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Drivers and barriers associated with value chain initiatives

The need to accelerate the transition towards sustainability in food provisioning and consumption is both urgent and complex. The urgency stems from the detrimental effects of current food systems on the environment and on socioeconomic conditions. The complexity lies in the way the agri-food system, in all its guises, is configured, including production intensification and monoculture, concentration of corporate control across agriculture and the food industry, consolidation of retail and distribution systems, and the unsustainable consumption patterns these structures reinforce.

In recent years, niche business developments have emerged as key drivers of sustainable development. Often enabled by developments in socio-technical innovations, these alternative business and value chain models have appeared as potential solutions to market failures by introducing new products, services and/or processes. A positive sustainability influence calls for a substantial contribution to progress these initiatives by scaling up and out to exert both significant market influence and broad social or political influence. However, the potential of these niche sustainable value chains/business models to considerably disrupt the market and society substantially, is still unclear.

The study draws on seven innovative agri-food value chain initiatives across Europe, each representing a distinct niche business model that employs alternative operational and governance mechanisms to promote sustainability. Using a practice-based approach to value chain analysis, the study examined how sustainability is introduced, enacted, and sustained across the value chains through social practices. This summary report presents the key findings on the drivers and barriers to promoting sustainability in value chain operations, and their implications for the ability of sustainable business initiatives studied to effectively deliver sustainability outcomes. A full report will be made available in due course.

The findings indicate that clearly articulated sustainability visions and goals act as a lever for embedding sustainability within value chain operations. However, sustainability objectives cannot remain confined to business-level strategies; they must be enacted through coordinated practices across the value chain to generate tangible and intangible outcomes. A key factor in catalysing sustainability innovations in value chains lies in the role of the leading initiative/entrepreneurs in identifying and positioning innovation (technological or social) within the chain. These actors’ function as ‘sustainability practice brokers’ by channelling sustainability innovation ideas and shaping their adoption across the chain (e.g., how they are introduced across the chain), and build critical social bridges through effective collaboration both horizontally and vertically throughout the chain to enable sustainability-oriented transformations.

The study revealed a set of dynamic and interconnected practices across the value chain that are relevant for constructing and maintaining sustainability. These are grouped into three thematic categories: cooperation, improving and relational governance. These practices serve as key drivers of sustainability innovation by structuring change processes and shaping the chain operational activities of the actors involved.

Cooperation practices such as information sharing and network-building, facilitate stakeholder engagement and collective agency. Improving practices support experimentation, innovation co-creation, shared learning and skills development, which strengthen both knowledge capital and social capital. Relational governance practices, including codes of conduct and effective communication, play a functional role through reinforcing trust, establishing relationships based on shared expectations in the value chain, and promote positive history of collaboration.

These practices contribute to the construction and maintenance of sustainability in the value chain context by nurturing various forms of socio-technical, socio-economic and socio-cultural developments, including generating secure market opportunities for producers, building knowledge capital through stakeholders’ capacity building, and strengthening social capital.

Despite these enabling practices, common barriers persist across the value chains, particularly, limited financial resources and the inability to drive significant shifts in market and consumer demand, emerge as key constraints, which pose significant risks to scalability, replication, and long-term viability.

In conclusion, the study offers useful actionable guidelines for businesses to enhance their internal value chain operations to effectively unlock sustainability transitions. Also, the study provides insights for potential policy interventions to support the scalability and/or replication of these small sustainable business models.

The following aspects can be recommended for businesses:

1. Cooperation and collective action across the value chain are essential to address systemic sustainability challenges. This translates into shared responsibility toward achieving a common goal.
2. Governance structures: Businesses should invest on building mutual trust and relational capacity across the value chain among actors. This is essential to boost social ties that enable engagement in continuous improving practices, i.e., co-creation practices, to maintain and continually develop innovations overtime. The presence of formal or informal governance mechanisms within the chain is essential to provide guidelines for actors and in governing relationships to build trust-based relations.
3. Network building and mobilisation across diverse range of external stakeholders can help overcome the limitation of resources and knowledge capital commonly encountered by these ‘niche’ businesses.

Policy recommendations

Public policy schemes should prioritise support for sustainable entrepreneurial businesses at the local level by providing funding opportunities to invest in regional/local supply chain and value chain infrastructure upgrade, capacity building, and invest in marketing, thereby boosting visibility, recognition, and long-term competitiveness.

