Multifunctional agriculture can facilitate sustainable rural development in different ways and have the potential to lead to activities that are not usually recognized by the market. However, in the Swedish context, there has not been sufficient research to determine in what ways the development of the concept of multifunctional agriculture can be beneficial for business owners and the society This paper’s main purpose is to investigate current agricultural activities worldwide and examine a well-established company’s multifunctional activities in southern Sweden in order to map out future directions for the development of agricultural conducts in Sweden. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part will give a literature overview of the implementation of multifunctional agriculture in international and Swedish context. The second part analyzes a case where the economic and social benefits of multifunctional practices are examined within a specific company. The third part will set out future directions of research and opportunities for practices of multifunctional agriculture in the Swedish context. An extensive literature study and semi structured interviews with the involved company’s management team will provide the material needed for writing this paper.

ABSTRACT. Marking a decisive break with the past, in recent years in Calabria some so-called “small scale” productions have experienced a significant improvement in their production results in wine, honey and fig sectors, and in the organisation of the entire supply chain. The aim of the paper is to explain the reasons behind this positive performance. Introduced for the first time in Italy in the programming of the PSR Calabria 2000-2006, there are three productions that have experience of the integrated supply chain design (“PCIP” Production Chain Integrated Plans). The aim was to apply the development of rural areas approach of the Community Initiative LEADER to PCIP in order to create governances models to be participated in also at sector level. It has developed a model for the establishment of partnerships in the supply chain that involves the participation of collective interests, both public and private, and not only the individual entrepreneurs in the food sector. It is a tool that transfers the concept of the common good to the sector level. The objective of the PCIP is to organise the integrated supply chain resources and the members participants of the industrial sector around a shared project that aims to remove constraints, and enhance and strengthen the individual branches in the production chain in an integrated and endogenous manner. The OECD has also recognised the innovative nature of this model in its appraisal of Italy in its 2009 Rural Policy Review. The use of PCIP has been proposed for subsequent programmes in other regions but with different characteristics that in part betray the original model. Therefore, this paper also aims to be a means for reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of this model and its possible future developments and applications.

ABSTRACT. This proposal intends to explore how a branding process can contribute to the building of both territorial identity and local development strategies, unlocking distinctive potentials and resources of rural areas. The focus will be put on the branding project “Paesaggi italiani - ITEM”, which concerns three Local Action Groups’ sites in northeast Italy, between the two regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Included into the Local Development Programs, it aims to implement coordination, communication and marketing actions, in order to valorize typical products together with the cultural and natural heritage, encouraging sustainable forms of experiential tourism. The landscape is assumed as an identitarian element around which shared values and visions can be elaborated, as well as a strategic device for linking agricultural activities to the various forms of territorial capitals. The brand means to express the landscape’s multiplicity and complexity through a dynamic and inclusive graphic system, using visual communication’s tools to transmit values, images, narratives and local specificities. Although the project is promoted by a partnership of the interested LAGs – as initiative of inter-territorial cooperation – the involved University assumed a crucial role in setting the branding on an interactive and community-based process, able to trigger social activation and aggregation at local level. Besides, the engagement of other institutional actors (both at local and regional level) would be essential for bridging the economic initiatives with the wider policy framework, as well as for enhancing territorial governance mechanisms. On the one hand, the brand means to foster and valorise socially innovative initiatives at enterprise or territorial level, creating new growth opportunities in a context of multifunctionality and diversification of rural economies. On the other hand, it should provide a common action-frame for economic, social and policy strategies, reshaping an integrated approach to rural development and catalysing the local capabilities of collaborative networking, visioning and governance. Indirect benefits should be related to the spread of new expertises, attitudes and relationships on the territory, generating multi-actors alliances. Starting form the experimentation on the three pilot areas, “Paesaggi italiani - ITEM” was conceived with the ambition to improve its method and to extend its application on the national level, in order to promote a fourth pole of italian tourism, which should be based on the rural landscape. On this purpose, a “Chart for the Rural Landscape’s Tourism” has been elaborated, pointing out common values and possible scenarios.

ABSTRACT. The regional brand "Vetrina Toscana was made with the aim to characterize the offer of the structures of the small trade and catering through the enhancement of the local context. ". The enhancement of the activities of the commercial network involved the use of local quality products and activated relations with consortia of food and wine geographical designation (PDO and PGI)., It also involved the producers of organic products, manufacturers branded Regional Agriqualità. Communication campaigns to promote the network Vetrina Toscana has been possible thanks to an agreement among many public and private entities. They have contributed financially and they have provided their brands for various activities that have affected most areas of sub-regional Tuscany. Quantifying the effects of collective initiatives compared to the results obtained by the Vetrina Toscana brand has not been easy. On the other hand, this brand was born in the commercial sector and has struggledto gain credit as a means of cross-communication in other sectors, such as the agricultural, educational, cultural heritage, ones ,. However, this initiative has the merit of being a unique case of wide integration of branding in differentsectors and therefore deserves attention for its development towards a regional brand umbrella.

ABSTRACT. This paper compares and contrasts the creation of and context for brands in Canada and Mexico. We compare the use of ‘brands’ in Mexico and Canada through the lenses of local identities, regulation, transparency, and the role of local brands as part of ‘good practice’. We also discuss brands as an important connector between rural and urban spaces.

In Mexico, the Mexican Network of Local Organic Markets uses participatory organic certification as a means of capturing regional identity and values. As a transparent, trust-based regulatory system, participatory certification provides multiple benefits to farmers and food consumers. These include: increased accessibility of the organic ‘brand’ to smallholder farmers and Mexican consumers; increased connectivity between producers and consumers and across urban and rural spaces; and a re-valuing of regional peasant identities and traditional food cultures.

‘Foodland Ontario’™ is a long-standing identifier of food grown in Ontario, Canada. More recently, regional brands have emerged as another layer of self-identification within the Ontario food system. These newer brands are tied to tourism (e.g. culinary trails linked to art galleries), locality (‘Buy Local’ maps), or one food type (e.g. the ‘Butter Tart trail’, ‘Wine Route’) and seek to add value for the food producer/processor. While not participatory by definition, these designations are collaborative efforts of local governments and businesses of varied scales. Their explicit purpose is to boost regional economic development, but like the Mexican Network of Local Organic Markets they also serve to reconnect producers and consumers, revitalize regional identity, and build a more vibrant food culture.

In both countries, the approaches to regional designations are markedly different from the European geographical indications framework, in that they are less concerned with protectionism and regulation and more invested in a broad-spectrum agri-food promotion and community development. Both case studies illustrate the flourishing collaborative efforts to rebuild regionalized food systems in the Americas.

ABSTRACT. Various food scandals have sensitized the public and helped create concerns regarding the quality of food in recent years. A growing importance of alternative food supply chains occur, which shorten the relations between producers and consumers and emphasize secondary benefits in form of information regarding origin and quality. On the basis of expert interviews with several European examples of Regional Branding Initiatives (RBI) a typification can be built based upon the strategic goals of those RBIs and the involved stages of the food supply chain. The example of a joint marketing association is used to gain a deeper understanding of organizational structures or of marketing strategies, in order to form theses on success factors and bottlenecks.

ABSTRACT. Physical, psychological, and social benefits of gardening have been reported. Gardening, especially, provides positive impacts on our physical health condition. However, there is limited research-based data about the mechanisms of gardening for improving or maintaining physical health conditions. Thus, several studies were conducted to determine therapeutic mechanisms of gardening as a physical activity for health: exercise intensity of various gardening tasks were determined and the metabolic costs of gardening and common physical activities were compared; muscle activation by electromyographic analysis (EMG) for 15 indoor horticultural activities and five common gardening tasks were measured. The gardening tasks performed by older adults were low to moderate intensity physical activities. Gardening activities were of the same exercise intensity level as walking at a moderate intensity. Gardening can provide the same health benefits as non-gardening forms of physical activities in older adults. For 15 indoor horticultural activities, the upper trapezius, thenar eminence, and hypothenar eminence had higher muscle activity than the other muscles. Triceps—long head displayed very low EMG values compared with the other muscles. During the five common gardening task such as digging, raking, troweling, weeding, and hoeing, the upper limb muscles measured were active than the lower limb muscles and the flexor carpi ulnaris and brachioradialis of the upper limb muscles showed higher muscle activations than the other upper and lower limb muscles measured. Developing scientific and research-based understanding of the physical health benefits offered through the act of gardening further substantiates the role of care farming/social farming in contributing to healthy, resilient communities.

ABSTRACT. This paper will review the role of volunteers historically and currently in the application of horticulture in therapeutic settings and discuss the impact on the development of the profession of horticultural therapy; and the impact that the actions of volunteering has on the volunteer and the community. Recommendations on how volunteers can contribute to care farming/social farming and how volunteers are currently used in social farming/urban agriculture in the United States will be given.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on Italian context, this paper explores possible synergies between microcredit and social farming, aiming to outline under what conditions microcredit may represent a suitable tool to strengthen access to credit of social farming initiatives. The gap between actual needs of financings in farming and loans supplied is considerable, amounting to about 116 million euro a year: this has created between 2010 and 2012 a "credit crunch" total of over 300 million euro (Mipaaf, 2014: p. 7&45). In this frame difficulties in obtaining financing may hinder access to FEASR fund for 2014-2020, in particular for non-bankable borrowers among which are often those involved in Social farming. Social farming may be considered as modality of multifunctional agriculture (Di Iacovo, Ciofani, 2005; Hassink et al., 2012) and represents an innovative approach in Europe that joins healthcare and social services with agricultural production activities (Hassink et al., 2012). Persons affected by mental/physical disabilities or that are in difficult socio-economic situations can raise their overall wellness and recover a social function through active involvement in food production. Individuals instead of remaining excluded may find a new active role in productive processes which represents an innovative way to link a sustainable agriculture with social well-being. Indeed, in Italy the most relevant actors who conduct social farming activities are Social Cooperatives, a specific kind of cooperatives that include members belonging to disadvantaged groups (Senni, 2010). Most of social cooperatives involved in farming activities are characterized by small size and generally they don’t own the land that they utilize, aspects that don’t facilitate their access to traditional credit circuit for they are not able to provide the requested guarantees. Microcredit consists in programmes that “extend small loans to very poor people for self-employment projects that generate income, allowing them to care for themselves and their families” (Grameen Bank). Microcredit includes a wide range of different activities; however, all have two principal features: a small amount of funds provided and the absence of an appropriate credit guarantees presented by the beneficiary. In relation to microcredit, “to give credit” returns to its original meaning, that is “to give faith” (Becchetti, 2008). Both social farming and microcredit have, in their respective fields, a common focus on social active inclusion. Microcredit provides small amounts and can be a preferential tool to guarantee appropriate financings to social farms, that require few resources to start, also regarding the access to 2014-2020 RDP measures.

ABSTRACT. Social franchising is a recent phenomenon that especially during the last five years has shown an important growth in Europe and across developing countries. Social franchising works in a variety of sectors, reflecting the range of activities in which social enterprises and social cooperatives are involved (Sven Bartilsson, 2012). As in the case of commercial franchising, also for the social franchising there are some key aspects such as: a business model proposed by a franchisor, the presence of one or more franchisees, a common brand, an interchange of knowledge between members. Nevertheless social franchising also combines the social objectives (sharing learning and methodologies for greater social impact) with the financial objectives (charging fees for intellectual property and services for greater economic sustainability) (Nick Temple, 2011). In this light, social enterprises are seen as organisations that could be the carriers for social innovations: in fact social franchising involves the application of business-format franchising to achieve social benefits of enterprises through standardization and replication (Ilan Alon, 2014). Although the recent development there is still little knowledge about social franchising within the ecosystem for social enterprises, even though the model of franchising has been shown to combine empowerment and small-scale enterprise with growth and systemic impact. This form of affiliation-based replication strategy might be correct for the enterprises involved in pathways of social farming. Through a franchising a social enterprise, working disadvantaged individuals and parts of society, can prevent mistakes and damaging consequences. The social franchising can improve the levels of control and associated performance management while assuring their quality (Di Iacovo et al., 2013). The paper aims to explain the meaning of social franchising and the link between social franchising and social innovation. Secondly, the paper tries to explain why the affiliation-based replication strategy may be correct for the development of social farming, focussing on the objectives of this linkage, discussing what kinds of actors my be involved, and also considering possible weakness and threats. Then the paper presents a practical case of social franchising applied to social farming in Italy: the IBF case. This social franchising, developed at the beginning of 2015, allows people to work together and share social values and objectives. The paper analyses the role of this franchising in supporting the co-production of knowledge and values, in developing a common language and reinforcing good practices, and in creating new networks.

ABSTRACT. Problem Since social farmers try to create both social and economic value, they are considered as social entrepreneurs. They often have a well thought-out vision, but the business model is rarely concrete enough, due to a lack of knowledge about economics and strategic management. Methodology We took 28 in-depth interviews with care farmers across Flanders, Belgium. Three of them participated in a course, coordinated by a multidisciplinary team, consisting of agricultural and orthopedagogical researchers, as well as experts in entrepreneurship and strategic management. A multidisciplinary team of students was involved as well. The cases were chosen based on the specific questions and needs of the interviewed farmers. In order to create a business model that guarantees the balance between social and economic value creation for each of the three cases, we employed the Impact Driven Business Modelling Tool, of which Tom Van Wassenhove is the co-author. This is a method which is specifically designed for social entrepreneurs to integrate both objectives, impelling them to think about goals, business concept, resources, stakeholders and partners, processes and policies and eventually the social impact they bring about. In mixed teams, students and researchers reflected on the items. Results were frequently submitted to the farmers who gave their feedback, whereby adjustments were made. Students and researchers visited four social farms in the Turin region to become inspired by successful Italian cases. Inspiring aspects gained from this experience were also integrated in the final business models. Results The social farmers were challenged by the mixed student-researcher team to reflect on every aspect of the IBDM- tool in an innovative way. They started to involve the neighborhood, cooperate with stakeholders, designed a logo for marketing reasons and devised activities for children. The final result was a nicely integrated business plan. The researchers could list up difficulties and possibilities of the IBDM. The data from the course were complementary to the data from the in-depth interviews. The students developed essential skills like collaboration, communication, reporting in a professional way, receiving and giving feedback and dealing with deadlines. They stood still by the emancipating and connecting power of social agriculture and became acquainted with the Italian discourse concerning social farming. Above all, because the teams were multidisciplinary, they were obliged to regard the cases from (each) other perspectives and cross sectors. Bracke, P., Van Wassenhove, T. (2015). Impactgedreven ondernemen. Aan de slag met sociale businessmodellen. Gent: Academia Press.

ABSTRACT. The Working Group 14 – ‘Rural Tourism (agri-tourism) and changing urban demands’ – deals with several dimensions of the relationship between rural tourism and socioeconomic rural contexts and activities. Particularly relevant are the connections and interactions between rural tourism and local food and wine productions; the impacts of this type of tourism on the development of local communities, as well as the characterization of the offer and demand. Often praised as a tool for rural development, rural tourism has many forms and impacts on local communities which will be addressed within this Working Group, based on contributions and/or cases from Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Nicaragua, Philippines and Iran.

ABSTRACT. Food is a relevant part of the culture and identity of a territory, reflecting both material and immaterial aspects such as the biophysical conditions, local environment and natural resources, main agricultural productions, activities and traditions, as well as specific know-how and visions of the world local populations have developed during centuries. Rural agricultural food products and the ways in which they are transformed, prepared and presented are, therefore, part of the culture and tradition that are closely linked to territory characteristics. In this sense food is more than just food, as it is part of a territory’s legacy and patrimony. Nowadays food is also considered a major part of what has been defined as the ‘rural idyll’, contributing to foster positive images and social representations on rural areas and acting as a pull factor regarding rural tourism destinations. Food is an important part of the tourists’ experience of a destination and may contribute as well to foster both traditional local productions’ development and the liaisons between tourism activities and local social and economic fabrics, particularly in peripheral and disadvantaged rural areas, as it is the case of a large part of the Portuguese rural territories. Based on a survey directed to a sample of Portuguese urban residents (N=1233), this paper aims to unveil their consumption patterns, motivations and influencing factors regarding rural food products. Empirical evidence demonstrates that a large part of the sample consumes rural foodstuffs. As main motivations for consumption we identified the better flavour of rural food products, the The willingness to support rural local producers and the fact that they are considered healthier and more reliable. Inversely, the lack of availability and/or accessibility, as well as their higher price, are the more relevant constraints identified. In order to better understand the factors influencing the consumption of rural food products, a logistic regression model was used. The attachment to rural areas, the positive image on rural areas (as idyllic or space of wellbeing), the frequency of visits to rural territories as well as the sociodemographic profile of respondents (namely their age, income level and marital status) are the main factors influencing the consumption of rural food products. At least two of these factors seem to be strongly connected with the consumption of rural areas as spaces of leisure and recreation in which food productions may represent an added value to the visitors and tourists’ rural experiences.

