Global, Regional and Local food chains: an assessment of sustainability performance of wheat-to-bread chains across Italy and the UK

Abstract – A growing number of consumers are concerned with the impacts of consumption choices. Local food supply chains are increasingly being discussed for their potential to overcome the impacts of global and more industrialized chains. However, opposition between local and global food systems is being questioned and distinctions are ambiguous. Can sustainability performance be assessed in relation to local and global food chains? This paper develops a comparative assessment of wheat-to-bread supply chains. Key attributes are selected to collect data for measuring the performance of supply chains along the global-local continuum within five sustainability dimensions. Using a participatory approach, the research explores stakeholders’ perspectives on sustainability of these chains and assesses the contribution of supply chains of different lengths towards sustainability objectives. The most relevant attributes and the relations (correlations and trade-offs) between them are highlighted. The analysis sheds light on sustainability performance and the participatory assessment reveals conflicting perceptions of sustainability and how this is perceived along the local-global continuum.