1. Government leadership and endorsement: essential to support SMEs sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives visibility by recognising their sustainability efforts, thereby granting businesses legitimacy that extends beyond purely economic considerations.
2. Value chain infrastructure gaps: policy effort should prioritise investments in these infrastructures at the local and regional level to improve sustainable SMEs supply chains operational efficiency and reducing transaction costs.
3. Public funding design: Policy frameworks should move beyond short term funding and instead provide stable, medium to long-term financial support for sustainable agro-food SMEs. Such support should be flexible to provide the stability and adaptability needed to implement ambitious innovative projects. This will help ensuring continued viability and scaling of these business models. For example, public funding schemes are needed to enable these initiatives to cover marketing and promotional costs over a defined period. This is essential to enhance visibility, consumer awareness, and market demand.
4. Support sector leadership: promote public-private partnerships (PPP) and provide stable financial support to sustainable value chain leaders or lead firms. These actors are pioneers and entrepreneurs who play pivotal role in coordinating stakeholders and mobilising collective action across supply chains. These actors are often acknowledged as essential for innovation and promoting sustainable development but often remain institutionally unsupported. Investing in these PPP represent an opportunity to strengthen the social infrastructure across supply chains, which enhances the relational and innovation capacity needed to unlock more sustainable change across socio-technical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural domains. These shifts are essential to enable system change.

This manuscript, prepared under Work Package 3 (WP3) of the VISIONARY project, contributes to the overarching aim of identifying policy levers that can support transitions towards sustainable farming and food systems in Europe. WP3 investigates how behavioural approaches and experimental methods can help design effective agri-environmental policy interventions to address three key transition challenges: climate neutrality, halting biodiversity loss, and improving water quality. In this context, the manuscript focuses on the role of behavioural drivers — cognitive, social, and dispositional factors that shape human decision-making — in determining farmers' responses to economic policy instruments designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture.

The manuscript presents findings from two complementary experimental studies. The first study investigates Italian dairy farmers' preferences for alternative payment schemes aimed at incentivising the adoption of essential oil feed supplements to reduce enteric methane emissions. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with 120 farmers in the Autonomous Province of Trento, it elicits willingness to accept Action-Based Payments (ABPs), Results-Based Payments (RBPs) framed either as an Agri-Environmental Climate Scheme or a voluntary carbon market, and Hybrid Payment (HP) designs combining both components. The second study examines Danish farmers' beliefs about the economic impacts of a CO₂e tax on agriculture and tests whether providing expert information can reduce misperceptions and increase policy support. It draws on a randomised survey experiment with 981 farmers, conducted in the context of Denmark's actual CO₂e tax proposals at both high (750 DKK/tonne) and low (125 DKK/tonne) stringency levels.

The results demonstrate that behavioural drivers are central mediators of farmers' acceptance of climate policy instruments. Italian dairy farmers show a general preference for ABPs over RBPs, driven by familiarity, certainty preference, and reduced complexity, though acceptance of innovative payment mechanisms improves substantially when pro-environmental attitudes are present, risk aversion is lower, and farmers have higher perceived behavioural control over the implementation of new practices, and when RBPs are introduced in hybrid formats alongside conventional subsidies. Notably, farmers' responses to hybrid schemes are more coherent when paired with an AECS framing than with a voluntary carbon market framing, suggesting that pure market mechanisms create additional psychological barriers. Danish farmers systematically and substantially overestimate the negative economic impacts of the CO₂e tax — by a factor of up to three relative to expert estimates — and this perception gap represents a key driver of policy opposition. Expert information partially reduces these misperceptions and increases tax support, but the effect is heterogeneous: smaller farms and crop producers respond more readily, while larger farms and livestock producers exhibit limited belief revision, consistent with motivated reasoning. The study also finds that opposition to the carbon tax can paradoxically increase openness to an agricultural ETS scheme, pointing to a policy substitution effect with important implications for policy sequencing. Together, these findings highlight that achieving agricultural GHG reductions requires policy designs that account for behavioural realities, including uncertainty aversion, belief biases, and farmer heterogeneity, thereby contributing to VISIONARY's broader objective of identifying how policy design can facilitate sustainability transitions in diverse socio-ecological contexts.

The full report will be available soon.