ABSTRACT. Methodology: Multifunctionality in agriculture has been pursued in a logic of integration of income for the farmer who was manifested in some areas in a large increase of farms that have also started an agri-tourism. This was not the only form in which the agricultural enterprise has expressed willingness to develop the multi-functionality. Were created educational farms, hunting, agri – camping sites and other forms of multi-funzioanlity yet. The paper considers still missing a form of multifunctionality that starting from the product transforms the production process in an experiential path suitable to be encoded as a tourist product.

Results and discussion: Companies engaged in the Tuscan agricultural productions in Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) will be subject connote operating on products with a strong local identity. They operate in a framework of shared production rules and subject themselves to the controls that the community regulations provide. These companies are strongly oriented food production in production system and are credited like companies high quality. Can be considered, by virtue of their productions, intimately connected with the culture of the place (anima loci).

Conclusions These companies and their products contribute to creating the identity of the place that articulates also the artistic and cultural both historical and contemporary. The city population expresses a general desire to know the places of production especially those with a higher value. Emblematic is the case of a project to develop the new wineries designed by internationally renowned architects. In fact, these traditional places dedicated to the transformation of grapes into wine are becoming sought after tourist destinations both for their architectural value for the more general interest in food and wine. In this path of exploitation of remote rural areas, but not in the marginal agricultural production, the organization of tourism is fragile. This fragility along with an unclear definition of the tourism product affects so important marketing strategies and with them the ability to develop a new multi-functionality oriented to intercept a greater margin of added value incorporated in quality productions.

ABSTRACT. Food tourism is considered one of the most dynamic and creative sector of tourism (UNWTO, 2012). In Italy, recent studies have also underline that it has significantly grown. The aim of this paper, based on the results of an empirical research, is to discuss the potential of wine routes as an instrument to support the development of food tourism in rural areas, with a particular focus on Calabria experiences. Wine routes are regulated by the national Law 268/1999 and they are intended as a tool that integrates economic local activities with the enhancement of local resources promoted by public and private local actors. In Italy, formally there are more than 170 wine (or food) routes but have been noted, by some scholar, that only few of them have been really implemented in a way that produce a development on the territory. Our research have compared the experiences implemented in a northern region of Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and in a southern region, Calabria. The paper will discuss the most important problems that have been highlighted focusing on the Calabrian experiences. In this Region there are formally 12 wine routes. The Regional Tourism Marketing Plan (2011) stated that “they are not well marketed”. Our research shows that this is only one of the problem, even not the most important one. The paper try to identify, therefore, the most relevant activities that have to be implemented to develop wine routes in a way that produce a positive, social and economic, impact as the practices in Friuli Venezia Giulia seems to show.

ABSTRACT. Recent research of rapidly growing Australian metropolitan regions has highlighted the complex but critical nexus between regional landscapes, nearby metropolitan centres and their urban and peri-urban communities. It has shown that these regional landscapes are the custodians of a range of traditional community values such as biodiversity, outdoor recreation, rural production and natural resources, as well as emerging values such as ecosystem services.

The research has also shown that these rapidly changing peri-urban areas are undergoing significant changes in population demographics, largely through the influx of former urban dwellers and the displacement of the former rural population. The incoming peri-urban residents, with limited capacity and capability for landscape management, are attracted to their new locations by the ecosystem services they provide but paradoxically, by virtue of their occupation, they are placing those same ecosystem services at risk.

The paper explores holistic approaches for planning and managing these peri-urban areas that are capable of responding to the unique sets of challenges posed by these peri-urbanisation processes. The anthropocentric philosophical base of ecosystem services provides a conceptual alignment with the spirit and purpose of planning which seeks to improve the quality of life and liveability of communities. The paper discusses the rise of values-led planning approaches that embrace science informed planning within a ‘joined-up’ planning context, capable of addressing the protection of ecosystem services.

ABSTRACT. The paper presents the analytical path and results from a case study conducted during a territorial analysis laboratory on Lucca, a complex suburban area. This work was structured on the belief that sustainable territorial development can be supported by a rethinking of the interaction between urban and rural areas. Indeed, following the consolidation of the idea of the city as a basic and functional space, the urban/rural relationship has gradually loosened causing the abandonment and deterioration of the few remaining agricultural areas within the city and its immediate suburbs. Into the survey conducted, we analyzed the demand for rural services (social gardens, educational farms, agri-kindergartens, etc.) with the goal of identifying the rules to suggest in the new planning tools to provide an adequate response to the identified collective needs. The aim is to combine insediative urban functions and rural functions more specifics, in a balanced and synergistic, pursuing a strategy of improving the quality of living aimed at regenerating both morphologically and functionally the existing buildings, but also to rethink the open spaces in the suburbs (agricultural areas, public spaces, unbuilt urban spaces, ect.). The open spaces in fact need to be interpreted and treated as a key resource to ensure an adequate level of ecosystem services important to the well-being of citizens. In the present work were worked out the outcomes of the survey on the perception of the quality of the periurban areas with the aim to define possible strategies to use to plan and to design these areas. The use made of the collected data has provided further evidence of the urgent need to act, both in urban peripheries both in the areas characterized by widespread urbanization, with solutions able to guarantee a better balance with the surround agricultural and natural spaces. In fact, to ensure the resilience of the city and the territory, the maintenance and management of the urban and periurban open spaces is fundamental thanks to their ability to ensure a horizon of life in balance between needs and natural resource endowment of the territory. In conclusion, proper planning of open spaces and periurban agricultural areas has a fundamental role to provide functions increasingly requests from citizens. Therefore, the public decision-maker should favor those practices they allowing citizens to regain awareness on the importance of the relationship with the countryside, of agriculture and food self-produced and local.

ABSTRACT. The Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MRSP) is the largest and most populous urban area in Brazil and one of the five largest in the world. It covers 39 municipalities, concentrating almost 20 million inhabitants. The MRSP is located in the headwaters of the river Tietê, a low water availability region, which requires import 32.3 m³ / s of adjacent watersheds. Among the springs that supply the MRSP, the Guarapiranga is the second most important, supplying the southwest region with 4 million people. The watershed covers partially the municipalities of Cotia, Embu, Juquitiba, São Lourenço da Serra and São Paulo, and entire municipalities of Embu and Itapecerica da Serra, having 64 000 ha (42% anthropogenic uses, 37% remaining Atlantic Forest, 17% urban uses and 4% water uses). Urban sprawl on the Guarapiranga watershed has a strong effect on the availability and water quality. The Sustainable Guarapiranga Project is driven by the State Departments of Agriculture and Food Supply and the Environment and is for the use of agroecology as a sustainable development tool for the seven municipalities of the Guarapiranga watershed. The project strategy is to promote the social reproduction of agroecological farmers, both to discourage urban sprawl, and to ensure land use that preserve or improve water quality. By promoting social reproduction of farmers, the government "pays" for water quality. The arrangement involves technical and commercial support and creation of marketing channels infra-structure. The paper aims to describe the process of inter-municipal coordination, highlighting the Project Clean Agriculture of the São Paulo municipality, partnerships with other institutions (universities, NGOs), the agroecology promotion activities and achievements yet. The information sources consist of public documents on Sustainable Guarapiranga and Clean Agriculture Projects and interviews with public officials involved in the projects, as well as professionals from institutions that acted in partnerships.

ABSTRACT. This paper has developed a methodology for assessing the environmental service of provisioning food. It has been applied on once geographic areas: Espai d’Interès Natural (EIN) Gallecs. The result of this evaluation was compared to the four categories of protection established by the Open Space System of the Barcelona Metropolitan Territorial Plan (PTMB). SIGPAC (Geographic Information System of Agriculture Areas) was used as the main database. Then, several processes of spatial analysis, specifically spatial intersections between different layers. From these data different thematic maps were obtained for the three areas

ABSTRACT. Food self-provisioning (FSP), a non-market source of local foods is often regarded as an important component of civic food systems and (Renting 2012). Recently FSP in post-socialist societies has been depicted as a socially inclusive practice compliant with principles of sustainability, unrelated to market transactions. Discourses on the political as well as the advocacy level about the benefits and potentials of food relocalisation have been proliferating, while the economic significance of FSP has often been downplayed in the academic literature without presenting quantitative or qualitative evidence about the scope of and motivation for FSP activities. Based on a representative survey this paper analyses the spatial and social extent of FSP practices in Hungary, a CEE country still in her post-socialist cultural transformation phase. It also explores the motivations for FSP as experienced by producer-consumers.

ABSTRACT. The paper aims to present some experiences of civic agriculture in Calabria. The experiences concerning different aspects: processes of re-territorialization, critical consumption, social inclusion, the reuse of land confiscated from the mafia. The identification of territorial identity is critical to initiate processes of re-territorialization. These processes require the reconstruction of relations between the local community and territory. The resident / consumer / producer must become inhabitant and that recognize the territory as their own building and enhance sociability. But through what process can be realized this reappropriation of territory and identity? Through what process consumers can once again become inhabitants? Paths creating civil economy locally can become acts territorializing: relations of reciprocity behind the creation of paths civil economy recreate local communities (Bruni, Zamagni, 2004). The social system of industrial society is based on the separation not only conceptual but also practice between production and consumption. This separation is also reflected on the individual in the distinction between man and man-worker-consumer. Industrial society requires a process of liberation from the personality. Based on the assumptions of the civil economy, function and the person can not be divided, then the production of a commodity can not be separated from the involvement of the consumer. The paper discusses different experiences both in the territories concerned that for history: for example, the experiences of local development of the cooperative Goel of Reggio Calabria and the cooperative “Il Segno” of Cosenza, the experience of “GAS Utopie sorridenti” through which producers and consumers programmed with sowing and the consumer gives a pre-financing for the future harvest. The experiences of cooperatives “Arca di Noè” and the “Valle del Bonamico” on social inclusion and the “Valle del Marro” on the reuse of land confiscated from the mafia can be considered as other examples of civic agriculture. The paper illustrates the path of formation of these experiences, the strengths and weaknesses assessed both on the basis of the objectives set by individual organizations on the basis of the principles of the civil economy. He wants to be a moment of reflection for the proposition of public policies.

ABSTRACT. The emergence of alternative agro-food networks and the social construction processes of food quality have become the subject of investigations in several countries (Renting et al, 2003; Follet, 2009; Sacco dos Anjos & Caldas 2014). Organic farming have received important support from the development of AFN. Nevertheless scholar have highlighted that a conventionalization process of organic farming (Fonte 2008) is going on and the certification process by third party, is often underline, appears not functional for farmers that sell directly to consumers and/or operates inside the AFN. This paper will focus on the alternative that can be adopted by organic producers to certificate their product starting from the Brazilian experience. In this country was approved a very advanced legislation, which states that two completely opposite certification systems can be adopted by farmers: the conventional certification by a third party (TPC) and the participatory guarantee systems (PGS). The latter are “based on active participation of stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social networks and knowledge exchange" (IFOAM, 2015). The most important experience of PGS in Brazil is related to Ecovida Network of Agroecology, located in the southern states (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná). This case has been recognized as a reference for other countries. The differences between TPC and PGS are quite clear. While the TPC is based on the expert knowledge and a vertical control process, in PGS the emphasis is on horizontality, reciprocity, information sharing and knowledge building (Caldas, 2013; Martin Brasas, 2013; Caldas & Sacco dos Anjos, 2014). The quality of food products are guaranteed by this different approach that is useful for the dynamics of family farming. The TPC, on the contrary, appears functional to another model of farming mainly exported oriented. The issue of PGS was incorporated in the agenda of important organic farming international organizations, as IFOAM. The paper will discuss the opportunity and the difficulties that farmers have to face in implementing PGS system. In Brazil, for example there is a lack in the government support in front of a big pressure adopted by the private certification companies. In Mexico, one of the challenges faced by producers, according to Tovar et al (2009), is the formal recognition, social conflicts and dependence on donated resources. Nevertheless, the PGS can be considered helpful for organizing farmers, offering guarantees of food quality and support local market (Fonseca et al, 2008).

ABSTRACT. Berg, Ignatieva, Granvik, and Hedfors’ (2013) concept of Resilient Citylands (RCL) suggests that human settlements can be more resilient through a reintegration of urban and rural areas, and increased interactions of green-blue and built infrastructure by 1) increasing access to recreation; 2) preserving biodiversity; 3) creating aesthetically appealing and efficient human habitats; 4) strengthening cultural identity 5) maintaining and developing ecosystem services; and 6) relocalizing primary production and ecotechnology. To operationalize the RCL concept for designers, a working framework was developed using key literature, key informant interviews, and a site visit. The working framework was then evaluated by applying it to a participatory design project in the Protected Countryside in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario. KW (Kitchener – Waterloo) Habilitation, a non-profit organization, delivers services and support to people with developmental disability throughout the Region of Waterloo. In 2014, KW Habilitation formalized their Our Farm program, which seeks to engage KW Habilitation in day-to-day vegetable production while growing vegetables for KW Habilitation’s residential program. Due to the program’s success, KW Habilitation would like to expand their food production area and create a place of recreation, social inclusion, and food production for their participants and the larger community. The site’s peri-urban location, with close proximity to the City of Waterloo, offered opportunities to explore urban and rural linkages through design elements and programming. In addition, the site provides valuable ecosystem services and opportunities for biodiversity enhancement, as it is located in the environmentally sensitive landscape of the Laurel Creek Headwaters – a groundwater recharge area – and is adjacent to provincially-significant woods.To evaluate the framework, participatory design (PD) sessions, grounded in the RCL framework, were held to engage stakeholders of KW Habilitation’s Our Farm program in the design process. Through this process, we identified strengths and weakness of the RCL framework, and explored opportunities and barriers for introducing this framework in using PD. Preliminary results suggest that the framework is helpful to inform design decisions in a PD setting. Further application is required to explore means of increasing community buy-in.

ABSTRACT. The experiences of civic agriculture are within the sphere of the commons (Di Iacovo et al, 2014), are solutions in response to the crisis, able to build and strengthen working hypothesis that indicate new operating models that combine economy with people wellbeing (Durastanti et al, 2011). The paper analyzes civic agriculture practices widespread in Italy, involved in the project Civic Agriculture Award, a national competition - scouting / research of the various manifestations of civic agriculture in Italy, organized by AiCARE (Italian Agency for the Responsible and Ethic Countryside and Agriculture), which originates from the need of knowledge and deepening of the theme. The paper also analyzes the original method of work "Award": motivation, promotion, financing, method and tools of detection and evaluation of practices, impacts, disclosure. Award's participant practices (220 in three editions), analyzed through the information contained in the application form, represent a cross-section from which emerged: business sectors (social farming, education, community gardens, short food chain), legal forms, dimension, methods of cultivation, agricultural activities and related activities, distinctive characteristics of civic agriculture and values, degree of integration of farms with local communities, strengths and weaknesses. In general they showed that in Italy there is a lot of innovation in agriculture, organized in innovative business models that create both economic and social value. These are experiences with a strong bond between farming and citizens, experiencing original and concrete paths, able to return to the food value that goes beyond just the price for the pursuit of common goals and collective interest, and whose protagonists are the people who live and inhabit the territories. The civic agriculture in Italy has mostly developed in the total absence of the policy. Civic Agriculture Award, whose first edition was in 2008, was certainly an original experience; in many cases these practices are now the object of experimentation, research and begin to have visibility and collect an increasing interest, both by the policy and by the society. The speed with which the practices will develop to become critical mass, however, depend on the ability of the policy to read the deep innovation paths of which practices are carriers and to write new rules of the game, able to support the initiatives capable of generating environmental, economic and social sustainability.

ABSTRACT. The rapid urbanization of the world, with all its challenges and opportunities, is almost all taking place in the urban centres of the developing world. Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, is a prime example. It has well over 4 million inhabitants, many in poverty, and is the 9th fastest growing urban centre in the world. This paper draws on new primary research to show the patterns of provisioning that bring the key staple food of maize, largely from the rural hinterland, to eaters in the fast growing city of Dar es Salaam. It illustrates the patterns of provisioning through which a diverse range of actors are linking rural with urban and eater with producer. These actors include farmers, traders, transporters, processors and retailers. Of particular interest is how a wide range of small scale and interdependent actors get maize to urban eaters at a city feeding scale without large vertically, or horizontally, integrated corporate structures. It explores what enables this pattern of provisioning and some of its socio-economic and environmental outcomes as well as its constraints and bottlenecks. The extent to which the needs, in particular the right to food, of the smaller farmers and the poorer urban eaters are met form the benchmarks guiding this assessment. The paper adds to our understanding of ‘City region food systems’ by showing what this looks like through the lens of the key staple food of maize. In this case we see what mechanisms primary actors in the food system are creating in a developing country context where there is no urban food strategy and limited meaningful state or corporate coordination of the main modes of food supply. Through this example of a ‘City region food system’ assessment, ideas are provided for how it can be done and what to look out for. It is argued that understanding and valuing what people do themselves and through what arrangements is an essential, but often overlooked, starting point for any possible intervention. Importantly it has been found that small farmers are able to supply the food needs of the city and do so in ways that respond well to the particular circumstances of the poorer urban eaters. There is a lot that is working in the existing food systems that can be built on and should not be undermined.

