The Agricultural Products "Zero Kilometers" in Regional Laws

Public opinion and media are increasingly interested in environmental sustainability of agricultural products and in a new forms of direct marketing (short food chains) adopted by small farmers (farmers markets). The Italian Regions very recently introduced new rules concerning the so called "zero kilometer" food products in order to promote their consumption and regulate their use. These kinds of products reduce the environmental impact essentially by shortening the distance between producer and consumer and through less emissions of noise and air (carbon dioxide) pollution and less traffic and related accidents. The italian notion of "zero kilometer" is derived by a "food miles" indicator quantifying "the distance food travels from the farm to consumer". This indicator helps to assess the environmental impact of food products when they move from the production place to consumption one. There are two kinds of problems concerning the definition of zero kilometer products in regional laws. First, the definition should not contain any reference to the regional place of production because of incompatibility with european competition rules (see the case of Veneto Region). Second, the definitions of zero kilometer products in regional laws are quite distant from the original concept which was strongly based on the short distance of the production- consuption circuit, while Regions widened this concept to include also other characteristics not linked to the distance (as the EU labels’ attribuitons Pdo, Pgi, Tsg).

Keywords: "Zero Kilometer" Food Products, Farmers’ Markets, Short Food Chains, Italian Regional Laws.

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Clelia Losavio, I prodotti agricoli "a chilometri zero" nelle leggi regionali in "AGRICOLTURA ISTITUZIONI MERCATI " 3/2011, pp 93-107, DOI: 10.3280/AIM2011-003007