This report synthesizes the results of two studies on supermarket interventions aimed at reducing the climate footprint of food consumption. Food systems account for approximately one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The Farm to Fork Strategy acknowledges the urgent need to reduce the climate footprint of the European food system through a comprehensive transition across the entire food chain, including shifts in consumers’ food choices. The retail sector plays a pivotal role in shaping markets and influencing consumers’ dietary choices, and the Farm to Fork Strategy explicitly calls for changes in food distribution and marketing practices.

The overarching objective of the two empirical studies presented in this report was to investigate the effectiveness of supermarket interventions in reducing the climate impact of food consumption through shifts in consumer behaviour towards more sustainable food choices. The two studies tested a set of interventions through an online supermarket experiment embedded within a consumer survey. We simulated a realistic online supermarket environment, providing a means to assess households’ food purchase behaviour across different food categories. Study 1 focussed on behavioural interventions and tested the effects of a placement intervention (i.e. the strategic placement of plant-based assortments within the meat and dairy sections), a climate label (i.e. a traffic-light label based on CO₂e emissions), and the combination of the two. The study was conducted in Germany, Denmark, Spain and Hungary with a sample of N=7,373 participants. Study 2 tested the effects of price changes (i.e. price increases for high-emission foods and/or price decreases for low-emission foods), climate labelling (i.e. information on the CO₂e emissions of food products) and different combinations of these treatment interventions. The study was conducted in Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom with a representative sample of N=7,482 consumers.

Study 1 on behavioural supermarket interventions in Germany, Denmark, Spain and Hungary showed that the strategic placement of plant-based assortments in the meat and dairy sections as well as the introduction of a climate label can reduce the carbon footprint of food purchases, particularly when implemented jointly. The effectiveness of the tested interventions varied across countries and not all effects were statistically significant. Across Germany, Denmark, and Spain, the combination of the placement intervention with a climate label resulted in the greatest reduction in emissions by –13% to –16% (compared to the control group). In Spain and Denmark, the introduction of a climate label also had a statistically significant effect. The placement intervention by itself had a significant effect only in Denmark. In Hungary, none of the tested interventions significantly reduced the climate impact of food purchases; however, the combined intervention led to a significant reduction of climate emissions among younger age groups (up to 40 years).

Study 2 on price- and information-based interventions in Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom found that price mechanisms and information are effective tools to reduce emissions from food consumption behaviours. While price increases for high-emission foods had, on average, the strongest effects in terms of emission reductions (–4% to –9%) across all three countries, the effect size of the remaining interventions differed across countries, suggesting that the optimal implementation may depend on specific country settings. Price discounts for low-emission foods by themselves did not lead to the desired effect of reducing the climate impact of food consumption, but instead had a null (Italy) or even positive effect (Poland and the United Kingdom) on food-related emissions – unless combined with climate labelling and/or price increases for high-emission foods. Climate labelling by itself (without the implementation of price changes) yielded remarkable significant reductions in emissions in Poland and the United Kingdom, but was ineffective in Italy. The results from Study 2 additionally show that it is possible to achieve equivalent emission reductions using different mixes of instruments and that solutions should be carefully chosen and tailored depending on the country context and objectives.

In both studies, significant reductions in the climate impact of food purchases were primarily driven by lower purchased quantities of high-emission foods, particularly beef and cheese. Although the average decrease in the purchased quantity of these items was relatively modest, the corresponding reduction in CO₂e emissions was substantial, underscoring that even small shifts in consumer behaviour away from high-emission, animal-based foods can yield significant climate benefits.

The tested interventions promoting (plant-based) foods with low CO₂e emissions – the placement intervention in Study 1, and the price discount intervention in Study 2 – successfully increased the purchases of these products in all countries across both studies. Interestingly, when implemented as single interventions rather than as part of an instrument mix that also modifies aspects of high-emission foods, these measures failed to significantly reduce the climate impact of food purchases. Consumers exposed to these interventions did not significantly reduce the consumption of high-emission foods so that the desired substitution from high- to low-emission foods did not occur.

The findings from the two studies raise important questions about the role and power of supermarkets in shaping the food environments within which consumers make their food choices. The studies demonstrate that far-reaching measures implemented in supermarkets have the potential to substantially reduce the climate footprint of food consumption in the EU through shifting consumer behaviour towards more sustainable food choices. However, while the retail sector holds significant leverage to drive such change, the commercial interests of retailers are not necessarily aligned with policy objectives aimed at reducing the climate impact of food consumption. This report seeks to inform and motivate both private and public stakeholders in the food sector to act upon these insights.