ABSTRACT. The starting point of a city region food system design is the availability and the quality of arable land. Today, many planning tools for city-regions already exist, but are either not used or do not perform as intended. This is caused by the complexity of the food system issue not fitting in simplified tools. The question of a sustainable food system goes beyond simple allocation of land for food produce, but involves also a major shift in terms of type of agriculture and the food produce diversification. The challenge is to strike the right balance between the complexity of the tool and the complexity of the problem.

Planning is organized in sectors, creating a competitive environment in which food stands in competition to other planning goals. Hence, food appears to be “just yet another item on the wishing list” for planners that are forced to weight decisions and choose between the biggest benefits for a limited space. While there is no lack of new (technocratic-sectorial) tools, there is definitely a lack of approaches enabling integrated, dialogue oriented decision-making tools.

A process oriented city region food planning tool should facilitate and enhance a multi-stakeholder and cross-disciplinary dialogue, and integrate uncertainty as a part of a design process in a dynamic world. A food system-specific methodological framework should integrate or combine different, already existing tools in process oriented planning. Such a framework would not follow linear steps from analysis to implementation, but rather work cyclically or iteratively, jumping back and forth between the steps. Additional inspiration in designing a tool comes from other sectors, such as multi-stakeholder consultations, data mining from crowdsourcing, 30-30 exercise, backtracking, prototyping, or foresight. The essential element seems to be the capacity to enable creativity.

The contours of the presented City-Region Food Planning Tool discuss at least the following requirements: • Reduce the complexity of food systems to a useful, yet applicable process. • Identify what needs to be measured, how much that will cost • Will the tool in the end provide policy makers with tangible information? • Who should be involved? How can individual interests be balanced? Commit stakeholders to the process for the long-term. • Consider the appropriate spatial and temporal scale • Include relevant elements of the food value chain (from production, processing, distribution, and consumption to waste management) • Quantify the multi-benefits of food system and ease the decision making process.

ABSTRACT. The Pearl River Delta is described in international literature as a global manufacturing hub where the rate of urbanization exceeds 80% and population reached 56 million in 2010. However, each of the nine city-regions into which the PRD is administratively subdivided includes districts and counties where farmland is in some cases prevalent. Traditionally, regional agriculture has nurtured trade, but the reduction of farmland due to galloping urbanization is accepted as the inevitable site effect of development. General correlation has been evidenced since the early 1990s, but practical measures of the change of agriculture through times are rarely analysed in an urbanizing environment. The aim of this paper is to explore the potentially conflicting relationships between urbanization and agriculture in the Pearl River Delta region. Years between 1996 and 2010 are considered. Firstly, data concerning the accounted production of most common agricultural items are tested against people's consume. The model is a hypothetical prediction of how far the potential of regional production matches with regional consume. The production of vegetable, fruit, and aquatic products surpasses local needs, although in all cases the export potential decreased after 2005. With rice it is just the opposite: the PRD depends on rice import, and the situation is getting worse. The second part of the analysis considers the hypothesis of a link between farming choices and growing urban population. This second variable had been selected among many possibilities: an increase in urban population conversely reduces the number of people working full-time in agriculture, which may influence work organization as well as production. Moreover, more urban population generally justifies an expansion of urban land use that potentially reduces available land for farming. Linear regression for five tests shows that: rice production decreases as far as urban population grows. The production of vegetable reveals a rather strong positive correlation coefficient. Fruit has positive and regular correlation with urban population growth, which in part is due to the high demand for fruit in emerging economies. Fruit plantations require more time to become productive, and mid- or long-term investments that pay back higher returns than general farming. Swine livestock and aquaculture have the more regular positive correlation with urban growth. The challenging conclusion is that adjustments at the regional scale driven by expanding urbanization have guaranteed agricultural profitability. Had agriculture not adapted to become more land-, work- and profit-intensive withdrawing self-sufficiency, regional farming would not have had any future.

ABSTRACT. Rural regions in Europe are characterized by scattered settlements and urban sprawl. This has led to an entangled mix between cities and countryside. The main issue, among others, of such a spatial and functional emerging pattern is a generalized decline in both environmental conditions and well-being. In spite of the relentless blurring of the differences between urban and rural functions over time, citizens still consider the countryside as the place from which primary goods and eco-services are provided. At the same time, farmers are eager to boost their relationships with cities, which are seen as a promising growing food market. Bearing in mind as cultural and social needs also play a pivotal role in the relational game between city dwellers and farmers, we seek to shed light on the role of smart drivers who lead the future of the so called rural-urban partnership. On the one hand, the vitality of rural regions close to cities has been recently advocated by an OCSE study. In this context our work considers the peculiar typology of a rural-urban system, that of Central Italy. Focusing on specific study cases in the Marche Region, we have taken into account the relationships among Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPG) and farmers, and the potentials of these two endeavors for sustainable and strengthened territorial economy and rural policy. 

Keywords – food economy, cultural landscape, ruralurban partnership.

ABSTRACT. In the last few years – and especially after the 2008 global food price crisis – the use of government and as well as of other institutions regular demand for food has been seen as an potential instrument to support smallholder’s production and their integration into formal market and as well as a driver of development. The theory behind it is that connecting large, predictable sources of demand for agricultural products (structured demand) to smallholder producers can reduce risk and encourage improved quality, leading to improved systems, increased income and reduced poverty. (The Gates Foundation, 2010) Within this context Institutional food Procurement Programmes (IPPs) are considered to have considerable potential to create, stimulate and support transformative development of the food supply systems. (FAO, 2014) The predictable source of demand for agricultural products can be provided by public buyers but as well as by other actors such as development agencies. The most common example is public schools. Nevertheless IPPs can be developed based also on the demand of food reserve authorities, prisons, hospitals, etc. Despite its great potentials, the development and implementation of an efficient IPP which aims to link smallholder producers to institutional markets promoting development in food supply systems is not a simple issue. It requires a series of conditions that must be coordinated and matched together. Those conditions depend – but go far beyond – the governmental will and availability of demand. They are linked to (i) policy and institutions (ii) demand and (iii) supply side. It also requires an appropriate legal framework. For the successful development and implementation of IPP it must be supported and accompanied by an appropriate legal framework. Without the development and/or adaptation of different laws which not only allow but also facilitate the integration of smallholders into institutional market it is very likely that an IPP does not success in its aims of supporting smallholder production and access to markets and, especially, of acting as a driver of development. This paper aims to analyse three main legal issues linked to IPPs: (i) regulation of public procurement; (ii) development of a legal definition of smallholder or family farming producers at national level; and (iii) legal structure and regulation of smallholder producer organizations. It aims do it through the analysis of two key IPP experiences: (i) Brazil and its two IPPs - PAA and PNAE – and (ii) the WFP Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative.

ABSTRACT. In Brazil, development of family farming is an specific public policy objective. Regarding commercialization, government procurement have been conducted, since 2003, to enable donations and formation of strategic stocks. In 2009, the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE - Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar) rendered it possible to expand acquisitions. The purpose of this paper is to assess how has the mayoralty of São Paulo fared in buying from family farmers to supply local schools. Methodology comprises bibliography and document revision as well as consultation with public officers charged with the conduction of the PNAE. Results show that, due to legal controversies, years had elapsed before the municipality began procuring; however, significant advancements were made in recent years even though the mandatory minimum acquisition requirement has not yet been attained. The mayoralty, currently, purchases directly from farming organizations, including those originating from land reform programs and family farmers from state of São Paulo. It constitutes a window of opportunity to steadfastly bond the links of product chains and to insert marginalized farmers in the food market. Nonetheless, challenges remain and the municipality has sought to communicate better with organizations in order to overcome them.

ABSTRACT. The process of acquiring food for school feeding was one of the great progress made in recent times in Brazil. Currently, food purchases are made by states and municipalities. Decentralization of purchasing food for school meals is contained in the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE). The transfer of money to buy food is made directly to states and municipalities, based on the school census conducted in the year prior to the service. The specific legislation show that at least 30% of the amount transferred to states and municipalities must be used to purchase food directly from smallholder farmers, which aims to strengthen and develop the local market. Public policies directed to rural areas aim to strengthen smallholder farmers in the country. Based on these, the objective of this study is to characterize the procurement procedures of school feeding in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. In addition, the objective is to identify the importance of PNAE for farmers. To support the discussions proposed in this study, a qualitative research will be performed. For this, we conducted bibliographic and field studies, based on interviews with those responsible for purchasing food for public schools in the municipality and farmers.

ABSTRACT. Entrepreneurship in agriculture is changing: Not only do farmers have to be technically capable in their production processes but they also have to be aware of the global markets demands, the (local) societal demands and legislation and environmental changes in an increasingly urbanizing world. In order to achieve business sustainability farmers need to be aware of these external pressures and adapt and develop innovative production strategies so that all kind of stakeholders: consumer organizations, environmental groups, neighbors, regional and national governments, retail etc. are satisfied with the way these farmers produce.

ABSTRACT. In this papers are discussed the findings of an experiment of participatory planning driven by AiCARE (Italian Agency for Responsible and Ethical Countryside and Agriculture) in the north western outskirt of Rome. The study was aimed by the idea that the farms still present in the area, exposed to an heavy pressure from the city expansion, can survive by selecting new farm business strategies, so to build a new role (economic and social) by replying to local community needs throughout civic agriculture strategies. Parallel aim of the study was to test the methodology of participatory planning as a way by which local community and farmers can begin a dialogue starting from local needs. The study context: north western suburbs of Rome (Hall XIV Rome Municipality), in the agro romano (Rome's periurban farmland) along the Boccea way, about 35 km far from City centre (that's 50 minutes by car or 1hour 45 minutes by public transport). In this area lives around 600 families (3.000 inhabitants), mainly in family houses with private gardens and buildings of recent construction; the area is characterized by a rural landscape with various farms. The urban portion of the area enlarged during '80 for abusiveness, developing without any planning and a lack of proximity services (shops, schools, pharmacy, public transport,...) and public places (square, parks, sport and recreations centers); everything is only reachable with private car and the main part of the inhabitants works far away. Main results achieved. The activation of the participatory process, and a parallel analysis of the starting dialogue level between local inhabitants and farmers (with a structured questionnaire), highlighted: - community needs: tangibles, intangibles, conscious and unconscious - community perception of the living place and perception/acknowledge about local farming - main food buying habits Even if the first and most important result has been a "community building effect" on the local community to cultivate with other actions, the study allowed to collect useful information for studying and proposing to local farmers new business strategies to test, all inspired at civic agriculture. Conclusion: by joining farmers and community weaknesses can be outlined win-win solutions, but between activation of the process and first social and economic results, really much time is spent because of participatory processes dynamics are long. We think that to be effective this kind of change in the paradigm needs high motivation by involved promoters or public support during participatory process

ABSTRACT. Niamey, capital city of Niger, has a dynamic dairy processing sector due to traditional high milk consumption. It has three industrial units of dairy processing, and several other smaller units, using mostly imported milk powder. The development of a market for local milk requires both efforts in terms of collective action, due to the fragmentation of milk production and quality problems (debris, wetting), and investment in equipment, due to high perishability of the product. An IRAM project is currently supporting milk collection centers, allowing a reception and control of milk closer to producers, limiting transaction costs, ensuring quality control, and stabilizing supply downstream. Crossing point of production, collection centers are also service platform for farmers: formal or informal exchange of information, awareness of good hygiene practices, access to inputs, mainly via an exchange called "milk against livestock feed". The development of such collection centers seems to be a key action to contribute to the structuring of the whole sector. Despite benefiting to family farming and being adapted to the traditional pastoralist agricultural, it is also a key linkage to meet urban demand for milk, especially the industrial sector. It is indeed an interesting model for several reasons: technique (combined collection and services to farmers), social (collection centers managed by farmers, taking into account the role of women), institutional (possible delegation of management contracts, inter-structuring), economic (response to strong local demand, increased bargaining power). A major industry is currently engaged in the development of a product line "100% local" with the support of local development partners. This strategy allows both to sell more expensive products, but also to ensure a share of the value added upstream to farmers. Unlike the development of niche markets by mini dairies (trying to use local milk only but being often unprofitable), this partnership builds a local strategy with a strong technical and financial partner, whose main market is the powdered milk. So this is certainly a marriage of convenience, but it seems to be more sustainable and less risky than the betting of some mini dairies.

ABSTRACT. In Québec, a French speaking province of Canada, there are 30,675 farms. Since World War II, like in many other countries, government action in the agricultural sector has dealt mainly with economic objectives: produce more at the least cost. Presently, governments invest in agriculture to achieve these goals. Skogstad (2008), who analysed Canadian agricultural policies, calls it the paradigm of state assistance. This paradigm is still dominant in Canada and Québec today. Even so, since the beginning of the 1990s, more and more social groups want to influence agricultural development and new societal demands emerge. These demands have been expressed during some public consultations since 1990; the largest one, the Commission sur l'avenir de l'agriculture et de l'agroalimentaire du Québec (Commission on the future of Québec 's agriculture and agri-food), was organised by the Québec government in 2008. Besides representatives from agriculture and agri-food businesses and cooperatives, a lot of social groups expressed theirs points of view at this Commission: environmental groups, consumers associations, health sector, education, advisory and research institutions, municipal governments, etc. These group's views and demands concerning agriculture are part of the drivers behind society oriented farming. What are these views/demands to agriculture? What views emphasize economic, environmental, social or equity objectives? This paper will present the results of the qualitative analysis of 150 different points of view (memoirs presented at the Commission in 2008) about the future of Québec's agriculture. The theoretical framework of this analysis is based on the notion of sustainable agriculture, especially the recent Sustainability assessment of food and agriculture systems (SAFA) (FAO, 2013). The results of this analysis show that social groups’ views correspond broadly to society oriented and sustainable agriculture. However, not all sustainability issues are integrated in government’s and farmers’ strategies at the same level. Some issues have been integrated for a while (e.g. water quality), others more recently (e.g. climate change), and some are not integrated at all or very little (e.g. agricultural land-scapes).

ABSTRACT. The Australasian micro-brewery sector has experienced healthy growth in production and consumption, and spectacular expansion spatially and numerically over the last five years. These trends fly in the face of the normal conventions and supposed ‘iron laws’ of economic geography, and contrast strongly with performance of the mainstream beer brewing sector. Arguably, the success of the Australasian craft beer sector is substantially dependent on two factors: 1) the production of a diverse range of ‘real’ beers; and 2) canny marketing strategies – including sophisticated place-marketing of micro-breweries and their beers – which have elevated boutique beer and its consumption to the status of a positional good. Drawing on field research in rural New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, this paper discusses the role of place and space in the locational, marketing and overall business strategies of local craft brewers, and investigates the contributions that these small businesses make to Despite this somewhat elitist image, a robust home-brewing culture exists in both Australia and New Zealand, with many former homebrewers acceding to the status of micro-brewery head brewer. In other words, a relatively small-scale brewing industry, heavily imbued with folk knowledge, a commitment to quality and innovation, and with its own distinctive economic and social geography, has emerged as a genuine competitor to the major brewers. Paying heed to these trends, this paper focuses on three key themes: the locational factors underpinning the incidence of craft brewers across Australia and New Zealand; the use of place-based imagery to market craft beer; and the potential contributions of craft breweries to the regional economies within they are located (i.e. their economic embeddedness).

