Multidimensional performance-based approach for the assessment of Global and Local food chains: the GLAMUR project

There is a growing number of consumers concerned with the implications of their consumption choices. The impacts on health, other people and the environment reach different scales and dimensions, often very distant from where consumption takes place (Goodman et al., 2010). This is relevant for food, as it plays a key role in people’s lives. Food supply chains studies focus on flows among people, animals, places and things. Distinction between local and global supply chains is articulated around four axis: geographical distance; governance and organization; the kind of resources, knowledge and technologies and the role of territory in defining the identity of the product. Different approaches attempt to measure the performance of food chains and several questions stem in this regard. How is sustainability performance connected, and to what extent, to the level of localness or globalness of food supply chains? How can the performance of a local/global supply chain be assessed? The EU research project Glamur is challenged with providing answers to these questions. Within the Glamur project food chains impact assessment is developed considering five dimensions: impact on the economy, on the environment, on society, on health and on ethics. These dimensions are declined into a set of attributes (i.e. features inherent to the five dimensions). Based on this framwork, the project develops a comparison among couples of local and global food supply chains in different sectors and different countries, in order to verify how the above mentioned criteria apply in concrete supply chains. The present work develops a case study on the bread sector in Italy, where re-localization experiences have spread in recent years. This is testified by the emergence of geographical indications as well as the proliferation of spontaneous initiatives promoting local baking. Different supply chains are identified to reflect the distinction on the local/global continuum. First we assess which attribute of sustainability emerge as most relevant for the assessment of the performance of the bread supply chains. The selection is based on a participatory checklist approach, allowing for the integration of different perspectives of different stakeholders (Schroter 2008). Secondly, we provide an assessment by identifying the most relevant attributes based on a set of indicators. The analysis sheds light on sustainability performance in relation to the chain’s degree of localness and how this is perceived along local and global supply chains. Moreover the participatory assessment will account for conflicting perceptions on sustainability and potential pathways for innovation. References Goodman, M.K., Maye, D. and Holloway, L. (2010) Ethical foodscapes: premises, promises and possibilities. Environment and Planning A, 42, 1782-1796. Schröter, D. C. (2008). The logic and methodology of sustainability evaluation: A checklist approach. (pp. 217‐236). In M. Ant, A. Hammer, & O. Löwenbein (Eds.): Nachhaltiger Mehrwert von Evaluation [Sustained value added via evaluation]. Bielefeld, Germany: Bertelsmann.