The full report will be available soon.

This report brings together evidence from seven empirical studies examining how adjustments to food environments can encourage more sustainable food consumption. Food systems are key contributors to environmental degradation, driving habitat loss, water pollution, biodiversity decline, and climate change (Crippa et al., 2021). In response, the European Union’s Farm to Fork Strategy seeks to reduce the environmental and climate footprint of the food system by promoting changes across the value chain, from production to consumption (European Commission, 2020). Within this transformation, the retail sector occupies a strategic position, as it shapes product availability, marketing activities, and purchasing contexts, and is therefore explicitly targeted in the Strategy’s call for changes in food distribution and promotion practices.

The seven studies synthesised in this report evaluate a broad set of interventions, mostly within the operational scope of private food retailers, including choice architecture measures, pricing strategies, climate labels, and other point-of-purchase tools. Collectively, they address two overarching objectives central to the transition toward more sustainable food systems:

• Reducing the climate impact of food consumption through supermarket-based interventions (Studies 1–5)
• Promoting consumption of locally produced food through short supply chains (Studies 6 & 7)

Studies 1 and 2 analysed how supermarket interventions influence the climate impact of entire food baskets, drawing on cross-country survey experiments. Study 3 focused on consumer substitution between meat and legumes under different pricing scenarios using survey-based experiments conducted in Denmark. Studies 4 and 5 tested in-store promotional strategies designed to increase legume purchases through field experiments in operational supermarkets in Spain and Denmark. Study 6 evaluated the effectiveness of different promotional messages in attracting customers to a farm shop in England, while Study 7 explored consumer perceptions, emotional responses, and shopping behaviours related to farmers markets in Romania, with an emphasis on locally produced food.

Taken together, the findings of the seven studies demonstrate that behavioural interventions in food retail environments can steer consumer purchasing toward more sustainable options. However, their individual effects are typically modest. The evidence strongly suggests that integrated intervention packages – particularly those combining pricing measures, climate labelling, and strategic product placement – are substantially more effective than isolated actions. Meaningful reductions in the climate impact of food consumption therefore require structural changes to food environments rather than reliance on voluntary or informational measures alone.

Many of the effective interventions identified fall within the operational scope of private food retailers, positioning them as important facilitators of change. At the same time, this reliance on retailer action poses limitations from a policy perspective. While retailers can play a key enabling role, they are unlikely to serve as the primary drivers of systemic change. Public policy instruments – such as regulation, fiscal incentives, and mandatory information requirements – are likely necessary to align retail practices more closely with broader sustainability objectives.

The full report will be available soon.

This publication documents the results of a scoping literature review of European academic literature published 2015-2025 to show what is known about Effective Communication in Alternative Food Networks. While the authors (Inyang, Hashem & Prager) discuss the implications for Scottish Food Systems, VISIONARY partners at Exeter University provide a commentary based on their experience with short food supply chains and alternative food networks in England. They worked closely with a local food distribution hub, Tamar Grow Local (TGL) which is run by a group of staff (equivalent to 4 full time employees) and 10 core volunteers.

TGL is fully aware that effective communication is central in fostering consumer trust, loyalty and sustained participation in AFNs. They use storytelling, authenticity and regular updates through direct contact and social media and know that these methods are effective. Regular contact tends to occur mainly when food boxes are distributed to customers.

The two insights that resonated most with the TGL case are the particular resource constraints facing AFNs, and the underuse of messages around fair prices and educational content.

Resource constraints limit impact of communication strategies

• Resource constraints impact on TGLs ability to make full use of social media as a digital communication strategy. TGL producers and managers lack the time to a) get training in digital literacy, storytelling and social media, but also b) for consistent engagement. Time is the scarce resource.
• Resource constraints are also the limiting factor for involving consumers in the co-creation of narratives. TGL do not do this at the moment. While they see the value, coordinating consumers is resource intensive and this resource is currently not available.
• TGL is very keen to capitalise on incorporating basic evaluation tools to assess messaging effectiveness and inform future strategies. They realise that this is essential to help continuous learning and optimisation of communication strategies. So, they do not lack of attention to measurable outcomes as such, but again time constraints limit their capacity to evaluate the data.