ABSTRACT. This paper initially investigates the emergence of craft breweries in Italy over the period 1993-2014. The rise of the craft brewing sector can be interpreted as the consequence of a change in the beer market in Italy, with a combination of strongly growing demand and increasing attention of consumers to the quality of productions, their geographical origin with the consequent differentiation and segmentation of demand in this respect. According to such interpretation, grounded on quantitative (survival analysis models) and qualitative (survey sent to the Italian craft breweries population – 604 firms –, with a response rate of 53 percent) analysis, this phenomenon is generated and lead by market drivers with a limited, if any, role of localized factors (especially considering that, historically, Italy is a wine producer country, and not a beer producer one). The Italian craft breweries take advantage of being identified, from the consumers, as local and craft producers: even though the majority of their turnover is mainly achieved within the Region in which their production site is localized, raw materials (cereals) largely come from abroad. This “interpenetration of the global and the local” is an interesting sociological issue, but it shows a contradiction between the image that they project onto consumers and the origin of their raw materials. To increase national production of cereals for beer and because of, according to law, craft breweries cannot write the word “craft” on their labels, in 2010 Italy was the first country to introduce (with a Ministerial Decree) the figure of agricultural craft breweries, which have to produce the majority of their cereals (and to malt them, either by themselves or through their association into a consortium of agricultural craft breweries) in order to profit by this appellation (which can be written on their label). This law introduced a new form of multifunctionality in agriculture, given that an agricultural craft brewery must be a farm: the advantages, apart from the label, are to benefit from a less onerous taxation and to be able to ask for Regional RDPs (Rural Development Programmes) funds; the disadvantages are that the consortium, in the process of malting cereals, is not as technically experienced as the ones in historically beer-producer countries, plus the costs are higher (it is still cheaper to buy malted cereals from abroad). Despite that, by the end of 2014, agricultural craft breweries were ten percent of the total craft breweries.

ABSTRACT. There is a growing number of consumers concerned with the impacts of their consumption choices, including how choice affects their health, other people, and the environment. Local food supply chains are increasingly being considered by policy and decision makers in government, industry and civil society organizations for their potential to overcome the drawbacks of global and more industrialized chains (Forssell and Lankoski, 2014; Selfa and Qazi 2005). However, opposition between local and global food systems is being questioned and distinctions are not always clear and unambiguous (Hand and Martinez, 2010). How does sustainability performance vary in relation to local and global food supply chains? What characterizes difference?

Within the EU 7FP Glamur project, distinctions between local and global supply chains are articulated using four axes: geographical distance; governance and organization; resources, knowledge and technologies and territorial identity. From this assessment, global, regional and local wheat-to-bread supply chains were selected for case study research in Italy and the UK. Key attributes were identified and indicators were selected in order to collect data for measuring the performance of the supply chains along the global-local continuum, within five sustainability dimensions (economic, social, environmental, health and ethical).

This paper develops a comparative assessment of the wheat-to-bread supply chains. Using a participatory approach, the research process entails three methodological steps: first, we explore stakeholders’ perspectives on sustainability of local and global bread supply chains and assess the contribution of supply chains of different lengths towards sustainability objectives. Then we identify the most relevant dimensions and the relations (correlation, trade-offs, dilemmas) between them. Finally we highlight cross-cutting issues between the sub-sets across Italy and the UK and emerging thematic questions and priorities for further in-depth investigation.

The analysis sheds light on sustainability performance as the supply chains in both countries innovate and adapt. Moreover the participatory assessment reveals conflicting perceptions of sustainability and how this is perceived along local and global supply chains. References Forssell, S., Lankoski, L. The sustainability promise of alternative food networks: an examination through "alternative" characteristics, Agriculture and Human Values, 2014. Article in Press. Hand, M. S., & Martinez, S. Just what does local mean. Choices, 2010, 25(1): 13-18. Selfa, T., Qazi, J. Place, taste, or face-to-face? Understanding producer–consumer networks in ‘‘local’’ food systems in Washington State. Agriculture and Human Values, 2005, 22(4):451–464.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this study is to present a project that has been carried out by Barilla, one of the top Italian food groups and a lead player in the pasta market worldwide, in order to increase the sustainability of durum wheat cultivation over the past few years. As Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies demonstrate, durum wheat cultivation is responsible for more than 80% of the ecological footprint, for the entirety of the water footprint, and it has the same carbon footprint impact of the home cooking phase (Barilla, 2010; British Standard Institute, 2011; World Resources Institute, 2010). The Barilla Sustainable Farming project was aimed to increase the use of sustainable cropping systems, to maintain safe and high quality agricultural products, to ensure environmental sustainability, while enhancing the social and economic condition of farmers. The Barilla Sustainable Farming model was applied on a total of 13 farms in 2011/2012 and 22 farms in 2012/2013, in the areas where durum wheat cultivation is more significant in Italy. The tools provided to farmers and technicians of the selected farms included the Barilla Handbook and granoduro.net®, a Decision Support System designed to assist farmers in taking operative decisions regarding cultivation. Results show that low input agronomic practices are environmentally friendly (- 36% GHG) and increase net income of farmers (up to 31%). A decision support system contributes in reducing carbon footprint (-10%), and costs for pesticides and fertilizers (- 10%).

ABSTRACT. The relativeness and complexity that a researcher has to face when assessing the structural characteristics of food chain performance probably are most visible when it comes to assessment of social aspects. It is due to the traits that are usually considered as part of social science nature – a social perspective presupposes certain relativeness, it recognizes culture as a meaningful element of assessment and recognises that most of the possible social effects can be observed only indirectly. However, the gains from such assessment (no matter how complex) would be most fruitful – social aspects are strongly interrelated to performance in other dimensions characterising food chains (economic, ethical, environmental, health). These linkages might grant much more elaborated knowledge of food chain efficiency and performance outcomes. In this paper we analyse the social performance of global and local berry supply chain arrangements in Latvia and Serbia. We have chosen to compare the performance of five cases: global and local raspberry chains in Serbia and global, intermediary and local wild blueberry chains in Latvia. For in-depth analysis we have chosen two interlinked domains of interactions between food chain actors – labour relations and power relations. From analytical perspective the two categories represent different levels of abstraction, i.e., labour relations could be perceived as a part of larger category – power relations. The selection of analytical categories or food chain attributes of different scale holds an advantage to ascertain each attribute’s performance separately as well as to observe how performance is conditioned by the other attributes. Thus the selection of different level categories allows grasping more accurately the analysed attributes ability to explain performance. The data used in this paper has been collected during the GLAMUR project.

ABSTRACT. Food production is in many ways uncoupled from society, which leads to missing or inappropriate awareness, knowledge and understanding of the food sector and agricultural added-value chains in general and more specifically also of food production on farm level. The most important group to bridge this gap is the group of the youngest ones. The educational activities of schools by visiting farms enable children to learn specific information about agriculture and nutrition but the children may experience them as an unusual and exceptional event that has no connection with their daily life. Instead kindergarten farms seem to be a suitable tool to bring children closer to agriculture and adjacent food production and environment aspects. These activities are also interesting regarding new agricultural business models that can provide a new way to achieve economic diversification. In fact the use of farms as setting for social or educational services like the kindergarten farms represents a new farming initiative using to diversify and integrate farms' economic income. In the kindergarten farm, where young children go daily for childcare similar to regular nurseries, the agricultural or horticultural production is only of minor relevance, while education is the major ones. For a more detailed investigation of this type of agricultural business diversification, examples of already established kindergarten farms from Italy and Germany were selected for analysis. The main objective is to understand the main mechanisms and economics of this business model. The nine building blocks of “Business Model Canvas - BMC” focusing on customers, offer, infrastructure, and financial viability provide a suitable template to analyze and compare kindergarten farms with different spatial, public, infrastructure and management backgrounds. More specifically two kindergarten farms from Marche region in Italy and two German examples – one from Berlin and one from North Rhine-Westphalia – are considered here thoroughly. This investigation of these four cases is aiming to support the knowledge creation from a farm organization point of view as well as detecting challenges of this business strategy, which emerge by integrating daily childcare with farming.

ABSTRACT. Entrepreneurial models of farms located in and around agglomerations are different to those located in rural areas. They have to adjust to the urban opportunities and deal with urban disadvantages to maintain profitable on the long term. In general, urban agriculture is characterized by a stronger focus on high-value production, diversity and provision of a variety of ecosystem services. This background sets the starting point for an empiric analysis of urban agricultural case studies in Europe. The development and testing of the utilized questionnaire and the collection of entrepreneurial and project-oriented case studies was conducted as part of the EU COST-Action “Urban Agriculture Europe” and Erasmus+-project “Urban Green Education for Enterprising Agricultural Innovation” (Urban Green Train). Within the COST-Action the cases range strongly in terms of activities, forms and persons involved, while Urban Green Train is more precisely highlighting innovations in urban horticulture to result in a training offer for adult learners and also in a curriculum suitable to be integrated in formal university formats.

The empiric case study analysis of urban agriculture enterprises and projects shows a wide range of successful business models. For deeper analysis of the individual business models, value propositions and success factors the strategic management template “Canvas Business Model” is used. The case by case analysis of the customers, offer, infrastructure, and financial viability based on the nine building blocks of Canvas Business Model contributes to the classification of business models. Individual enterprises and projects of Europe’s urban agriculture can be summarized into six major business models: cost efficiency, product leadership, diversification, "synergies", "share economy" and "experience". The model "synergies" integrates agricultural support and cross-subsidization by other economic or social sectors, while "share economy" is addressing participatory business approaches connecting commercial farming and urban society. The defined business model "experience" is dedicated to experiment with innovative technological, marketing and organizational concepts, where economic objectives often play only a secondary role, but can probably become more important over time. The conducted analysis describes important characteristics and success factors of the six key business models for distributing successful ideas in Europe. It indicates that urban agriculture offers in its different forms economic and social innovation as well as it is able to create a "laboratory effect" for the whole agricultural sector.

ABSTRACT. Peri-urban agriculture can play a key role in reconnecting agriculture and food chains to societal needs, since peri-urban farms may be able to provide a broad range of products and services that enhance the ecological, social, and economic sustainability of metropolitan areas. For this reason, during the last decade peri-urban agriculture has been deeply investigated not only from an economic perspective, but also for its important impact on environmental and social dynamics, with an interesting stream of literature which has focused on the changes that farms undergo in the urbanization process. According to these works, farms can be simply “swallowed” by the metropolitan development (traditional farms), or adapt to the changes of the surrounding territory (adaptive farms), or, finally, react and assume new function meeting a more or less latent expressed by urban dwellers (reactive farms). Building on this literature, the paper looks at the multifunctional role of peri-urban agriculture in Italy through a comparative analysis of seven metropolitan areas. A selection and classification of market-oriented farms in the main Italian metropolitan areas was carried out in order to explore the structural features as well as the main market and diversification strategies of peri-urban farms, with a particular attention to the farms that have reacted positively to the process of urbanization by deeply modifying their production structure and territorial relationships. To anchor the theoretical framework into empirical experience, the paper compares the strategies of few selected farms, with the objective of highlighting the common “economic-driven” elements and the specific “contest-driven” features of the entrepreneurial behaviors. Different dynamics regarding the seven urban systems under study were observed in terms of farm structure, specialization and strategies, reflecting the specific features to the different peri-urban conditions. The paper shows that in the main Italian urbanized environments there is a significant share of adaptive and reactive farms that, potentially, may supply an increasing number and variety of social and economic services to the urban population. Given that the degree to which peri-urban farms may be considered adaptive or reactive is strongly dependent on farmers’ entrepreneurial skills, the paper analyses the commercial, social and institutional drivers of farmers’ decision making about the process of income diversification in multifunctional activities. This would ensure a better understanding of how multifunctionality is expressed in peri-urban areas and, more in general, how farmers can address the new demand expressed by a multi-faceted and evolving society to the primary sector.

ABSTRACT. Looking back to the experience of the Italian no profit organization AiCARE, we try to evaluate the impact and detect some guidelines for promoting innovation combining both profit and social impact. AiCARE is an association born for studying and developing social and civic agriculture in Italy. The paper analyze the path undertaken by the association, results achieved, actions undertaken and their impact, its strengths and weaknesses. The main lessons learnt in these 3 + 6 years of activity are about what was needed by the developing innovative system (in this case the social farming/civic agriculture sector) and what AiCARE achieved to give, with a limited budget, by optimizing existing elements and competences throughout the development of mutual relation. What was missing in the existing economic system? Dialogue, services, cohesion, identification, awareness, applied research, animation, vision, scouting, contamination, trust. AiCARE strengths: the capacity of - Filling the lack of institutions and sector's organizations in identifying these innovative practices, their main problem being bureaucracy and rigidity while innovation needs flexibility. - Transferring and applying the results and thesis of University research; translating into academic speech practice. - Detecting and codifying innovative entrepreneurial skills, and generalizing into reproducible models the intuition of pioneers. - Networking good practices, so not to "reinvent the wheel" everybody but learning from experience already done. - Bottom up legitimization: social farming stakeholders recognize AiCARE role in facilitating processes and networking, and ask for a shared planning. - Strong motivation of volunteer members in promoting, throughout social farming, a new model of development and local welfare. AiCARE critical points: - Prevalence of volunteer work and difficulty in organizing actions, because of the volunteer work is made in members' spare time. - Lack of acknowledgment by the Central Government of the role of agency for social farming development in Italy. - Lack of national public resources dedicated to social farming development on the territory. - Lack of public recognition for the work of professional facilitators in the beginning of social farming local projects or programs. Conclusions We trust that the work of AiCARE is about enhancing the resilience of the society throughout multifunctional agriculture with social utility. For achieving this results AiCARE learned to build bridges between different economic sectors unaccustomed to dialogue. For supporting and widening this work, is now needed more than the volunteers' motivation, and this support can come from privates or from institutions (top down legitimization)

ABSTRACT. Public opinion and decision makers in Europe reduce Urban Agriculture to community gardening activities. It is in fact more - prove numerous enterprises and projects all over Europe. While most urban agriculture protagonists focus on societal and ecological benefits of projects, their economic dimensions and professional farmers stand behind - or their role is even neglected: They are or can become the "hidden champions" of an urban green development strategy. The joint work of working group "Entrepreneurial models of Urban Agriculture" about 90 case studies, carried out within COST-action "Urban Agriculture Europe", found a great range of diversified and successful business models. Successfully applied, these strategies turn enterprises and projects economically competitive under conditions, where "agribusiness as usual" would not have a future chance.

For deeper analysis, identified business strategies were grouped in five types: differentiation, diversification, low cost, "the commons" and "experience". "The commons" stand for new approaches towards share economy, while the "experience" strategy aims on offering personal experiences to clients - rather than selling only products. Besides showing characteristics and success factors of business models based on some cases for distributing ideas within Europe, the innovative character or "laboratory effect" of urban agriculture related to the whole agricultural sector is described - a fact, that can serve as a strong argument for political support by local, regional and European decison makers.

ABSTRACT. Problem Since social farmers try to create both social and economic value, they are considered as social entrepreneurs. They often have a well thought-out vision, but the business model is rarely concrete enough, due to a lack of knowledge about economics and strategic management. Methodology We took 28 in-depth interviews with care farmers across Flanders, Belgium. Three of them participated in a course, coordinated by a multidisciplinary team, consisting of agricultural and orthopedagogical researchers, as well as experts in entrepreneurship and strategic management. A multidisciplinary team of students was involved as well. The cases were chosen based on the specific questions and needs of the interviewed farmers. In order to create a business model that guarantees the balance between social and economic value creation for each of the three cases, we employed the Impact Driven Business Modelling Tool, of which Tom Van Wassenhove is the co-author. This is a method which is specifically designed for social entrepreneurs to integrate both objectives, impelling them to think about goals, business concept, resources, stakeholders and partners, processes and policies and eventually the social impact they bring about. In mixed teams, students and researchers reflected on the items. Results were frequently submitted to the farmers who gave their feedback, whereby adjustments were made. Students and researchers visited four social farms in the Turin region to become inspired by successful Italian cases. Inspiring aspects gained from this experience were also integrated in the final business models. Results The social farmers were challenged by the mixed student-researcher team to reflect on every aspect of the IBDM- tool in an innovative way. They started to involve the neighborhood, cooperate with stakeholders, designed a logo for marketing reasons and devised activities for children. The final result was a nicely integrated business plan. The researchers could list up difficulties and possibilities of the IBDM. The data from the course were complementary to the data from the in-depth interviews. The students developed essential skills like collaboration, communication, reporting in a professional way, receiving and giving feedback and dealing with deadlines. They stood still by the emancipating and connecting power of social agriculture and became acquainted with the Italian discourse concerning social farming. Above all, because the teams were multidisciplinary, they were obliged to regard the cases from (each) other perspectives and cross sectors.

Bracke, P., Van Wassenhove, T. (2015). Impactgedreven ondernemen. Aan de slag met sociale businessmodellen. Gent: Academia Press.

