Agricoltura in contesto periurbano: ruralità sostenibile e tutela dell'ambiente

Consumers, in recent years, mainly in relation to events highlighting the possible risks for human health, have lost their confidence in the idea that the primary food sector can guarantee the specific origin, production techniques, and safety of food produced. Moreover, agriculture and especially livestock, is often considered to be responsible for a significant amount of non point source pollution. This phenomenon is emphasised in geographic areas where agricultural activity intensively interfaces with urban centres, where if from one side the role of environmental protection is more valuable, from the other the negative externalities produced by the primary sector are more clearly perceived. Thus, the problems faced are related to the difficulty for agriculture in maintaining sustainability, guaranteeing at the same time environmental quality (and food safety), which are becoming absolutely necessary in peri-urban areas. In this direction, scientific research has produced several specific solutions on very focussed topics, but as yet, no validated models have been produced for the integrated application of principles and techniques in order to achieve the objectives of economic sustainability and environmental protection. The activity devised with this methodology is based on interventions related both to farms, where it is necessary to combine the different aspects of a multifunctional and sustainable agriculture, and to different social components involved. As a result, the identification of a production system or practice (including environmental safeguards) with the specific territory in which the system operates will allow products there from to increase in value and, therefore, to make production sustainable also from the economic point of view. The implementation of such a system will facilitate, in the mid term, sustainability of the agricultural sector, and also identify possible approaches in relation to the modification of EU policy of subsides and to the related requirements of cross-compliance.