Messaging needs to emphasise economic and fair content

• Messages about fair prices for producers and local economic development were not very prominent across the reviewed literature. Yet this is exactly what TGL customers care most about: supporting the economic viability of local farming families. Customers dislike what is perceived as an exploitative relationship between supermarkets and primary producers. Therefore, putting fair prices centre stage in AFN marketing messages is crucial.
• Knowing your customers is important for another reason: the average TGL customer is over 50 years old and their customer base relies on traditional communication channels such as email, news letters and phone. It is therefore vital to ensure accessibility of customer phone numbers and email addresses, and segmented mailing lists could be considered.
• Similar to AFNs in the reviewed literature, TGL communication does not feature educational messages strongly. They should emphasise this more, given the evidence that educational messaging around core values boosts long-term consumer retention and encourages consumer engagement, effectively creating a community of advocates.

La presente pubblicazione documenta i risultati di una revisione della letteratura europea pubblicata tra il 2015 e il 2025, volta a illustrare le conoscenze attuali in materia di comunicazione efficace nelle reti alimentari alternative. Mentre gli autori (Inyang, Hashem e Prager) discutono le implicazioni per i sistemi alimentari scozzesi, i partner di VISIONARY dell'Università di Exeter forniscono un commento basato sulla loro esperienza con le filiere alimentari corte e le reti alimentari alternative in Inghilterra. Hanno lavorato a stretto contatto con un centro di distribuzione alimentare locale, Tamar Grow Local (TGL), gestito da un gruppo di personale (equivalente a 4 dipendenti a tempo pieno) e 10 volontari principali.

TGL è pienamente consapevole che una comunicazione efficace è fondamentale per promuovere la fiducia dei consumatori, la loro fedeltà e la partecipazione sostenuta alle AFN. Utilizzano lo storytelling, l'autenticità e aggiornamenti regolari attraverso il contatto diretto e i social media e sanno che questi metodi sono efficaci. Il contatto regolare tende a verificarsi principalmente quando le cassette alimentari vengono distribuite ai clienti.

Le due intuizioni che hanno trovato maggiore riscontro nel caso di TGL sono le particolari limitazioni di risorse che devono affrontare le AFN e il sottoutilizzo dei messaggi relativi ai prezzi equi e ai contenuti educativi.

Le limitazioni di risorse limitano l'impatto delle strategie di comunicazione

• I limiti delle risorse disponibili incidono sulla capacità di TGL di sfruttare appieno i social media come strategia di comunicazione digitale. I produttori e i dirigenti di TGL non hanno il tempo necessario per a) seguire corsi di formazione in materia di alfabetizzazione digitale, storytelling e social media, ma anche b) garantire un coinvolgimento costante. Il tempo è la risorsa più scarsa.
• Anche i limiti di risorse rappresentano un ostacolo al coinvolgimento dei consumatori nella co-creazione di narrazioni. Al momento TGL non attua questa pratica. Pur riconoscendone il valore, il coordinamento dei consumatori richiede un notevole impiego di risorse che attualmente non sono disponibili.
• TGL è molto interessata a sfruttare l'integrazione di strumenti di valutazione di base per valutare l'efficacia dei messaggi e orientare le strategie future. Si rende conto che ciò è essenziale per favorire l'apprendimento continuo e l'ottimizzazione delle strategie di comunicazione. Pertanto, non manca l'attenzione ai risultati misurabili in quanto tali, ma, ancora una volta, i vincoli di tempo limitano la sua capacità di valutare i dati.

La comunicazione deve porre l'accento su contenuti economici ed equi

• I messaggi relativi a prezzi equi per i produttori e allo sviluppo economico locale non hanno avuto grande risalto nella letteratura esaminata. Eppure è proprio questo ciò che sta più a cuore ai clienti di TGL: sostenere la redditività economica delle famiglie di agricoltori locali. I clienti disapprovano ciò che viene percepito come un rapporto di sfruttamento tra supermercati e produttori primari. Pertanto, è fondamentale mettere i prezzi equi al centro dei messaggi di marketing di AFN.
• Conoscere i propri clienti è importante anche per un altro motivo: il cliente tipo di TGL ha più di 50 anni e la sua base clienti si affida a canali di comunicazione tradizionali quali e-mail, newsletter e telefono. È quindi fondamentale garantire l’accessibilità dei numeri di telefono e degli indirizzi e-mail dei clienti; si potrebbe inoltre prendere in considerazione l’utilizzo di mailing list segmentate.
• Analogamente alle AFN nella letteratura esaminata, la comunicazione di TGL non dà grande risalto ai messaggi educativi. Dovrebbero porre maggiore enfasi su questo aspetto, vista l’evidenza che i messaggi educativi sui valori fondamentali aumentano la fidelizzazione a lungo termine dei consumatori e ne incoraggiano il coinvolgimento, creando di fatto una comunità di sostenitori.

