Governance e politiche per lo sviluppo di economie rurali integrate: parchi agricoli e biodistretti nell’area fiorentina

Abstract

The awareness of the negative effects of the dominant and globalised model of food production, distribution and consumption is now growing and widespread; this generates negative externalities, both at the global and at the local scale, leading to north-south imbalances, climate change, loss of food security and sovereignty, uncertainty about the quality of products and exclusion of small farmers from the market. This awareness stimulates, in an ever more urgent way, the search for innovative models, able to guarantee greater economic, social, environmental and ethical sustainability of agro-food systems. In recent years, the rethinking of the organisation of food-related networks has led to the flourishing of many experiences of territorial transition based on multifunctional business methods, inclusive of local actors and more environment friendly. These business and consumption models, alternative to the dominant one, highlight the emergence of a new paradigm of rural development; they are capable of creating local agro-food systems through new social, natural and economic connections. Considering them within the theoretical conceptual framework of the transition, the paper intends to analyse the context conditions that may favour the birth and development of new, and more sustainable, agro-rural economies.