The current Tuscan agri-food system is unsustainable. The so-called conventional farming practices are still the most commonly used on both global and local scale. These practices include activities such as intensive farming and the use of chemical phytosanitary products that cause the progressive deployment and contamination of local natural resources. Resources that are strongly needed in the future to sustain the agri-food systems against the threats of climate change. Existing policies for environmental engagement and financial support systems meant to increase the participation of farmers in more sustainable farming practices fail to attract enough participants to contribute substantially to the mitigation of agricultural impact on natural resources.
The research investigates the reasons behind the inefficiency of such tools. Concentrating mainly on the policies that define the juridical nature of food quality certification. Furthermore, through a scenario-based method, the “Maximization”, the full potential for these non-mandatory policies could have on the preservation of local natural resources is evaluated.
The results of the maximization method, together with the analysis, led on environmental threats for the Valdera agri-food system, and the examination of existing policies made it possible to develop a new framework for food quality certificates. A framework capable of combining the strengths and opportunities of existing food quality certifications and simultaneously increasing participation of local agri-businesses and accelerating the shift from conventional to sustainable farming practices and consequently the transition from unsustainable and vulnerable agri-food systems to sustainable and resilient ones.
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Our modern food structure is unsustainable and fragile. Changes like climate crises, rising food demand, biodiversity loss, and the technological revolution will radicalize how and what we eat and produce. Whichever changes will happen, they will have an effect on the food system. In South Holland, this will happen with the transition to a circular economy. In order to deal with the unpredictability of these changes, this report proposes to create a resilient system. The main question that will be answered is ‘How can resilient food systems contribute to a circular agri-food sector in South Holland?’. In this context, resilience is the ability to ensure the provision of system functions in the face of increasingly complex and accumulating shocks and stresses.
Through capacities of robustness, adaptability, and transformability a just transformation to the circular food economy can be ensured. The strategy Recipe for Resilience derives from this definition. Based on a network of a mix of three types of hubs, the strategy calls for a more widespread and integrated distribution of knowledge about food and the food system. These hubs are the Seeds, where knowledge and food produce germinates, the Melting Pot, common interacting ground for all actors, and the Mixers, the in-between spaces that are not transparent. Together, they supply a network facilitating producers, distributors, and consumers. Thanks to this high-functioning network of knowledge, the main goals of the strategy can be achieved.
During and after implementation, there will be high stakeholder engagement through all layers of society, local food cycles with feedback loops to distribution centers and farmers, and the knowledge about it will be widespread throughout the South Holland population. The constant exchange of expertise will ensure feedback loops throughout all layers of the knowledge production. Through this constant adaptation and transformation, a resilient system can be achieved. ... Read more

Has the pandemic transformed our working environment into a digital panopticon, and how close is this idea to the one of Bentham's panopticon described in Foucault's book "Discipline and Punish, the birth of the prison"?
This research paper compares the modern smart-working environment and the digitalization of our social interaction with the prison designed by Bentham. Even if most of the similarities can be found on the conceptual level, analyzing and reflecting on analogies in the spatial correspondences became increasingly relevant. ... Read more