ABSTRACT. A Regional Collective Trademarks (RCTM) system has been recently introduced in Japan (2006). Any kinds of goods and services, including food products, which are produced in a given region, can apply for a RCTM. At present time 47 RCTM exist and around 470 products are already registered under these umbrella regional brands, 304 of which are agro-food or fishery products. After having briefly described the institutional framework of the Japanese RCTM system, the study aims to evaluate the economic and social impacts on RCTM on small-scale farms in rural areas, in particular, by focusing on the farming stage of production. The analysis is carried out through a case-study approach based on semi-structured interviews to the different actors operating in the analysed RCTM supply-chains and on the available secondary data on production and prices paid to the farmers. First, the effect of the newly introduced Regional Collective Trademarks system is estimated in terms of its impacts on farmers profitability and on supply-related risk; in particular the analysed RCTM food products are compared to similar products - in terms of type of products, previous consumers’ recognition and appreciation, and so forth - not having adopted the umbrella brand linked to the region of production. Second, the impact of the RCTM on the local supply chains is analysed, both in terms of structure, governance and strategies of the supply chain and in terms of transfer of values through the latter. The role played by public policies is finally explored. The obtained results contribute to the better understanding under which conditions the introduction of this collective branding system will improve the firms’ profitability and more generally the viability of rural areas in Japan.

ABSTRACT. In the Tuscany, in addition these registered products, there is a list of 460 Traditional Food Products (PAT), a type of food census since the mid 90s. The Ministerial Decree of 8 September 1999 n. 350 defined the "traditional food products namely those whose methods of processing, preservation and aging time-honored" and established the rules for their identification including the minimum period of historicity that must be over 25 years. The description includes the following points: production area, production method, history and evaluation of the annual quantity produced. There is no product specification. A proposal may encourage the development of product associations that create their own private labels to develop these productions. The value of this food heritage is also historical, cultural and environmental sustainability, and should be in the Mediterranean diet the real framework for their protection.

ABSTRACT. In the context of the globalization of the food system, paradoxically narratives and defining labels aim to localize food. The unique quality of a product is considered to be determined by its geographical origin, with specific reference to the local biological resources, history and know-how. This uniqueness can be recognized by different governance systems and levels of formalism, in order to guarantee the transparency of the food chain, the fair trade of the foods and preserve their cultural biodiversity. Two examples of this trend to label a food according to its origin can be exemplified by the Geographical Indications (GIs) and by the Slow Food Presidia. Originating from two Southern European countries, i.e. France (GI) and Italy (Slow Food), these collective initiatives marketing origin-based products are increasingly developing and becoming economically and politically relevant also in the Global South. They have a specific type of governance and yet every project differently implies specific stakeholders (e.g. state, civil society organizations, trade associations), norms and negotiations. This paper analyses the experience of three artisanal cheeses: one GI (Chaouen goat cheese, Morocco), one Presidia whose producers could also belong to a GI (Bearn mountain cheese and Osseau-Iraty GI, France), one GI that is also a Presidium (Piacentinu Ennese cheese, Italy). We address how these GIs and the Slow Food Presidia have been constructed, with reference at different geographical and political contexts, aiming defining governance ideal types. We will look at how the supply chains are internally articulated (e.g. cluster / district / GIE / consorzio / Presidia producers associations) and interplay with external stakeholders such as extension services, public bodies, civil society organizations and consumers. The paper considers that GI and Slow Food Presidia differ for the degree of participation and collaboration among stakeholders, and hence in the way knowledge and practices of production are negotiated and shared. With an anthropological aim, this paper provides new insight to local communities developing origin-based food, addressing how GI and Slow Food Presidia are experienced by producers and assess the power relations behind the creation of these collective brands.

ABSTRACT. Robusta Coffee is a major cash crop in Guinée Forestière for thousands of small scale farmers. Guinean coffee is not well-established on the international coffee market, due to its lower quality. Some producers in this area have broken the vicious circle of bad quality/ low prices to produce higher quality coffee, with specific characteristics linked to the origin. “Café Ziama-Macenta” Geographical Indication has been recognised in 2013 and is rewarding this effort. But the GI alone is not enough to guarantee success and the GI Association needs some support to promote its coffee and export to foreign markets. A project is currently supporting local cooperatives to support the GI dynamic, and obtain private certifications. Fair Trade certification is a priority to insure a minimum price (2000$/T), fair trade premium (+ 400$/ MT), as well as access to international ethical pre-funding. Organic certification would also guarantee an additional premium of 600$/T. Obtaining those two private certifications is key to ensure profitability and sustainable development of local cooperatives. The GI in itself is not recognised by the international coffee market: Ziama-Macenta coffee’s reputation is still mainly regional (Senegal, Algeria), or linked to colonial era, therefore not rewarded by the coffee market, which is not the case of specialty coffees (Blue Mountain, Colombian Coffees, as GI, but also Ethiopian Coffee or Kivu Coffee, without any official regional branding yet). But far from being superfluous, the GI recognition has initiated numerous positive impacts locally, after only few years of existence. The first impact can be described as a societal one: Guinean people being proud having one of their products recognised by international GI experts. The second direct impact is the strong support from local authorities: facilitation of export procedures, public funding (research and national projects), etc. The third and possibly most interesting one is the value chain dynamic that have been induced: collaboration is preferred to competition, the most mature cooperative helping the new one to be also certified; national and international traders are supporting the GI; the GI strategic plan is including local market development (roasting and selling GI coffee in Guinea), for local job creation. A last and important impact of the GI is also to pave the way to private certification: book of requirement, traceability, better practices promotion, internal control system are all crucial for both GI and private certifications.

ABSTRACT. Understanding the changes in agricultural land use is of notable relevance for policymakers. Their socio-economic and ecological impacts require indeed appropriate policies and planning to assure the quality of life of peoples that lives in these territories and the sustainability of their activities. Based on these considerations, there is a need of improving knowledge on trend in land-use at micro-level. The aim of this work is to verify the possibility of exploiting administrative data to analyse changes in agricultural land use. Available data are collected yearly by authorities to manage the System of Direct Payments provided by Common Agricultural Policy and contain information about the agricultural use of each cadastral parcel. We analysed data about twelve municipalities, located in Emilia-Romagna Region, nearby the city of Bologna. The period under investigation is 2001-2012, with a bug in information availability for 2005. We adopted the cadastral map as minimum administrative unit to calculate the Shannon-Weiner index of heterogeneity (Shannon & Weiner, 1963; Horowitz, 1970) as a measure of the richness of agricultural activity (spreading and diversification of crops). Considering the 1,094 cadastral maps, the totally urbanised ones were 177, but the results highlight a generalised low level of heterogeneity in agricultural land use, which is coherent with the rural-urban nature of the considered area. In 2001 the average level of Shannon-Weiner index was .225, but in 2012 it fell to .207, due to the reduction of agricultural use (mirroring an increase in urban use) and a simplification of agricultural activities. The impoverishment of agriculture is mainly located in areas nearer to the city or to main roads, but it is occurring also in some more “agricultural” areas where farmers are still able to gain profits by specialising their activities, through the reduction of the number of crops. The geo-information provided by farmer in application of CAP shows some fails in acquisition procedure, but we suggest a wider use of these data, due to their cheap acquisition and yearly updating. The index proved to be effective in detecting areas where agricultural uses are in stronger competition with urban uses. The analysis could be improved considering the role of main roads in spreading of urban land uses.

ABSTRACT. Urban population growth and expansion of settlement areas are among the major challenges that African cities are facing. Due to its strong population growth, the settlement area of Addis Ababa has been strongly expanding into the city’s peripheral area and also into its surrounding towns moving beyond the city’s boundary. Consequently, highly valuable agricultural land is lost. Urban and peri-urban agriculture has a major role for rapidly expanding city regions and more generally for sub-Saharan cities in increasing food security for the city inhabitants and also has direct economic benefits for the urban households involved in the agricultural production. Moreover, it can provide crucial ecosystem services such as stormwater retention. Therefore, increasing urban growth leads to the question of where and how much and which type of agriculture land could the city afford to lose. In this work, we applied a GIS-based spatial scenario model for modelling the urban/settlement expansion into the regional area of Addis Ababa and its surrounding towns. A set of spatial scenarios were designed based on different urban planning parameters and housing typologies to compare the high-density condominium based development with low-density plot based development proposed by the city administration and the local municipality. The scenarios were modelled to evaluate the impact of urban growth on the agricultural land. Here, the impact on agricultural land is measured not only in terms of area losses but also based on the estimated productivity for the major crops in the areas to be lost. The productivity of major crops is estimated based on ratings of crop suitability with respect to individual land qualities, climatic and environmental conditions. Understanding the future patterns of expansion in Addis Ababa and assessing the effects of these patterns on the urban and peri-urban agriculture offers opportunities for identifying, protecting and restoring key elements in urban and peri-urban agriculture allowing for sustainable planning of urban growth. The novelty of the approach lies in the first time use of a spatially explicit scenario model in the regional context of Addis Ababa beyond its administrative boundaries. Thus, it also considers the peri-urban agricultural land which has a highly valuable role for the city in addition to the agriculture land within the city.

ABSTRACT. Urbanisation processes increasingly influence the use of land and properties in rural areas. In peri-urban areas population composition changes as the areas offer attractive possibilities of other gainful activities than agriculture (OGA), and residential and recreational alternatives to both urban areas and more remote locations. However, although land use changes follow changes in socio-economic composition, agriculture is often still the dominating land use. The dynamic processes leave peri-urban areas in a transition situation, as neither city nor countryside. This presentation investigates various forms of urbanization in peri-urban agricultural areas in the Greater Copenhagen region. The same 160-200 farm properties (in eight study areas) have been surveyed in 1984, 1994, 2004, and 2014, using face-to-face structured interviews. The following themes have been studied: characteristics of land use and property owners, use of buildings, other gainful activities (OGA), public access and other recreational use of land. Overall it is concluded that even though some agricultural areas have been turned into urban areas, the area devoted to agricultural land use has been largely the same during the period investigated. However, a large share of the cultivated land is concentrated on a few very large (typically >800 ha) full-time farms highly dependent on land tenure and also crop and livestock production has greatly changed. Simultaneous, clear signs of extensification of land use can be detected. Most agricultural produce is distributed through traditional wholesalers, but direct sale is also found - especially from smaller farms. Further, the economic activities have diversified, as an increasing proportion of the property owners engage in OGA, including the reuse of buildings, which have become redundant because of structural changes in agriculture. As a consequence, the structural components of the areas (land cover and landscape elements) thus appear more resistant to changes than transition of the socio-economic system (declining number of full-time farmers and increasing engagement in OGA) could indicate. Despite the fact that commercial farming in the study area in recent years seems to have stabilized and these farmers have been able to diversify their economy, farming in the peri-urban areas is constantly challenged by increasing influx of other activities and raising property prices because of the attractiveness of land. This raises questions of the desired future of the peri-urban area of Greater Copenhagen, and about the effectiveness of the existing planning systems and its ability to protect agriculture land, which has been a main objective since the 1970s.

ABSTRACT. Urban sprawl is mostly studied from an urban planning perspective and less from an agronomical perspective, despite the fact that agricultural land is mostly affected by this sprawl. Agriculture shows interferences and mutual interactions (physical and functional) with urban areas resulting in specific areas that are still spatially undefined in terms of both land uses. Our study is based on a typology related to four combinations of patterns and functions of agricultural areas existing in urban regions. The patterns types were: “isolated fields”: they are permanent plots in a continuous urban area with leisure or self-production functions (e.g. hobby farming); “urban belt fields”: in direct contact with the edge of urban areas and their extension depends on the size and shape of such areas. They can have a production function directed at urban consumers; “periurban agricultural lands”: composed of farmlands located near to urban areas, however where the agricultural area represents more than 50% compared to the urban area. They have a clear professional production function and ensure most of the local produces marketed in urban areas. This type is subject to major constraints related to urban proximity; “rural agricultural lands”: agriculture is dominant but still near the main urban centres. In this type, there are fewer constraints related to urban areas and farming systems are mainly aimed at the production of commodities. We tested this typology in a Mediterranean urban region (Pisa, Italy) and compared the different composition and location of such types, depending on the type of urban growth and the existing farming systems in the short term (2003-2011). Hence we performed a multitemporal spatial analysis of the different patterns type in the urban fringe. The identification was produced from a semi-supervised classification of two SPOT images. The consequent quantification and mapping of these areas could lead to a more in-depth knowledge on these types (composition, configuration, and dynamics) in order to support specific sectoral or integrated planning of agricultural lands in urbanized areas.

ABSTRACT. Increasing global urbanisation and the approach of peak ‘everything ‘ and a multi-faceted society (localisation, internationalisation, consumer focused, personalised) is escalating challenges for land use planning. Modes of decision-making embedded in productivist traditions, relying on traditional ways of viewing land are unable to cope with the increasing complexity of the post-productivist era. The peri-urban is where competition for land between urban growth and preservation of rural resources and amenity is most visible. Peri-urban land is a highly contested, multi-functional geographical space. Focusing on peri-urban land use this paper suggests a new framework to address increasingly complex land use problems.

ABSTRACT. Recently, a new trend is emerging within the urban fabric of Prague – the founding of new "urban community gardens". The first ´new style´ urban gardens appeared in Prague in 2012 and others were created during the 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. Mothers with children, young people, and yuppies, motivated by freshness or health enjoy the opportunity to grow their own food in a limited allotment, pensioners and older generations want to relive the experience gained in the era when gardening used to be an everyday part of their lives. These urban gardens have important positive impacts on society and local community and are widely publicized.

This paper first asks the question “Do these urban gardens really stand for a new perspective, under different conditions and with different motivations, values and processes of functioning or are they only looking for new names for the old ways of gardening (allotment garden colonies) that once proved effective and popular?”. Based on the in deep interviews with garden leaders it answers that the idea behind the first community gardens was not only growing vegetables, but also creating a community where people could meet in the garden, take part together in activities they like.

Obviously, many people in the city of Prague still seek a place to grow their own food or to relax through meaningful physical activity, such as gardening. However, as the results of a questionnaire survey with consequent structured interviews show, the new urban gardeners strive to do it differently. They are not enclosing themselves in particular plots and cabins, but on the contrary, they want to meet, communicate, cooperate and share. The second research question of this paper thus asks “How is this difference made? How do these gardens scale-up and what are critical factors for their success and failure?”

Urban gardening in its nascent community form fulfils many important functions in addition to simply growing or self-provisioning. It is also important to find out if the current emerging community gardens in Prague also have the potential to truly contribute to sustainable urban development and resilience. Thus, third research question of this paper aims to answer the question “Do the new community gardens contribute to strategic spatial planning by offering the ecosystem services?” These services, defined as benefits people can derive from ecosystems, were studied in a field research searching for provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services.

ABSTRACT. Urban agriculture (UA) has a long tradition in many countries of the global North, even thought it actually encompasses a wide range of countries situations, illustrated by the different combinations of degree in importance, formal engagement and policy-making on UA. These situations are quite well illustrated, at the European scale, with the Portuguese case where the concepts of urban and peri-urban agriculture are a quite recent novelty and still absent from land use planning policies. This case contrasts sharply with other European cities with public initiatives promoting and connecting households and community gardening with safe food provision, education, recreation, resource recycling and conservation, combining UA with several other land uses and using it as a policy instrument to foster better social and environmental sustainable cities and sustainable urban development. In Portugal, in the absence of specific regulations, “non-regulated” urban and peri-urban gardens, located on public or private empty plots of vacant land mostly near to self-produced neighbourhoods on occupied land and social housing neighbourhoods, cultivated mainly by low-income families, first- or second-generation urban dwellers and Portuguese-speaking Africa immigrants, have emerged along with the expansion of the main cities (Lisbon and Oporto), since the 1950s onwards. However, a quite recent public UA movement supporting the implementation of formal/regulated urban gardens has been expanding, since 2008 onwards. These public UA initiatives, promoted mainly by city and/or parish councils and, in some cases, also schools, enterprises and civil society associations, have mostly food security purposes in times of economic crisis. As such, UA is viewed as a potential solution to mitigate the latter. The paper starts with a brief contextualization of the main drivers for the Portuguese comparative delay concerning formal UA, followed by a brief glance at the broad scenario showing the referred recent public UA movement. Then, we discuss the findings from the empirical data collected, from face-to-face surveys conducted during 2014, in three urban gardens promoted by the City Council of Lisbon, the city capital of Portugal. Finally, we conclude that the recent public UA movement along with the great diversity of socioeconomic gardeners’ profile and gardening motivations, accompanied by public campaigns contributing to change leading urban dwellers views on urban gardens, might be an important tool to be used in future urban land uses and planning policies.

