Domenico Regazzi

Food safety and organic fruit demand in Italy: a survey

Reports the first results of a study on how increased awareness of food safety can influence consumer behaviour regarding specific products. Looks into consumer attitudes towards organic apples by means of a survey conducted among customers of large retail outlets located in Emilia‐Romagna (Italy). Analyses consumer attitudes toward organic food, studying the price/quantity/quality relationship for this type of product. Consumers were directly interviewed at retail outlets, A questionnaire consisting of the following four sections was used: fruit consumption; pesticide abatement; organic fruit and organic apple demand; and demographic profile of respondent. Presents the results of the preliminary test phase of the survey. The pre‐test results are quite encouraging and enable us to start the final investigation round. The survey will continue in three rounds over a 12‐month period, trying in this way to override the relatively high seasonality of apple consumption.

Educational farms in the Emilia-Romagna region: their role in food habit education

Educational farms are farms which offer educational tours to visitors so that they can learn about specific information concerning agriculture, the environment and nutrition. These enterprises are involved in activities which complement their main work. This can bring benefits, including economic ones, to them as entrepreneurs, as well as having important social value. The objective of this paper is to present an authentic local example of this: the Italian Emilia-Romagna region, where Educational farms are particularly widespread and supported by the public administration. In particular, it highlights the role played by the educational farms regarding food habits and discusses the relationship between the enterprise’s educational function and business strategies. This analysis is an attempt to view the above from a marketing point of view, highlighting its features and reporting on potential factors regarding improvement and development strategies. After a brief description of the general situation, we present data available from regional sources as well as from surveys conducted by private entities and by DEIAgra. The educational farms’ role in regional education policies regarding food consumption will be highlighted. Finally, we offer some considerations concerning

Sustainability in organic and conventional farm ing: toward s a multicriteria model based on simulated farm indicators

In this paper we report our efforts to develop an inter-temporal model for the evaluation of the impact of organic farming on greenhouse gases emissions, that we called BIOSUS-MAD. The model focuses on the maximization of farmer’s net income though different crops rotations constrained to the use of resource inputs; outputs of this optimization process are numerical values for key variables useful to estimate a set of social, economic and environmental indicators. These indicators will feed a multi-criteria model providing a synthetic and comparable sustainability overall index. This approach makes MAD a potentially useful tool for policy-makers to get an ex-ante assessment of the effects of agro-environmental policies. The model can manage different scenarios and could provide useful information to policy makers by running simulations incorporating European economic and/or environmental policies.

Large Scale Retailers and Diffusion in the Agri-Food System of the ISO 9000 Certified Quality Management System

This paper reports the initial results of a research program examining the relationship between large retail chains and the certification of quality management systems. The aim is to analyze the role of large retail firms in the development of the ISO 9000 standard model of Quality Management System (QMS) in the agri-food environment, through the pressure exerted by the retailer on its suppliers.

Crescita economica e mercato alimentare

Crescita economica e mercato alimentare (di Domenico Regazzi, Alessandro Ragazzoni, Roberta Spadoni) - ABSTRACT: Food production is not the only result of agricutlural activities and is more and more affected by a molteplicity of actors working in different production sectors. The system includes agriculture, manifacturing, distribution and connected services such as restaurants and food trade firms. Under this aggregate picture, the system represents one of the most important aggregates of the economy of our Country. Building on this general considerations, this work analyses, in the first part, the economic growth of the Country and the pattern of food consumption of this period, highlighting eventual relationships. In the second part, attention is paid to the food market and to the relationship with economic growth. The main element of interest of the present context of food market, that can be cause/conseguence of the econmic growth, are analysed.