Quotas have been extensively used in the past to stabilise and control the EU agricultural production systems. Over the decades, markets have, however, been liberalised, and quota schemes have remained in force for only a few sectors. The wine sector is one of them, with a quota regime shaping the distribution of vineyards across territories and the competitiveness of the sector. By examining the Italian case, the paper provides the first empirical evaluation of such a quota-based policy on the transformation of regional production systems in terms of consistency (vineyard extension) and composition (wine quality). The analysis is conducted at the regional level over the period from 2008 to 2022. Findings show that, despite a centralised control mechanism, regional concentration and speculative behaviours have not been hindered, suggesting that quota systems may no longer align with the evolving drivers of value creation and sustainability in the wine sector. By linking policy design with broader economic and structural changes, the paper contributes to the debate on how governance instruments can support more resilient, competitive, and territorially balanced wine value chains.

Wine is gaining increasing importance in the modern tourism industry. The aim of this paper is to unpack the relations between engaging agritourism practices and wine farming specialisation in Italy, with special emphasis on socio-economic sustainability performances. The analysis is conducted at the farm level using Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data over the 2017–2021 period and exploiting a Propensity Score Matching approach. Results show that wine farms are more likely to pursue agritourism activities than other farms, with high-quality wine producers offering a more diverse tourism option. Wine tourism affects socio-economic sustainability, but with differences noted between high-quality and conventional producers. Implications arise for policy makers and practitioners building local development strategies and finding inroads to fostering sustainable tourism.

In early 2025, the European Union launched a new phase of dialogue on the future of agricultural and food policies, aiming to move beyond the sustainability-centred narratives of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy. The initiative, grounded in the “Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture” and the Commission’s communication “A Vision for Agriculture and Food,” reframes the role of agriculture within a broader geopolitical and socio-economic context. The Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy (CREA) and the Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA) convened a study day to examine the relevance and the implications of the EU’s Vision for Italy. This paper presents a synthesis of the discussions and reflections, structured along four thematic pillars: economic, environmental, social, and institutional sustainability. The analysis highlights the structural weaknesses of Italian agriculture, the need for circular and diversified agricultural systems, the integration of agroecological and climate resilience strategies, the need for generational and social renewal, and the necessity for political reflection on the adequacy of the Italian agricultural policy governance system. By capturing the perspectives of researchers and practitioners, the paper contributes to the national debate on reshaping EU agricultural policy beyond 2027..

This introduction to the Special Issue connected to the 13th Annual Conference held in Bari in 2024 frame the theme of social sustainability in agriculture and presents the content of the issue.

This introduction to the Special Issue connected to the 13th Annual Conference held in Bari in 2024 frame the theme of social sustainability in agriculture and presents the content of the issue.

In early 2025, the European Union launched a new phase of dialogue on the future of agricultural and food policies, aiming to move beyond the sustainability-centred narratives of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategy. The initiative, grounded in the "Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EUAgriculture" and the Commission's communication "A Vision for Agriculture and Food," reframes the role of agriculture within a broader geopolitical and socio-economic context. The Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy and the Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics convened a study day to examine the relevance and the implications of the EU's Vision for Italy. This paper presents a synthesis of the discussions and reflections, structured along four thematic pillars: economic, environmental, social, and institutional sustainability. The analysis highlights the structural weaknesses of Italian agriculture, the need for circular and diversified agricultural systems, the integration of agroecological and climate resilience strategies with competitiveness, the need for generational and social renewal, and the necessity for political reflection on the adequacy of the Italian agricultural policy governance system. By capturing the perspectives of researchers and academics, the paper contributes to the national debate on reshaping EU agricultural policy beyond 2027.

The ever-increasing development of assisted evolution technologies (AETs) in agriculture has boosted crop improvement. The commercialization of improved biotech crops can be promoted by modern gene editing instead of conventional genetic modification, which is a cheaper and faster approach that can help address future agriculture challenges, such as food security, environmental sustainability, and climate change. However, the use of these technologies is still sensitive and debated in many countries. Each region promotes a different approach, depending on regulatory policies, and adopting these technologies requires knowledge of consumer views and stakeholder acceptance. For this purpose, we conducted a survey of 564 Italians regarding their knowledge of genetic techniques, informational tools, purchase preferences, environmental sustainability, and food safety issues. The research aims are twofold: (a) to assess the level of knowledge and (b) to determine how consumer background, including social and demographic characteristics, affects their level of knowledge. Our findings emphasize the importance of communication and dissemination activities, in which clarity and a broad appeal are key.