ABSTRACT. Urban agriculture and gardening policies are increasing in popularity in metropolitan areas as a mean develop smarter and more sustainable cites. For citizens gardening represent a way to reconnect with nature and gain more control over the local food system – way to increase food sovereignty and food citizenship. But efficient gardening in local communities is dependent on the resources, commitment and mobilization from a range of different stakeholders. This paper takes a learning approach in a lifelong perspective as a point of departures. It uses uses a case study approach and studies the development of the Copenhagen Kongens Enghave community gardening action. It uses a the PLU stakeholder model approach to analyze the role that power, legitimacy and urgency plays in the development in the bridging of different local gardening initiatives for children, adults and the elderly into the image of a coherent local gardening initiative. It analyses barriers and actions possibilities for how social practices, knowledge, skills and competencies can be passed on across generations and between social groups in the local community. It looks at both format formal and informal types of learning among kids in kindergarten, pupils in schools, citizens in community groups and the elderly in senior actions groups and how the stakeholders in these settings can work together for mutual benefit and increased social cohesion. It will discuss the development of the Kongens Enghave gardening case in relation to similar initiatives in the Øresund region and discuss how different research methodologies can be applied to measure and understand impact of community gardening. It will finally look at what policy recommendations can be put forward in order to take advantage of beneficial effects of local community gardens that bridging different social and age groups

ABSTRACT. In the light of socio-environmental challenges caused by climate changes and the socio-economic impacts of the economic crisis, a variety of new initiatives have been launched, aiming at rethinking models of production and consumption at the urban scale. This research focused on the social and public initiatives that concentrate on the creation of urban gardens in the city of Barcelona with the aim of characterize and describe them, assess the motivations for gardening in the different initiatives, and bring out the tensions between initiatives. We conducted fieldwork from March to June 2014 through a combination of qualitative methods, including the collection of background information, semi-structured interviews, field diary, and participant observation (e.g. participation to garden events and assemblies). We characterized and described the different urban gardens initiatives emerging out of innovative institutional and non-institutional local proposals: 1) Network of municipal gardens; 2) Network of communitarian gardens and 3) Empty Urban Plots Plan. Motivations for gardening differ between the three, from motivations targeted at production and hobby to clearly politicized ones. We also showed some tensions between urban garden initiatives mainly related to the political ideal of city that gardeners would like to achieve and the different views around the relation with institutions such as the local government. Finally, we assess their potentialities and limits to contribute to the achievement of more inclusive and sustainable cities.

ABSTRACT. Background The care farming approach has been used in an attempt to provide health and social support to a range of people including offenders, young people with conduct problems, those with mental ill-health and the elderly. The number of care farms has been growing in Europe, and in the UK alone there are approximately 230 care farms. Care farming has been defined as the use of commercial farms and agricultural landscapes as a base for promoting mental and physical health through normal farming activity. However there is little evidence on effectiveness (in relation to context and client groups) that can guide decision making about resource allocation. Thus, there is a need for a systematic review to capture both published and grey literature, and to synthesise the evidence in a way that can garner current knowledge on what aspects of care farming may work, when, and for whom.

Objective The primary objective is to systematically review the available evidence of the effects of care farms on quality of life, health and social well-being on service users.

Methods Twenty-one health, education, environmental, criminal justice and social science databases were searched in October 2014 to identify possibly relevant studies from a variety of disciplines. To further limit publication bias and improve the generalisability of results, we searched databases of grey literature and websites likely to contain unpublished reports on care farms. Randomised controlled trials, quasi- randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, case control studies, controlled before and after studies, interrupted time series and qualitative studies that met the care faming definition were included. We excluded single activity interventions (i.e. gardening) and nature based interventions that were not conducted at a farm. Literature reviews, commentaries, surveys and editorials were also excluded. We will be developing a framework of theoretical concepts enabling us to explore the mechanisms by which care farms might work. We will map the findings from the empirical qualitative and quantitative studies to this framework revealing the available evidence supporting the various proposed mechanisms for each population group studied.

Results The data collection and analysis is currently ongoing. The results of the review will be available to present at the conference.

Discussion This review will summarise key information on the effectiveness of care farms in improving health and well-being for a wide range of clients to support policy maker, commissioner and practitioner decision making. It will also highlight area for further research.

ABSTRACT. Childhood is a critical period for the development of sociality, and much of this development occurs when the child’s social environment expands from just their immediate family and neighbors to their school. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the effects of school gardening program for improving peer relations of elementary school students. A total of 246 fifth and sixth grade students from four elementary schools in Wonju city, South Korea were participated in this study. The experimental and control groups consisted of 123 students each. The school gardening program included the activities such as sowing seeds, planting plants, maintaining garden, and harvesting produce and designed to improve peer status, peer relations, and sociality. The gardening program was embedded in the school curriculum and the each session was average 90 minutes per week for 10 weeks from April through June 2012. As the results, the school gardening program significantly improved in persistence of friendship (P = 0.04) and adaptability between friends (P = 0.03), which were subcategories of peer relationships, in the experimental group. Moreover, there were significant improvements in sociality (P < 0.001) and its various subcategories, especially in law-abiding (P < 0.001) and collaboration (P < 0.001). Finally, this results showed that the peer status was significantly a greater increase after the school gardening program, but there was no significant change in the control group. In conclusion, the school gardening program for elementary school students had a positive influence on peer relationships, sociality, and peer status. Implementing a school garden program will effectively contribute to the improvement of social relationships among elementary school students.

ABSTRACT. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of horticultural therapy program using hydroponics on work adjustment skills of students with mental retardation. Fourteen 1st and 2nd grade students with intellectual disabilities were participated in this study from a special education class in a high school, Inchon city, South Korea. Based on the critical role transitional model and special education curriculum for agriculture, especially hydroponics, a 22-session horticultural therapy program using hydroponics procedure for Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. ‘Asia Heuk Romaine’) was designed. The students with intellectual disabilities participated in the horticultural therapy program for 4-month from September to December of 2011 (twice a week, average 60 minutes per session) and a farm for hydroponics in Inchon city, South Korea was offered for this program. Before and after the horticultural therapy program, the McCarron assessment neuromuscular development, emotional behavioral checklist, interpersonal negotiation strategies, and KEPAD picture vocational interest test were performed by the teachers and horticultural therapists. As the results, the students significantly improved motor performance (p = 0.002), emotional behavioral strategies (p = 0.00), and interpersonal negotiation strategies (p = 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between before and after the HT program for vocational interest was observed. In conclusion, the HT program using hydroponics based on the critical role transitional model and special education curriculum for hydroponics would be applicable for the students with intellectual disabilities for improving work adjustment skills by increasing the motor performance, emotional behavioral strategies, and interpersonal negotiation strategies. Additionally, horticultural therapy programs using hydroponics with various kinds of vegetables are required to develop and to apply in practical settings for improving work adjustment skills.

ABSTRACT. Chronic and oncological disease, during childhood, causes a serious emotional distress condition that could be crucial for the psychological development of children, teenagers and their domestic system, with a forced interruption of the daily activities and with the removal from their social background . Today a new cultural perspective overcomes the division between health and disease, considering them as two extremities of a continuum . In this perspective disease and health can metaphorically represent life seasons: as a cold winter gives birth to a fertile spring, in the same way pain and limits caused by illness give birth to strength and maturity. In scientific literature these features are called resilience. Resilience is the ability of people to overcome stressful events and to keep on rising their own resources. Individual factors (temperament, self-esteem, self efficacy, inner locus of control and coping ability) and social factors (presence of important caregivers, availability of social support networks and the attendance to a positive social structure) are some of the elements of resilience process . World health organization (WHO) identifies the environment as a factor that affects individual health, together with structural and functional factors. Natural environment can represent an important protection factor that promotes the psycho-physical health, fostering resilience development. In particular Social Agriculture includes a wide number of interventions for promoting health, with the final aim of keeping and arising mental abilities and social relations and supporting the growth . In this theoretical framework the project “Stagio…cando con NetworkContacts. Stare bene insieme nelle diverse stagioni della vita”, proposed by the Apulian Associacion “Beppe Valerio Onlus” for Prevention and Therapy for Kidney Disesase in Childhood, with the scientific collaboration of the Psychological Service and the Nephrology and Dialysis Ward of the Children’s Hospital Giovanni XXIII of Bari, sponsored by the company “Network Contacts” of Molfetta (Ba), has been achieved in 2014. The goal was trying to offer assistance, suitable for children’s psycho-social needs, that promote protective factors and resilience. The project involved ill children (nephritic patients, epileptic patients, hemophilic patients, oncological patients) and their families in outdoor trips to farms and natural parks. The project was really appreciated by participants. The activities carried out during the trips and the like rating scale, about the experiences, will be displayed in this study. Activities as exploration, sharing and learning about nature can contribute to create a representation of the disease through positive elements.

ABSTRACT. ABSTRACT In 2014, primary health-care authorities in the region Scania, Sweden performed the first official procurement in Sweden for nature-based rehabilitation for individuals with stress-related mental disorders. Today, ten agricultural businesses participate in two years implication of the concept NBR. The procurement was based on a three years study on Nature-based rehabilitation (NBR) in peri-urban areas and was a co-operation between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, primary health-care authorities for improved rehabilitation, the Social Insurance Agency, the Public Employment Services, the Farmers Union and ten agricultural businesses. The study was conducted as a controlled prospect study including evaluation on health, function in everyday life and return to work. Further, a special attention was given to the environmental qualities of the outdoor environment and activities performed therein. The qualities were studied with both qualitative and quantitative methods and the (unpublished) results were included in the first official procurement for NBR. Since the implementation of NBR, monitored by SLU, an on-going quality assurance evaluation is conducted and a body of quality assurance inspection will be developed for agricultural businesses working with nature-based rehabilitation.

ABSTRACT. The last decades have seen a significant increase in the number of farm families diversifying their farm production (McGehee et al., 2007). Literature reveals that many of the reasons for such diversification relies on issues such as the decline in terms of farmers’ income (Sharpley & Vass, 2006), the preservation of cultural heritage, the maximisation of the productivity of the farm through their recreational use and even the improvement of the economic situation of rural communities (Tew & Barbieri, 2012). A bit everywhere, agri-tourism has been offered up as one such form of diversification. In Portugal, for instance, agri-tourism has its roots in the 1980s and their philosophy continues to be similar nowadays. The activity is defined by national authorities as a hosting service in lodging units located on farms which allow guests to obtain knowledge of the farm’s activity or participate in the work developed there. Although the importance of agri-tourism in terms of the farm’s diversification and rural development of the country, Portuguese statistical data reveals that the number of agri-tourism units, with few exceptions, is lower than the other forms of rural tourism (TP, 2012). Moreover, a research conducted in the Douro region – a World Heritage Site known for its potentialities in terms of agriculture, namely in terms of wine production, shows that on the one hand few owners of agri-tourism have agriculture as their main professional activity and on the other hand do not have a lot of farm activities in the touristic unit. Without a doubt, this scenario limits the potential of the touristic activity in terms of rural development. The aim of this study, therefore, is to explore the characteristics and motivations of the owners of agri-tourism units; present a brief characterisation of those units and identify areas that require further research. The collection of data with regard to socio-demographic characteristics of the owners of agri-tourism units, their motivations to reconvert the farm and the characterisation of the unit was carried out through a questionnaire-based survey in the Douro region. The reflective exercise done along this study is not to be understood as a sort of an absolute negative perspective of the agri-tourism activity in Portugal, but only as a call of attentions for the need to rethinking and developing the activity toward rural development.

ABSTRACT. The choice of an economic development trajectory is specifically urgent for rural economies currently dealing with the challenges of a continuous process of peripherality, agricultural decline, and consumer volatile demand especially in those places where the rural domain is no longer exclusively tied to food production but to the consumption of landscape to meet wider urban consumer demands. Key elements are the valorization of local assets, a shift from subsidy driven development to more variable development through investments, the exploitation and valorization of unused resources. So the aesthetic–consumptive functions of places become as important as the utility and productive functions. These developments create opportunities for multifunctional agriculture in order to produce new products and services linked to local and regional assets and identities. The aim of this article is to investigate which sorts of strategies and pathways for eco-economic development can be witnessed in rural area underlining the role of rural tourism for a sustainable development. The paper critically describes and analyses place-based strategies that have been developed in different rural areas, which embody multifunctional agriculture and the construction of identities or images around new rural goods and services. The analytical framework of the ‘rural web’ has been used to understand the dynamic interplay between different domains of rural development in the analysis of rural development cases. In this model, rural development is the unfolding of a rural ‘web’ in the territorial context. The model empirically describes rural resources, actors, activities, linkages, transactions, networks and positive externalities. Theoretically, the model captures the interrelations between six conceptual domains: endogeneity, novelty, production, social capital, market governance, new institutional arrangements and sustainability. In this model, sustainability is territorially based. As such, rural development is viewed as a dynamic web of linkages that reshapes the rural whilst enlarging its competitiveness and enhancing the quality of life. This article give insight to develop a model by conceptualizing eco-economic strategies as pathways – which emerge through the different mobilizations of the rural web – and their influence, especially of rural tourism, on rural change. The article concludes by identifying some consistent parameters for understanding the dynamic complexity of rural development and by showing a shift from an agricultural-based development to a more integrative rural development

ABSTRACT. “Fincas agroturisticas de Nicaragua” is a “Proyecto del pueblo" based on a public-private partnership involving the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (INTUR) and the main farmers' organisations: Feniagro, FENACOOP and Renitural, representing more than 700 farmers' cooperatives spread on the national territory. The underlying purposes are the improvement of productivity, competitiveness, complementarity, environment protection and gender equality consistently with the goals of the PNDH (Plan Nacional de Desarollo Humano). The objective of the project is to contribute to the setting up of a competitive and sustainable “agritourism supply” to improve and integrate the tourist market of Nicaragua. The beneficiaries are 120 small and medium rural enterprises including traditional producers, farmers' cooperatives, artisans associations, indigenous communities, youth and women organisations with both direct and indirect benefits for more than 40 thousands people living in the rural areas. A team of Italian experts in rural tourism contracted by INTUR, in collaboration with Italian Ministry of Agriculture, to assess the project. The Italian technicians have visited some farms with different stages of development in the departments of Matagalpa, Rivas, Chinandega and Carazo. The aim of the visit was to draft a preliminary list of training and information initiatives such as the institutional and social strengthening for a fair tourism development, the improvement of the productive agritourism infrastructure, the capacity building for the development of agritourism supply, sustainability of tourism and tourism promotion and marketing. A final assessment showed a strong identity and authenticity in the way fincas are managed, with the perception of an orientation towards quality and sustainability (economic, environmental and social). The job is based on the principles of sharing, joint participation, and shared responsibility. But “identity and spontaneity”, may not be enough. The risk is to confuse spontaneity with improvisation: spontaneity yes, not improvisation. Therefore, the factors above mentioned need to be accompanied by knowledge and skills for the development of high quality standards, to differentiate and diversify. Basic requirements have been identified in terms of hygiene and food safety, characterisation of hosting facilities, high level in food quality. The possible connotations – characterisation of tourism in Nicaragua: responsible, environment / biodiversity, adventure, ethnic.

ABSTRACT. Farms in peri-urban areas usually cannot ignore the influence of the city, which may include high land prices, urbanisation pressure, and recreational activities. This contribution is about a farmer who turned the threat of the city into an opportunity, by collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, and by developing a strategy aimed at delivering ecosystem services. This way, he made his farm too important to be converted into residential area or urban park. He is the last full-time dairy farmer in the Biesland Polder, a remnant of the open moist grassland landscape once common in large parts of the Western Netherlands. By now, the Biesland Polder is surrounded by residential areas, urban parks and greenhouse areas. Together with nature volunteers, a citizen group, scientists, and civil servants at the local, regional and national level, the farmer made a plan to transform his farm, both in the sense of landscape layout and farm management practices. The transformed landscape, combined with the new farming practices, were aimed at delivering a wide range of ecosystem services: more biodiversity in the fields as well as the landscape elements, a better water quality in the ditches, more room for storm water storage, and a more attractive landscape for recreation. The ideas for landscape and farm management transformation were derived from ‘Farming for Nature’, a view on farms as social-ecological systems, in which soil, vegetation, animals, farm management and landscape are interconnected. In addition to experimenting with this new view on farming, the collaborating actors chose to develop tailor-made governance arrangements. A local payment scheme was set up, to pay the farmer for the ecosystem services delivered, which differed substantially from the national agri-environmental scheme. The payment scheme includes public funding only and is still operational. During the phases preceding implementation (2002-2008), collaboration was intense and took place at various levels, sites and moments. For instance, there was a steering group of board members from the various governmental institutions; a project group with civil servants, the farmer, a citizen group board member and a researcher; and a monitoring and evaluation network. However, roles as well as level of involvement changed after implementation started (2008). There was less government involvement after that time, while citizen involvement remained intensive. Research funding stopped after five years. The farmer has however developed new collaborations, in order to remain relevant to the city.