Questo rapporto documenta i risultati prodotti dal Task 3.2 “Transition of agri-environmental systems to climate-neutral food systems” all’interno del WP3 “Agri-environmental policy experimentation”. L’obiettivo del task è esplorare l’accettazione da parte degli agricoltori dell’UE sia di misure obbligatorie (come un sistema di scambio delle emissioni agricole) sia di mercati volontari del carbonio. Verranno inoltre esaminati altri strumenti economici, tra cui tasse sul carbonio o sul CO₂ equivalente (CO2e) e schemi di sostegno innovativi (come i pagamenti basati sui risultati, Result-Based Payments, RBPs, e i pagamenti ibridi, Hybrid Payments, HPs), progettati per incentivare pratiche agricole rispettose del clima.

Inoltre, il Task 3.2 ha l’obiettivo di indagare se e in quale misura i fattori comportamentali influenzano l’accettabilità di tali strumenti di politica economica da parte degli agricoltori. Per raggiungere questi obiettivi sono stati condotti due esperimenti contestualizzati, che hanno coinvolto complessivamente circa 1.100 agricoltori, uno in Italia e l’altro in Danimarca.

Questo rapporto, redatto nell’ambito del Work Package 3 (WP3) del progetto VISIONARY, contribuisce all’obiettivo generale di individuare leve politiche che possano supportare le transizioni verso sistemi agricoli e alimentari sostenibili in Europa. Il WP3 indaga come approcci comportamentali e metodi sperimentali possano aiutare a progettare interventi politici agro-ambientali efficaci per affrontare tre principali sfide della transizione: la neutralità climatica, l’arresto della perdita di biodiversità e il miglioramento della qualità delle acque. In questo contesto, il nostro studio si concentra sul potenziale di un quadro di etichettatura per le misure agro-ambientali climatiche “dark green” (AECM) come possibile leva politica per incentivare la partecipazione degli agricoltori e, di conseguenza, rafforzare la transizione in materia di biodiversità.

Il passaggio all’agricoltura biologica è influenzato da una combinazione di ostacoli e fattori trainanti tra loro interconnessi. Una revisione delle ricerche esistenti, dei modelli mentali, dei workshop e delle interviste ha messo in evidenza problemi ricorrenti, come la domanda instabile, le limitate strutture di trasformazione, l’insufficiente supporto consulenziale, la carenza di manodopera e le politiche incoerenti. Allo stesso tempo, sono stati individuati fattori positivi come l’apprendimento tra agricoltori, il supporto dei consulenti, piani d’azione chiari, la collaborazione tra diversi settori e le campagne di sensibilizzazione del pubblico. Questi risultati mostrano che il passaggio all’agricoltura biologica non è ostacolato da un singolo problema, ma dipende dal buon funzionamento dell’intero sistema agroalimentare e dal livello di coordinamento tra i diversi attori – agricoltori, consulenti, trasformatori, distributori, consumatori e decisori politici.

La gestione delle risorse idriche su scala paesaggistica è fondamentale per affrontare le sfide ambientali e idrologiche nell’agricoltura europea. A causa della frammentazione della proprietà terriera, la gestione deve andare oltre le singole proprietà e allinearsi ai sistemi idrologici, richiedendo una governance collaborativa che coinvolga agricoltori e altri portatori di interesse.

Questo studio (Milestone 9), sui motivi e sugli ostacoli dell’azione collettiva per ridurre l’impatto sulle risorse idriche, utilizza i principi di progettazione di Elinor Ostrom (Design Principles, DPs) come strumento diagnostico per valutare la robustezza istituzionale in tre casi: gestione dell’irrigazione in Spagna e Ungheria e regolazione del nitrogeno basata sui bacini idrografici in Danimarca.