The endurance and vitality of European agriculture are threatened by the aging of farmers, together with the lack of generational change. The small share of young farmers also impacts on the innovative capacity and competitiveness of the sector. The Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union started addressing the issue long ago by providing financial aid to help young farmers to start up. Over time, the aid increased and packages of measures were set to reinforce the aid and to promote investments, innovations, and networks at the farm level. While the literature focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of the start-up aid in fostering new entries, this paper assumes an original perspective as it seeks to assess whether this aid has actually promoted innovations and networks in the beneficiary farms. The analysis relies on sample data collected in 2021 in Italy and Poland via interviews of 500 farmers under 40 who had entered the sector both with and without the aid. A probit model estimates whether the beneficiaries have a higher probability to innovate and network. Then, the contribution of the aid to the intensity of the adoption of innovations and networks is estimated via an Average Treatment Effect on the Treated model (ATT). Results suggest that the start-up aid increased the adoption of innovations and networks. The ATT indicates that this positive effect holds even after correcting for self-selection bias. By adopting an original perspective, our analysis suggests that the start-up aid for young farmers goes beyond rejuvenating agriculture by fostering innovation at the farm level and by promoting networking, thus enhancing agricultural change. However, farmer behaviors in the two countries are different, suggesting quite complex patterns for the impact of this measure.

Recently, food-related policy initiatives have proliferated, such as food strategies, food plans, food councils, food districts and food communities, just to name the more relevant ones. Far from being systematically defined and logically systematized, these concepts often overlap or are used as synonyms. The paper has systematically traced the current trends showing how these concepts are used in the current debate, the theoretical background on which they are grounded and the public policies they call for, following a threefold approach: (1) a literature analysis to establish the state of academic research on food systems in its multidimensionality; (2) a review of the existing national legislation to detect the utilization of food policy-related lemmas in the normative; (3) a computational linguistic analysis applied on institutional documentation to explore how cities and territories are using concepts and definitions in the grey literature. The results show that the construction of narratives around the topic of food systems planning is experiencing a momentum, with particular emphasis on principles, background premises and governance aspects. In this context, the risk of marginality for the agricultural sector in such discourses and narratives is highlighted.

Among the keys that enable the actors in the food chain in becoming more sustainable, the Strategy assigns an important role to knowledge and information. For this reason, the Farm to Fork Strategy aims to make the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), the main data source of sustainable indicators, turning it into a Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). Wine not only represents one of the most important products of the Italian agri-food system (value of turnover and exports), but it is also characterised by a widespread use of traditional certification systems (PDO/PGI, Organic), to which in recent years specific certifications of sustainability have been added, evaluated through its threefold dimension: economic, environmental, and social. Indeed, the wine sector is much ahead of others in the process of sustainability certification both for the process and the product itself. The paper is an effort to test the current set of information included in the FADN and some related computable indicators as a feasible tool for the assessment of sustainability in the wine sector. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we assess the actual level of sustainability of the wine sector in Italy through an indicator that synthetizes the three dimensions (economic, environmental, and social) of sustainability at the regional level. Secondly, more in general, we test the current capacity of the FADN information to provide a reliable measure of sustainability given the intention of the EU legislator to switch the European data network from FADN to FSDN.

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are one of the most direct approaches to more directly connecting consumers with producers. The scaling-up of SFSCs is often challenged by critical issues which can be overcome with identification of the most sustainable, replicable schemes. This paper presents the results of a participatory analysis conducted within the agroBRIDGES H2020 project, with the aim of defining a list of economic, social, and environmental attributes and indicators to assess the sustainability of SFSCs and set up a decision-making tool to support producers in self-assessing their sustainability level and choosing the most appropriate business model (BM) from those identified within the project. The proposed framework was based on a literature review and validated using co-creation exercises (Delphi rounds and focus groups) with relevant European stakeholders. A final set of 47 indicators was identified, and their potential for use in assessing the sustainability level of various BMs was also validated. Early results highlighted three main issues: indicator calculation feasibility, business model categorization, and the simplicity of the framework for sustainability self-assessment. Some recommendations are made, including the importance of using a participatory process in building an evaluation framework on SFSC sustainability and the necessity of its adaptation to territorial contexts and needs.

On January 1, 2023, a “reformed” Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will come into force, which is innovative by nature in structural terms, and focused on environmental and social sustainability issues, aimed at a comprehensive digitization-based modernization of the agri-food sector. The new CAP keeps the current structure based on expenditure and regulatory measures, but includes a new planning tool, the national CAP Strategic Plan, a new CAP management model, and the new delivery model (NDM). Concerning EU wine policy, the new regulations foresee a number of specific amendments to existing rules, including changes that will apply to financial support for the wine sector with a reduced budget and to the regulatory measures. Among the latter, the most globally impacting are labelling rules, which require more information to consumers and allow the use of an e-label, the use of hybrid grape varieties for the production of appellation wines, and the inclusion among CAP regulated products of partially or totally de-alcoholised wines.