ABSTRACT. Agroecosystems are the source of most essential ecosystem services demanded by both urban and rural populations (food from farming, genetic materials, climate regulation, water regulation, pollination, control of erosion rates, cultural heritage, aesthetic experiences, etc.). However, human transformation of land cover during the last five decades has promoted farming intensification in the more productive areas and the abandon of rural areas. The conversion of multi-functional landscapes into more simple, productive and mono-functional ones, threatens the agroecosystems preservation and many ecosystem services (not included in conventional markets), but also the social and economic viability of rural populations (lack of employment opportunities, ageing population, loss of local knowledge and non-formal institutions). This is a key challenge affecting Madrid, one of the largest cities of Spain with an urban and rural gap. Under this context, a transition from industrialized towards an agroecological model is starting to be consider as an innovative strategy. The aim of this research is to promote and support the agroecological transition of Madrid through the creation of a permanent food network with a collaborative work with local communities in rural, periurban and urban areas (reconnecting environments). We are running the pilot experience in Perales de Tajuña, an agrarian periurban municipality of Madrid. We are using a participatory action research approach: identifying the agroecological potential of the area, doing a participatory diagnosis of the local interests, needs and problems and a later participatory research and action. We have run several participatory workshops to reflect the project collectively (more than 30 participants). The project is also sustaining the creation of a land banking inventory. Additionally, an agrarian plot of 3000 m2 is available for a training purpose in phases: from training and education on small orchards to early experiences in marketing agricultural products. The first results shed light on: the wide range of stakeholders interested on agriculture, the main forerunners guiding the initiatives, and the priority lines to take action. Those were related with: designing a training program, making use of advisory services, preserving traditional varieties, maintaining essential ecosystem services (ie. hydrological regulation, freshwater availability, soil conservation and habitat for species), and promoting marketing through short distribution channels. We hope to contribute to the design of a new model (applicable to other municipalities) in which collective learning, community management and environmental concerns feed agricultural practices to reconnect urban and rural landscapes unraveling the multiple ecosystem services provided by farming practices.

ABSTRACT. The shift towards an integrated multifunctional use of rural areas is becoming a widely supported pathway for Europe’s countryside. Some agricultural practices have already proven to be successful in providing public goods. We studied the development of regional cooperation in three different Dutch regions in which integrated rural development started in the 1990s and where a significant change occurred in land use from a dominance of agricultural production towards an integration of primary production with other functions. Initiatives for launching collectives of farmers and for cooperation between farmers and other actors in these regions were intended to support and improve social care, education and nature and landscape conservation or to increase the prospects of the region in a broader sense. These local initiatives fit in recent policies of the Dutch government. After having facilitated the initiatives in first years, since about five years the national government handed over its responsibility for rural development more and more to regional and local authorities as well as the private sector. This resulted in more self-governance for citizens and enterprises. We analysed the critical success factors for the production and maintenance of farmer-managed public goods and for cooperation through regional collectives and how these factors manifest themselves in the three regions. We concluded that producing, implementing and governing the concept of public goods, were successful in these regions when done by farmers in close cooperation with local governing bodies and other actors. Four key factors appeared to be most important: 1) establishing a system of rewards as a specific new element in building a good ‘market structure’; 2) a mix of governance forms and an alternation between these forms; 3) visionary leadership with networks in both public and private sector; 4) time for new ideas to ripen and for commitment among actors to grow. An increased attention for environmental, ecological and spatial quality, growing interest among farmers to broaden their farming activities and a national government that steps back, offer new opportunities for local cooperation and establishment of regional collectives.

ABSTRACT. To deal with the challenges of food production-consumption within the dominant food regime, civic and social movements developed alternative and civic food networks in the last 40 years. Some of those civic food networks (CFN) stay within their niche, some become mainstream. Some maintain their transformative potential, others adopt to the dominant system. The question is, how can the actors of those movements gain more influence without loosing sovereignty? One rather young civic food network is the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, which is quite small still in Austria, but non-the less it's growing and vibrant. We, the researcher and a collective of activists, farmers and active consumers, conducted a participatory action research project within half a year, to gain more insights in the potentials and challenges of the growing CSA movement in Austria and to strengthen the efforts of activists to broaden the movement. The challenge was to gain knowledge about the goals, motivations and strategies of activists, consumer-members and farmers of 16 Austrian CSA initiatives and to facilitate a process of broad discussion and strategic planning based on this shared knowledge. Therefore participative and emancipatory methods were applied such as appreciative inquiry, open space conference and group workshops. The knowledge gap was filled with a questionnaire, answered by 177 CSA members and phone interviews with 16 CSA farmers. The participating acteurs of the CSA-movement layed the foundation for institutionalizing the existing Austrian CSA-network, following the model of the german network „Solidarische Landwirtschaft“. The participative action research approach (PAR) offered an apropriate framework to define the tasks and goals of such a network. Three central fields of work of an institutionalized CSA-network have been identified: Support of the foundation of new CSA-initiatives, public relational work and awareness raising activities and also the coordination of experience sharing and networking of CSA initiatives. The emancipatory character of the workshops made it possible, that the workinggroups continued their tasks autonomously. A well founded PAR, where the methods are developed in cooperation with the acteurs, seems to be suitable to strengthen civic food networks, such as CSA.

ABSTRACT. Consider the role of the state in public policy analysis has been retained as the central axis of a set of approaches that are interested in explaining effects, impacts and outcomes (MULLER, 2005). Such consideration guard explanatory importance in studies of the state, in particular, as regards the formulation of public policies. Moreover, such approaches have little considered the participation of civil society organizations in formulating and implementing these policies. Study them from the sociology of public action has been a way of considering them product co-produced by the state and society (LASCOUMES; LE GALÈS, 2012). In Brazil, after the return to democracy, we see a growing participation of organized civil society in the implementation processes of public policies for family farming. Such transformation requires an analysis on the social changes from that practice. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of public policy implementers in reconnecting farmers, food and communities. This analytical exercise (in progress) is inspired by the experience of the Centre for Alternative Agriculture North of Minas Gerais (CAA/NM), located in the Brazilian semiarid region. This civil society organization (Ong) consists of plural family farmers and collaborators, and accumulated over the first decade of XXI century know-how in implementing combat drought policy. This experience took place in conjunction with the Brazilian network semiarid, and included actions such as seed banks, water tank for human consumption (cistern) and for the production, extraction and processing of regional fruits and agroecological production technologies. From 2010, with the institutionalization of the technical assistance program, the CAA/NM started to the public policy implementer. The challenge becomes therefore articulate the organization performance axes, its know-how and the issues of struggle for territory to the objectives of policy. The effort has focused on territorial issues central to farmers. The water technologies, agroecological production processes and short marketing channels has connected farmers to cultural networks, food and solidarity. The exercise of translation of public policies has corroborated with the desired territorial ideals, enables visualization of traditional communities, and fortifies the fight for territory and reconnecting them around the site of agrifood agroecological system.

ABSTRACT. The past decade, awareness has been growing that the way we think and behave with regard to food is untenable in the long run. New networks that aim to build new linkages between food system actors are emerging in answer to the challenges the contemporary food system is facing. In addition, these new organizational forms are also a response to consumer concerns about food safety and nutrition, which leads to an increasing demand of locally embedded quality products. As a result, the new governance forms are accompanied by a new geography of food. It is our aim to gain insights into these new processes of governance and how they are related to the geographic organisation of food networks. This paper draws upon qualitative case study research of territorial food networks. We selected two cases that represent a new mode of governance, that involve a diverse set of actors and institutions, and that are geographically delineated. More specifically we investigate (1) which roles are crucial for these new modes of governance and (2) how this new governance form relates to the geographic organisation of the food network. A descriptive analysis of the local food networks reviews their social, organizational and geographic characteristics. This would allow to identify the main social actors and institutions that are involved and which governance roles they take, formal and informal rules that regulate the food network, and the geographic embedding of the food network. Next, we take a more systemic approach to our cases that involves three steps. First, in-depth interviews with key-actors are to give insights into the organization of these new modes of governance. We will analyse processes such as role division, inclusion and exclusion, and the interdependencies between the different role-occupants. Second, we will look at the relation between these processes and the geographic characteristics of the food network. Finally, both cases will be compared and their parallels and/or differences will be studied. We expect that the results of this study will contribute to research on civic agriculture, governance processes and food geographies.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims at exploring the pathway towards the creation of a network around the principles of civic agriculture in the Province of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy). The research is part of the process towards a local Food Plan, aimed at coordinating public policies, civil society and private enterprise initiatives, to foster the access to a healthy and sustainable diet. During the last decades, the experiences of civic agriculture in the territory have played an important role, highlighting the centrality of agriculture in the animation of rural areas and in the rural-urban relationship, and the multi-dimensionality of food, point of intersection amongst several vital areas for local communities (sustainability, health, culture, ethics, economy etc.). The awareness of this role in the definition of local policies about food and sustainability led to consider the structuring of a network among the involved farmers as an essential component in the construction of an integrated food strategy. The support to this network building process, within the pathway towards the Food Plan, was organised through several stages. First, a monitoring of civic agriculture in the province of Pisa was carried out, in order to create a data-base of the farms and related fields of activity. Afterwards, a second round of interviews was hold to deepen visions and principles of civic farmers, as well as their perception of the role played within the local community. After the second monitoring, a focus group specifically aimed at identifying barriers and opportunities for the creation of a specific network was realized. The research has confirmed the presence, in the territory, of an expressed willingness to create a network of farms engaged on issues of sustainable food and sustainable local development. However, some critical points emerged with respect to the farmers’ willingness to participate in the designed activities within the Food Plan process, to their perception of the usefulness of the Plan itself and even to the acknowledgment of the identity of ‘civic farmer’. Through a comparative analysis of the characteristics and actions of the farms, the analysis focuses on the process of development of a shared view of the identity of civic farmer, on how much a shared system of values corresponds to this identity, and on how and to what extent this is translated into operational terms. This ‘boundary work’ represents a crucial step to reinforce the relationships amongst the farmers and lay the foundations of a common action.

ABSTRACT. The public perception of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) in Europe is shaped by insights and believes on the drivers and vulnerabilities of the food system performance and its resilience. A narratives takes specific vulnerabilities and hazards in the food system as point of departure for shaping potential solutions. Narratives are also present in the social media, influencing public perception and solutions, and leading to various frames that encompass these views on reality. Recently, there is a growing body of work on FNS framings that aim to gain an in-depth understanding of narrative formation and its policy implications. This research contributes in countering the regressive fragmentation and aggregation currently framing conventional FNS approaches. We take the FAO (2002) definition as point of departure: “Food security [is] a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Along with time, the focus has been enlarged from a narrow system/production-centered approach to a more encompassing people/access-centered approach, and the focus of analysis, also for measurement purposes, there has been as shift from ‘food security’ to ‘food insecurity’. The scientific and politic debate on the definitions addresses these two aspects, scale and dimensions of food security. Scale thereby refers to the level of analyses. In this context, one can observe a shift in interest from the international and national level towards FNS at the level of communities and even at the household level. In terms of dimensions, the current official definition highlights four aspects of FNS: availability, access, utilization and stability (FAO, 2013). Focusing on FNS frames in a European context anno 2015, we formulated the following research questions . What are the dominating FNS frames? To what extent do these frames effectively differ from one another ? What organizations use these frames to set their goals and formulate solutions for current problems in the food system ? The research is based on media analyses in Flanders, Italy and UK which allows region specific as well as cross regional comparison of frames. Furthermore, it allows examining whether the media discourse is in line with the regional or national political agenda and, the opportunities taken by stakeholders in the food system to build alliances based on FNS frames.

ABSTRACT. Food insecurity remains a concern in Italy, though not necessarily stated as such. Nutritional issues are still in the governance agenda mainly in relation to unbalanced diets and incorrect lifestyles. After the food price spikes in 2007/08, and even more dramatically in consequence of the economic crisis, the problem of food poverty and access to food have gained new evidence on the Italian media, too.

The present contribution originates from the EU-funded project Transmango (Assessment of the impact of drivers of change on Europe's food and nutrition security). It describes the results of an analysis conducted in the Italian media in the years 2007-2014 aiming at identifying discourses and frames shaping the debate on food and nutrition security (FNS). The concept of "frames" is increasingly being used to describe those "mental structures" through which people make sense on the external world. Frames, acting as cognitive processes, structure the way in which people perceive reality and communicate about it, while organizing their experiences adding meaning to physical or social phenomena, events and occurrences.

More than 300 media articles, scientific papers and policy documents have been analyzed through the identification of key-words and a more general textual analysis. The scrutiny led to the identification of eight discourses characterized by specific priorities, key themes, suggested solutions, rhetoric: - Ecological (Food chains environmental sustainability and food waste represent the main threats to FNS) - Free trade (Food industry inputs and food products should circulate freely - Quality: FNS can be achieved giving value to food. Value is linked to territories and traditions) - Social (Food insecurity results from socio-economic inequalities and social marginalization); - Solidarity (There are individuals and groups in need of food aid who must be helped); - Sovereignty (Local/regional communities have the right to hold control over their food systems); - Technology (People must have confidence in technology adoption in the food sector to improve efficiency and safety); - Wholesomeness (In developed countries FNS is a matter of food safety and lifestyles).

They are characterized by relations of complementarity, opposition or independency, that have also been investigated through the key-words analysis. The Quality and the Wholesomeness frames are the most frequently emerging from the texts, whereas the Free trade and the Technology are less utilized, despite being strongly influential on shaping (or accompanying) the actual development trends in the food system and the related policy measures.

ABSTRACT. Food systems in Latvia and Lithuania are influenced by structural transformations of the last decades, EU integration experiences and technological modernisation of production with controversial effects on food and nutrition security (FNS). Availability and access to variety of food have increased, although food poverty for some groups remains high. In both countries self-provisioning and informal exchange of food historically plays important role in FNS, although contemporary consumption habits are massively shaped by supply in supermarkets and the capitalist workday requirements. Global trade, retail concentration and the power of marketing make cheap and often low quality food widely accessible and spread of unhealthy food habits is a reflective mirror of this disputed abundance. Responsibility for food choices is put on the shoulders of consumers and experts, the supermarket and food industry offer being criticised but taken for granted. The food system in both countries is also driven by local forces (short chains, small food processing, localised production and consumption circuits, emerging forms of urban agriculture, etc.) however these emerging forms of alternative food supply cannot counterbalance the ambivalent influences of global forces on the outcomes of FNS. At a time when global drivers and profit motives dominate the food system and captivate consumer minds a question arises how different actors can break away from unhealthy dependencies in the food system and create space for more autonomy and resilience? What reasonable responses and pathways to sustainable FNS and respective governance arrangements can be created? This paper aims to explore emerging framings and pathways to improved FNS in Latvia and Lithuania especially focusing on the dimensions of food access and utilisation / healthy diets. We examine how food system vulnerabilities and weaknesses are discussed and interpreted in media texts, scientific literature and policy documents of both countries and how responses and actions for improved FNS are generated. The paper identifies three key areas of emerging pathways towards improved FNS and corresponding coalition building processes and governance initiatives: i) school food; ii) healthy diets; and iii) addressing food poverty. Based on the data from qualitative media analysis we discuss how these prospective pathways are shaped by specific interpretative frames and ideas such as ‘paternalism’, ‘individualism’, ‘globalisation’, ‘localisation’ and ‘civic activism’.

ABSTRACT. The paper will attempt to empirically and conceptually trace the changing nature of corporate food governance and financialisation in the UK and Europe, especially since the food, financial and fiscal crisis emerged from 2007-8. The emphasis will be on the exogenous and endogenous vulnerabilities that are currently being exposed. It will also question the degree to which new landscape pressures built around the new ecological and political vulnerabilities associated with centralised and privatised systems of supply chain control and the onset of ‘stranded assets’ will provide new spaces of possibility for more sustainable and distributed systems of food governance to take hold.

ABSTRACT. During the last years, financial crisis has led to an increased demand for food assistance in high-income countries, also in those segments of population once considered food secure. In line with the definition of food security given by FAO (1996), there is much awareness that being insecure does not necessarily mean to be undernourished, but it means having a difficulty, sometimes during the year, to provide a meal that is sufficient, nutritious and culturally acceptable for an active and healthy life. In developed economies, food insecurity is firstly a matter of income inadequacy: this is more and more due to the rise in food prices and in the price of other essentials for living, compared with the price level of the past decade, combined with higher unemployment and underemployment. Due to income reduction or increasing uncertainties in expected income availability, an overall contraction of food expenditures, as a flexible part in the household budget, is observed. Results are a reduced quantity of food demanded or changes in consumers’ preferences for food quality or, in some extreme cases, an increasing demand for food assistance. Research in this field has shown a considerable variety of food aid models, with public or private promoters, different stakeholders involved, activities (food banks, pantries, soup kitchens,...) and modes of operation (cash transfers, vouchers, in-kind). In most countries, the spreading of the phenomenon makes room for some considerations on the effectiveness of this “safety net of the safety net”, raising issues of social acceptability, governments’ neglect of responsibilities and right to food. This paper aims at reviewing the current knowledge on the contribution of food assistance in addressing food insecurity in high-income countries. In particular, we were interested in understanding to what extent problems and their possible solutions are laid within the food system or are related to other subsystems, such as the national economy and welfare systems. We believe that understanding the functioning and the effectiveness of food assistance programs is central to the definition of the strategy of high-income countries to reduce food systems’ vulnerability in front of future shocks. This work is part of the activities of the TRANSMANGO project (EU-FP7 project, http://www.transmango.eu/), aimed at identifying the nexus between vulnerability of people and vulnerability of the food system.

