BOOKS BY SILVIO MENGHINI

The objective of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the scientific discourse regarding sustainability. 40000 abstracts were extracted from the Science Direct search engine, using "sustainable" or "sustainability" as keywords. Several text analysis techniques were combined to examine the scientific literature. The results show how discourse analysis of sustainability in the pre-Rio period is mostly focused on agriculture with an ecological and environmental emphasis. Though the post-Rio phase is still strongly connected to environmental issues, it takes on a holistic dimension that brings to light the social dimension. The issues of energy, knowledge transfer and the sustainability of urban areas become focal points. Moreover, the scientific debate highlights the relevance of indicators in an as-sessment and planning approach.

Partendo dalla descrizione dello scenario produttivo e del mercato nazionale e toscano, il volume presenta un’analisi dettagliata della filiera e del mercato delle birre artigianali, evidenziando, attraverso una rilevante attività di indagini dirette, i più importanti aspetti relativi all’articolazione tecnica ed economica del sistema produttivo e alla posizione dei prodotti rispetto alle preferenze dei consumatori, al fine di individuare le potenzialità di sviluppo del settore di fronte alle opportunità e i rischi che le condizioni di mercato attuali propongono.

The present work is a literature review on the short food supply chain, interpreted as a concrete example of sustainability, in which various economic, social and environmental topics are linked in a way that interprets the short food supply chain as a new form of dynamism in the market for agricultural goods. This work presents the expected benefits of the alternative agri-food networks for the producer, the consumer and the community, the various interpretative approaches and the criteria for the classification of different forms of short food supply chain. In particular, the paper shows how the short food supply chain offers to the manufacturer and the consumer elements of response to the crisis of modernization, which led to the promotion of "relocalization" processes of production-consumption systems, according to the principles of sustainability. In fact, the consumer, by selecting the short food supply chain, not only searches for certain characteristics of the product, but also wants to participate in a "social event" which includes environmental, fairness and food and economic democracy principles. The producer, through the direct sale, expresses his will to retain a greater final value added, but also enhances the quality of the products and, improving the network of relations, re-evaluates its social role, with positive effects for the community. The short food supply chain, thus, becomes a concrete place where several players - not only the producer and the consumer - interact in the spirit of agri-food governance, where the act of buying is transformed in an act with an economic, social and ecological positive valence.

Il volume, nel presentare i risultati di una ricerca condotta nella provincia senese, descrive il rapporto tra agricoltura e turismo, ripercorrendo le relazioni tra sostenibilità, multifunzionalità ed esternalità. Attraverso i risultati di un’indagine diretta si evidenzia come le esternalità generate dall’agricoltura siano una componente fondamentale per la qualificazione e il sostegno del movimento turistico locale, e rilevante per il sostegno competitivo dello stesso settore primario.