The spread of the COVID-19 virus in Italy during the first phasis of the pandemic (February-May 2020) has caused a large-scale crisis, with an almost immediate decrease of industrial production and a consequent contraction in domestic consumption and external trade. However, the issue of food security was immediately recognized as one of the most sensitive, so that the Government has decreed the priority role of the food system, which has been included among those considered fundamental services and economically essential, allowing the related activities to be carried out during the lockdown. Agricultural production activities transformation, and commercialization remained fully operative during the lockdown; nevertheless, the sector has faced many difficulties related to the contraction of some of the marketing channels (restaurants, on farm sales, agritourism, problems with the logistics and many other ones). To better understand the effects of the initial phasis of the pandemic on the Italian agricultural sector and provide useful information to the government and decision makers, a survey was carried out with a CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviewing) sent to over 10,000 farmers belonging to the sample of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The number of respondents has been of 733 farms, which represents around 7% of the Italian FADN sample. The results of the questionnaire have been matched with FADN data on the structure and the economic performance of farms, allowing a more precise evaluation of the condition and effects of the pandemic. The results highlight a relevant effect of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency on the agricultural sector: 37% of the interviewed farmers declared a significant liquidity crisis, while 60% predicted a contraction in turnover. These effects are more relevant for the wine, olives, and horticulture types of farming and more frequent in medium/large farms. A better situation has been found for farms which usually outsource processing and/or marketing/sale of the products.

The present dataset is a collection of the practice abstracts developed in the framework of the agroBRIDGES project, using the EIP-AGRI common format. The aim is to share project outputs so other actors of the agri-food sector can leverage on them and to see the main added value and benefits met by the end-users if the generated knowledge is implemented. The Practice Abstracts are also published on the EIP-AGRI website and available at this link. The current (first) version of the dataset contains the set of the first 12 Practice Abstracts generated to share the project's knowledge and insights gained from co-creation, data collection, communication and other activities aimed at promoting the development of Short Food Supply Chains, while motivating the local network of agri-food actors in the process (multi-actor approach). At least one Practice Abstract has been generated per Beacon Region (i.e. focal region of the agroBRIDGES project). This version of the dataset contains one Practice Abstract per country using the standard EIP-AGRI format in .xlsx. The final (second) version will be enhanced with Practice Abstracts describing the development and improvement of the (12) agroBRIDGES tools and the business model taxonomy developed for Short Food Supply Chains.

The release of the new Italian Agricultural Census shows many features in line with the previous decades and also some novelties, which shall be properly investigated in the upcoming future. The reduction in number of farms was largely announced and in line with the overall declining trend. However, in 2020 the average farm size has grown, showing a slowdown of land abandonment and soil consumption in agriculture and a reorganization of the farm structures. In this paper the main economic, social and functional transformations are analysed, by aggregating some of the most relevant trends in evidence. More in-depth analyses from scholars, stakeholders and policymakers are advocated, with the ultimate goal of highlighting and interpreting the long-term paths of Italian agriculture.

The Italian wine supply chain has performed well in recent decades both in terms of profitability and success on the domestic and international markets. This is despite the fact that it is fragmented in terms of products, prices and consumption context, and, in particular, despite the fact that it is characterised by an organisation that hinders the full exploitation of economies of scale. This paradox has not been investigated in literature. We propose several elements in support of the hypothesis that the Italian wine sector’s success is linked to favourable elements of the Porter Diamond Model (5 out of 6) but also to the “district” nature of a large part of the sector. The presence of numerous networks, some of which are formal and others informal, gives most Italian local production systems specialising in grapes and wine the characteristics of industrial districts, due to the local social capital that is stratified there. These networks include operators such as Cooperatives and Consorzi di Tutela, upstream and downstream industries and services, tourism, research and educational bodies. Such networks can overcome the weakness represented by the low concentration and small average size of the operators. To support this hypothesis, we analyse the historical evolution of the sector and its drivers, the structural features of the different phases of the wine chain (grape growing, winemaking, bottling and distribution), the market relationships within the chain and the national and European policies favouring the sector. This analysis also underlines the differences between the Italian sector and its competitors from the Old and New World.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and with it the EU wine policy, is experiencing a reform process, started in 2018, in order to address ambitious environmental and social objectives, in conjunction with the goal of a competitive agricultural sector. Given the role of the EU in wine supply, the aim of this paper is to present the design, the rationale and the potential effect of the proposed reform with specific reference to wine sector. To better understand the forthcoming process, it is firstly presented how CAP and its wine policy evolved in terms of objectives and tools over time. The EU wine policy is a paradigmatic example of a combination between the horizontal measures, valid for all agricultural sectors, and vertical measures, peculiarly encompassing the whole wine supply chain. The reform proposal confirms, with some interesting modifications, the set of tools already operating in the sector; however, it calls for a planning of the implementation of the available tools for all products in a unitary frame represented by a national CAP Strategic Plan, applying a lean administrative procedure. In the hypothesis that the COVID-19 outbreak will not cause a radical change in the global agri-food system, the proposed planning process should stimulate shared strategies. These are intended to effectively coordinate, according to the principle of complementarity, the implementation of available policy tools, in order to obtain a better use of resources and a more balanced achievement of all policy objectives.