Il caso spagnolo mostra un forte allineamento con i principi DPs, con organizzazioni nidificate guidate dagli utenti e riconoscimento legale dei diritti collettivi. Il caso ungherese evidenzia un forte controllo dall’alto (top-down), ma manca della capacità di implementare iniziative complesse e collettive di gestione dell’acqua, nonché della necessaria cooperazione dal basso (bottom-up), coordinamento e guida professionale. Il caso danese diverge significativamente dai principi DPs a causa del limitato coinvolgimento degli stakeholder e dell’autonomia degli utenti.

Questi risultati dimostrano come il contesto istituzionale e il design della governance influenzino la legittimità e l’efficacia nella gestione delle risorse idriche. Sebbene i principi di Ostrom offrano un utile benchmark istituzionale, forniscono informazioni limitate sui fattori comportamentali che influenzano la partecipazione degli agricoltori.

Proponiamo che le future ricerche sui principi di Ostrom incorporino prospettive comportamentali per comprendere meglio successi e fallimenti dei programmi collettivi agro-ambientali volti a un uso sostenibile delle risorse idriche. I nostri lavori futuri andranno oltre l’analisi istituzionale per esplorare leve e ostacoli comportamentali nei programmi agro-ambientali collettivi.

In questo articolo presentiamo una rassegna dei modelli basati su agenti (ABM) nei sistemi alimentari, concentrandoci su come vengono incorporate le intuizioni comportamentali. L'articolo è stato pubblicato su "Environmental Modelling & Software Journal" ed è il risultato corrispondente al "Deliverable 5.3 - Review of food systems models and their behavioural assumptions". Troviamo che molti modelli non hanno una giustificazione comportamentale e sottolineiamo la necessità di una base più solida di assunti comportamentali.

Suggeriamo le seguenti linee guida provvisorie per supportare il futuro sviluppo di ABM nella modellazione dei sistemi alimentari:

• Giustificazione comportamentale. Le scelte comportamentali devono essere giustificate dalla teoria o dai dati. Ad esempio, utilizzando il quadro MoHuB per identificare le teorie comportamentali pertinenti.
• Parsimonia del modello. I modelli devono essere mantenuti il più semplici possibile, concentrandosi su parti specifiche del sistema alimentare e limitando la portata spaziale a quanto necessario per rispondere alla domanda di ricerca.
• Trasparenza e documentazione. Si raccomanda l'uso di protocolli standardizzati, come ODD + D, per migliorare la trasparenza, la riproducibilità e la comparabilità.

Il presente rapporto (Deliverable 2.2) si basa sul quadro concettuale e analitico iniziale del progetto VISIONARY e mira a delineare in che modo i casi di studio selezionati in VISIONARY si completano a vicenda per affrontare gli obiettivi chiave del progetto. Il rapporto intende illustrare brevemente i fondamenti teorici del nostro lavoro e delineare l'approccio adottato nei casi di studio.

Il presente studio (Deliverable 2.1) consiste in una revisione sistematica della letteratura volta a mappare le leve e i meccanismi di lock-in, al fine di fornire una panoramica dei fattori che determinano il cambiamento comportamentale e della loro rilevanza per specifici attori del sistema alimentare e specifiche catene del valore. Ciò è stato ottenuto effettuando una revisione ombrello delle revisioni sistematiche e strutturate della letteratura condotte in relazione agli aspetti comportamentali della transizione verso la sostenibilità nei sistemi alimentari. Questa revisione ha portato a una mappatura sistematica dei fattori che influenzano il cambiamento comportamentale degli attori del sistema alimentare (le cosiddette revisioni a 360°) e a una sintesi narrativa delle raccomandazioni formulate dalle revisioni selezionate.

Relazione sui fattori generici e specifici associati al contesto politico
Il presente documento (Deliverable 6.1) raccoglie, analizza e mette a confronto i risultati di due attività del progetto VISIONARY denominate «Interfacce tra scienza e politica» e «Costruzione di relazioni». I due compiti “Mappatura del contesto politico e normativo” ed “Esercizi di previsione partecipativa” sono stati svolti in parallelo e in modo interconnesso. Lo scopo di questa analisi è duplice. In primo luogo, mira a contribuire alla progettazione della ricerca sperimentale da intraprendere nei vari compiti empirici inclusi in altri pacchetti di lavoro di VISIONARY. In secondo luogo, consente di identificare e discutere le lacune politiche rilevanti che devono essere affrontate nei prossimi cicli politici dell'UE e del Regno Unito.