ABSTRACT. In the academic literature scholars have underlined that urban food systems are emerging as important (but still under-researched) units of analysis for sustainable food security in the 21st century. In this paper we develop a mixed method for understanding food and nutritional security (FNS) sustainability in urban areas in countries like Tanzania. With increasing urbanization, decreasing agricultural productivity in rural areas and persistent food poverty in Tanzania, we seek to understand what is the existing linkage between urban agriculture and Food and Nutritional Security (FNS) in urban areas, particular in the sub-Saharan Africa context . In particular we seek to shade light on what is the connection and disconnection between urban food production and consumption. In what way does the connection and disconnection impact on urban food and nutritional security?

We carryout our analysis using the systemic approach lens, through which, FNS is analyzed structurally and systemically. The approach, which is currently gaining growing attention in the academic literature, takes into account sustainability concerns as well as issues of production-based (productivist approach) and consumption-based (demand or access based approach).

ABSTRACT. The relation between metropolis and food is essential to our ordinary life. The different ways through which nourishment reaches our table is a fundamental issue to be investigated even more if we consider that in the next forty years, 75 per cent of the world population will live in boundless urban agglomeration. Cities growth represents also a crucial factor for rethinking food as an element and a tool for urban design, basically because cities consume three quarters of the planet’s resources. If the metropolis is the place of the density and of commercial exchange in defined places, where food is sold and exchanged (shops, supermarkets, superstores) elsewhere, like in the rural area of many African countries, food is produced and traded near the place of production, generally along the closer road. This is an original anticipation of the new trend of “food at zero kilometer” that actually take place in the Western world. But a growing problem in contemporary cities is that of supply of the food that has to be imported in the metropolis from ever greater distances with large impacts on sustainability. There is now also a growing debate about the need to produce the food needed to sustain the inhabitants of the contemporary metropolis using flat roofs of skyscrapers, small green areas empty and abandoned buildings for instance through hydroponics. The paper aims to provide an analysis of the current food supply situation through the investigation of some peculiar markets and also new trials concerning food supply in some contemporary metropolis, linking the issue of food to the solution of various environmental emergencies affecting the major metropolitan areas of the planet. Markets selected and analyzed are taken form extremely different situations on one hand major urban agglomeration based on capitalistic system on the other hand rural conditions, but all of them are related to informal spatial configuration. The connotative informality is the main trait of those realities where food becomes more than an object of consumption and it transforms urban areas, cultural identity and quality of citizen lives.

ABSTRACT. The paper focus on the concept of food and agriculture as an infrastructure – which is both spatial and relational -, within the context of the urban Mediterranean phenomenon, where, with all its political, cultural, economical, social and environmental differences, there is a common relationship with food and food production in an urban setting. The aim of this paper is to explore the agricultural context of Rome, focusing on its relationships with development in the metropolitan area and the whole region of Lazio, assessing City Region Food Systems. Rome has what we could call a compact structure compared to the dispersed urban model and this has encouraged the development of local agricultural systems, where both flows and landscapes involve the city. While production is organised into wedge-shaped areas, the places where exchanges occur are mainly within the municipal area of Rome, with the exception of farms involved in direct sales. The role played by the local food network in Rome is remarkable, particularly in case of farmers’ market, SPG’ and those linked to box schemes experiences have seen significant success. The local food network behind agriculture in the city, within a number of integrated social agrarian cooperative, who represented an alternative food production system and landmark for many initiatives carried out by the civil society, associations, cooperatives, volunteer and school sectors, community supported agriculture (CSA) initiatives. Regarding the public food service, one of the most important project deserving to be presented is known as the Quality Revolution, concerned with school canteen service in Rome. The processes of transformation affecting the primary sector in urban and suburban environments reflect an agriculture that forms (and produces) new landscape and functions, typically reconnected to the historical value of agriculture in and around the Mediterranean cities. Food, because of its cultural and historical place in Mediterranean tradition, has a significant role in configuring the areas where exchanges takes place, which are, therefore, specific places for meeting and forming relationships within the public spaces of a city. The system identified by the paper configures the set of all the different forms of agriculture and food as a device of resilience for the city, made up of places where flows, relationships and processes become increasingly more sustainable, and where both physical and intangible spaces act as an infrastructure in their exchange with the city.

ABSTRACT. What happens when governments fail in their roles as enablers of sustainable food systems? In Madrid, the firm political will necessary for the promotion of Sustainable food systems is completely absent from the Regional Government of Madrid and from most of the municipalities in its metropolitan area. Therefore, during the last fifteen years, the generation of alternatives linked to food sovereignty has emanated from grass-root movements. For a long time, these new farmers, gardeners and committed consumers had very low expectations of an impact in public policies. Time has come to take a qualitative step forward and to generate a political impact.

In January 2015 a consistent number of farmers, consumers, cooperatives, trainers, researchers and ecologists started a process in which the collaborative planning strategies and the management tools developed by these social movements has been applied to: a) influence on the political agenda, with the incoming local and regional elections; b) improve the activity of social movements, costumers, producers, educators in the agroecological transition and in the progress towards food sovereignty

The process is called Madridagroecologico, a bottom-up and participative process trying to foster agroecology and sustainable food systems in the urban region. The foundations have been laid to scale up ongoing initiatives of local food networks that link producers and consumers.

Some of the factors that enabled this process possible shall be highlighted: * Lack of legitimacy of traditional political institutions. The growing interest of the citizenship for the re-establishment of sovereignty resulted into participation in the construction of political alternatives. * Under the umbrella of the 15M movements, new formulas emerged (economy de-monetisation, solidarity networks...). Crisis also brought a vivid social reactivation, while food was set in the agenda of social movements. * Since 2000 there have been a bundle of innovative successful projects of new farmers and consumers committed to agroecology and food sovereignty. They were and still are a reference with a high symbolic impact, albeit their very small dimension. * The severe economic downturn resulted in high unemployment rates, especially for the young (youth unemployment rate lies for years above 50%). Urban unemployed engaged in agriculture in peri-urban areas through direct circuit with high trust distribution systems and Participatory Guarantee Systems. * Changes in the food system are not coming from conventional or professional farmers, but from emerging alliances between a new generation of small informal gardeners and farmers and groups of urban consumers.

ABSTRACT. Brazilian’s Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar (PNAE), in 2009, changed his politic bases. It’s setting in an important institutional purchasing policy and development of Family Agriculture (FA). The object this paper is discusses the importance of public rural extension service for the viability of the institutional market of School Feeding. The research was conducted in nine municipalities in southern Brazil. Even with a supportive policy environment are still found obstacles to carrying out the institutional purchase, the principal problem are social and productive organization of family farmers. The study showed that farmers need support and technical assistance to relocalizing and reorder the logic of production. But the public rural extension has not been able to do that.

ABSTRACT. In Finland, governmental program contribute to the development of local food markets and production. However, the restrictions concerning the use of local food often relate to procurement legislation, lack of information concerning the supply, and the small volumes to be offered – to mention a few reasons.

This study looks at the possibilities of increasing the use of local food in institutional kitchens through developing operations model of regional network in the food chain in the RuokaNET project. The model can be used to promote the networking of local food producers and companies and their cooperation with the foodservices. The model will be formed via a case study which was carried out in the Federation of Education in Jokilaaksot (JEDU) in Oulu South region in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The target group includes JEDU’s kitchens and the canteens’ customers.

At the first stage, surveys and interviews for the kitchens were implemented to find out the situation concerning the use of locally produced food, demand, and needs. Questionnaires were also provided to students and staff in order to ascertain the consumer’s perspectives and opinions. The kitchens (N=10) announced to have a great interest in product development in cooperation with producers as well as making excursions to farms and food processors in order to improve their knowledge of local production. Appreciation of local food was apparent among customers, while 70 percent of the respondents (N=509) saw the use of locally produced food in the food services as either important or very important.

At the second stage, the study surveyed the interest of local food producers and companies to be involved in developing the model and cooperation with institutional kitchens. In spring 2015, the project organized workshops for producers and food services focusing on product presentation and a guided discussion.

Finally, the results are assembled to build a regional network model which contains the suggestions for the measures and the organization via which the corresponding regional operation can also be implemented elsewhere.

The project began in October 2014 and it will conclude in December 2015. The implementer of the project is the Natural Resources Institute Finland and it is financed by the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The present paper introduces the preliminary results of the surveys and boundary conditions of the developing of the model.

ABSTRACT. In the scope of The National Sustainable Development Strategy based on the fight against hunger and poverty, where smallholder farming constitutes a key sector, the government of former President Lula da Silva (2003-2010) implemented several innovative public policies, such as the National Program for Sustainable Development of Rural Territories (PRONAT), aiming to strengthen smallholder farming through participatory deliberative forums. Besides, it innovated old public policies such as the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE), requiring that at least 30% of the amount transferred by the Union to municipalities and states to purchase food for school meals be used to purchase products from smallholder farmers. This work aims to analyse the performance of institutional procurement of smallholder farming products in the Rural Territory of Seridó in the state of Paraiba between 2010 and 2014, by confronting environmental, cultural, institutional, organizational and political constraints with the productive and organizational potential of smallholder farming.

ABSTRACT. Organic food and farming strategies has enjoyed increasing political support in Denmark for the past decades. One of the important pillars has included a priority to converting a large a proportion of the public sector foodservice as possible. In the Organic Action Plan 2020 the Danish government has committed itself to ambitious goals as regards to the organic share of the public food supply chain. However affecting the supply chain of public food is a complicated process since it affects a myriad of stakeholders, technologies and organizational procedures. Organic sourcing is dependent on knowledge, skill and competencies of public food workers as well as on the attitudes and preferences of the end users in a broad range of different public food outlets such as school, kindergarten, nursing homes hospitals, canteens and prisons. This paper looks at the implementation of the Danish Public Organic Procurement Policy (POPP) over the past decade. It presents new data of the implementation rate based on new procurement data from the foodservice suppliers and the penetration of organic foods in different sectors of foodservice and discloses secular trend on that development based on statistical bureau data. It uses a technology perspective to analyses how the role of attitudes and education among staff influence the implementation. It analyses the role of the supply side and the procurement interface in the promotion of organic food. It uses a policy implantation approach and concludes that organic procurement policies cannot rely entirely on high level policies. Organic public procurement id dependent on the engagement and involvement of shop floor level workers as well as the active commitment from suppliers, procurement officials and middle level administrative management. It concludes by listing recommendations for POPP implementation.

ABSTRACT. This paper covers a learning pathway from Good Agricul-tural Practice regarding water protection against agri-cultural pollution to common standards of Good Agricul-tural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) in the Czech Republic as a functional region. A shared responsibility platform emerges as a relatively neutral ‘outsider’ field for evaluation of transferability of benefits to civil socie-ty organisation as regards water and soil protection in tandem with farmers’ profitability. Particular attention is paid to negotiating the pathway itself which isn’t developing a new model, yet applying the tried well-known ones.

ABSTRACT. Food supply chains represent complex social constructions whose performances can be evaluated according to multiple criteria perspectives. If they are firstly meant to provide food in an effective way (whatever this may mean), they have a much wider range of impacts on people, society and environment, which are socially defined, discussed and evaluated in the media debate.

The paper presents the results of a survey conducted on the Italian media within the EU funded "Glamur" project aimed at identifying the more frequently debated food supply chain attributes, with a specific attention given to the local-global divide, i.e. to the attributes enabling the distinction between local and global food chains. These attributes represent "areas of interest" around which the debate develops.

The survey was conducted through three main steps. First, relevant sources were selected in order to ensure a wide representation of positions across various debate spheres (public, policy, scientific, market). Then, single articles, papers, documents and press releases have been identified in each of the selected sources through a process based on the application of key-words. The analysis led to the identification of a set of 20 food chains "attributes" which resulted to be the most debated on the Italian media.

The analysis has been concluded by interviews with experts and stakeholders, again covering different points of views and expertise covering market, civil society and scientific constituencies. The set of interviews integrated the literature analysis and ranked the attributes identified.

The attributes can be grouped according to their most pertinent dimensions. • Environmental: GHG emissions, Biodiversity, Pollution, Organic, Landscape preservation • Economic: Affordability Producers' income, National interests • Social: Food Activism, Traditional farming, Labour rights, Food security, • Human health: Healthy food, Healthy diets, Food safety, Obesity • Ethical: Information, Territory, Food waste, Animal welfare

Some main comments on the outcomes can be summarized as follows: • Great emphasis has been given (in particular on mass media) to the link between food, territory and tradition. GHG emissions are also extensively debated. • The experts gave ranked the highest two health-related attributes ("healthy food" and "food safety"), whereas "obesity", largely present in the media, was ranked as the least relevant. • Information, in its various meanings (traceability, transparency, nutritional labeling), receives a predominant consideration across sources.

ABSTRACT. The formation of large retail chains and the concentration of fruit & vegetable market in big supermarket groups put the consumer far from producer. Allen (2004) considers sustainable agriculture and community food security as the most prominent alternative food movements and responsible for the reconnect consumption to production. This reconnection has been made through the formation of local food systems, with short marketing channels, organic production and reuse of local waste as opposed to global food systems involving large companies and production scales. The Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is one of many local food systems. For 30 years the CSA has been disseminated in the United States and Europe. Saltmarsh et al (2011) define it as “a production initiative of any food, fiber or energy where the community share the risks and rewards of production, whether through business, investment, share of the cost or to provide work.” Some authors (Tegtmeier & Duffy, 2005; Woods et al, 2009; Grande, 2009; Galt, 2011; Schilicht et al, 2011; Saltmarsh et al, 2011; Blanke, 2011; Dezsény, 2013) have analyzed the regional or national dissemination of CSA initiatives in the United States and European countries. The purpose of this article is to characterize the CSA initiatives in Brazil. For the identification of initiatives were interviewed CSA Brazil (NGO has helped the creation of new projects) and the participants of the Second Meeting Education and Agriculture, which took place between February 27 and March 1, 2015. In Brazil, initiatives are recent and the first CSA initiative happened in 2011, in Botucatu (São Paulo). By early 2015, there are nine implemented or under construction initiatives. From the identification of initiatives, its entrepreneurs were interviewed and initiatives were characterized by year of birth, location (city, urban or peri-urban), entrepreneur & management (producer, producer partnership community, NGOs, association, cooperative), members (number). Production: area (total, production), system (organic, without pesticides, certificate), products (annual diversity), producers (number). Business: approach (pre-production or post-production), distribution points (quantity and average distance of the members), box (diversity and monthly deliveries). Profile of entrepreneurs: age (years), training (degree), commercial experience (s / n) and agricultural (s / n), income share (%).

ABSTRACT. Health and sustainability concerns related to food production and consumption have come to the fore in the public opinion and in the scientific and political agendas. They involve a multiplicity of actors, fields of action and responsibilities and need the definition of new models of interaction and decision making in order to be tackled. As a potential response, a “new food governance” is increasingly locally experimented, in which actors, other than public bodies and powerful corporations, have voice and innovative, context-based solutions, are fine-tuned to meet the new societal demands. These new forms of food governance develop along three types of relationships: i) civil society and the chain of food provision (i.e. shorter food supply chains); ii) the public sector and the chain of food provision (i.e. public procurement); iii) policy makers, especially at local level, and civil society (i.e. urban food strategies). In this context, civil society in particular plays an active role in promoting innovation. This rise of community action is newly reassessed through the lens of grassroots innovation initiatives. The 7thFP Foodlinks project has focused on exploring new modalities of science-policy-civil society interaction in the domain of sustainable food production and consumption. Looking at the experience across 12 European countries, the project has deepened the specific innovative pathways undertaken along each of the three governance axes. To that end, the model of Community of Practice has been adopted. The present article aims at pointing out the challenges emerging from the three mentioned domains, focusing on the role of civil society members and organizations and on the related demands. What changes do the new societal demands require to producers and production systems? What role and contribution is required to public policies? What kind of institutional innovation could be useful to meet the new claims? Based on case study analyses, developed collectively by researchers, policy makers and civil society actors gathered within the three thematic Communities of Practice organised, we discuss and systemize implications and instances emerging within specific contexts. Results show how food is an integrative concept, which requires an innovative, reflexive approach at operational as well as policy level. The different expressions of the new modes of governance analyzed provide a wide range of insights, helpful to the research and to the policy system.