0000000000658460
AUTHOR
Nadia Tecco
THE ROLE OF DIVERSITY AND DIVERSIFICATION FOR RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
Biodiversity is a unique and precious heritage: generic but also cultural, social and economic. Its drastic curtailment, however, puts at risk the survival of local farming systems, and this is even more so in fragile socio-economic contexts where it risks translating into conditions of food insecurity and poverty. From the elementary level of the gene, rising in complexity up to the ecosystem, it is therefore a central element in defining first the resistance and then the resilience of the system, and by the first term meaning the degree of resistance to a disruption that distances it from the initial state of equilibrium and by the second the capacity of a system to return to guaranteeing…
Evaluating the Sustainability in Complex Agri-Food Systems: The SAEMETH Framework
During the last few years, the definition of sustainability and the translation of its general principles into practical and operative tasks have come into the foreground of scientific research and political agendas throughout the world. The understanding and the evaluation of the environmental, social and economic performances of complex agricultural food systems is probably the real challenge, and the design of more sustainable alternatives has been recognized as necessary for a correct territorial management. This study’s primary goal is the proposition of an interpretive structure “Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology” (SAEMETH), able to guide the evaluation of the sustainabilit…
An interpretive framework for assessing and monitoring the sustainability of school gardens
School gardens are, increasingly, an integral part of projects aiming to promote nutritional education and environmental sustainability in many countries throughout the world. In the late 1950s, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) had already developed projects to improve the dietary intake and behavior through school and community gardens. However, notwithstanding decades of experience, real proof of how these programs contribute to improving sustainability has not been well-documented, and reported findings have mostly been anecdotal. Therefore, it is important to begin a process of collecting and monitoring data to quantify the results and …