Il presente documento di lavoro sui fattori trainanti e gli ostacoli nelle iniziative relative alla catena del valore fa parte della tappa 15 del progetto VISIONARY. Il documento presenta un'analisi dei fattori trainanti e degli ostacoli che favoriscono o impediscono l'innovazione in materia di sostenibilità in sette iniziative del settore agroalimentare in sette paesi partner (Danimarca, Germania, Ungheria, Romania, Spagna, Polonia, Regno Unito).

Il presente rapporto illustra i risultati di uno studio condotto nell'ambito del progetto VISIONARY, che analizza le sfide e le opportunità all'interno delle catene del valore dei legumi alimentari in Europa. Lo studio si concentra sull'identificazione delle barriere che limitano l'adozione delle proteine vegetali, in particolare dei legumi, in Danimarca, Germania, Polonia e Spagna. Esplora inoltre potenziali strategie e leve per promuovere il consumo di questi prodotti. I risultati principali evidenziano gli ostacoli all'adozione e individuano i punti di leva che potrebbero favorire una maggiore accettazione dei legumi in questi paesi.

Il presente rapporto rappresenta un passo significativo nella nostra analisi delle catene del valore sostenibili attraverso studi di casi dettagliati, incentrati sulle iniziative relative alle catene del valore e sui modelli di business. Esaminiamo singoli casi di studio in sette paesi partner: Danimarca, Germania, Ungheria, Romania, Spagna, Polonia e Regno Unito. La nostra analisi adotta un approccio basato sulla pratica per comprendere come la sostenibilità sia integrata in queste catene del valore. Studiando le pratiche reali all'interno delle organizzazioni e lungo le catene di approvvigionamento, otteniamo approfondimenti sulle connessioni – sia di supporto che di sfida – che influenzano gli sforzi di sostenibilità. Questa prospettiva getta nuova luce sulle dinamiche interne e sulle implicazioni più ampie delle pratiche sostenibili all'interno delle catene del valore.

Pacchetto di lavoro 1: Coinvolgimento, comunicazione, diffusione e valorizzazione
Tappa 1

Tutte le informazioni principali su VISIONARY in un colpo d'occhio.

Questo quadro analitico guiderà la ricerca empirica del progetto VISIONARY per quanto riguarda gli interventi politici, le nuove iniziative relative alla catena del valore e i modelli di business, nonché i punti di leva nei sistemi agroalimentari. Il quadro analitico adotta un approccio innovativo che combina due metodologie sostanzialmente diverse: da un lato l'economia quantitativa, sperimentale e comportamentale e, dall'altro, approcci qualitativi basati su una visione sistemica globale.

Questa pubblicazione offre una panoramica dei 16 workshop di previsione svolti in otto Paesi europei con i partecipanti alle nostre interfacce di politica scientifica (SPI) - circa 270 stakeholder del sistema alimentare, tra cui agricoltori, responsabili politici, scienziati, rivenditori e ONG. L'esercizio di previsione ha inquadrato la discussione su alcune delle questioni più urgenti dei nostri sistemi alimentari: la gestione dell'acqua in agricoltura, il futuro degli alimenti e dell'agricoltura biologica e la promozione dei prodotti a base vegetale lungo la catena del valore.

Questo quadro concettuale iniziale riunisce le basi teoriche e concettuali di VISIONARY, spiegando il carattere sistemico del sistema alimentare e le sue transizioni verso la sostenibilità, il ruolo dei fattori comportamentali degli attori del settore alimentare nel condizionare tale transizione e l'interazione tra ricerca e politica per accelerare. Questo quadro iniziale pone le basi per il "Quadro concettuale empiricamente fondato" che sarà pubblicato nell'estate del 2025. Dopo una rassegna preliminare degli approcci che ruotano attorno alla transizione del sistema alimentare verso la sostenibilità e alla sua dimensione comportamentale (in particolare di agricoltori e consumatori), il documento si concentra su due ambiti principali: "politiche alimentari comportamentali" e "modelli di business sostenibili". Infine, il documento approfondisce l'approccio transdisciplinare del progetto, basato sul concetto e sull'implementazione delle interfacce scienza-politica.