The PAGE team attended the annual seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economists. It was jointly organised by the main associations of agricultural economists in Italy and held in Matera between 10-12 October. This year the Seminar was dedicated to Economics of culture and food in evolving agri-food systems and rural areas and brought together over 200 participants from different parts of Europe and North and South America to exchange experiences.

The specific topics of the seminar included cultural changes and food consumption; local culture, global culture and rural / sustainable development; agri-food global value chains, culture and innovation, and culture and agricultural policy.

During parallel sessions, Francesca Galli and Paolo Prosperi presented some results from the H2020 project SALSA on small farms, small food businesses and sustainable food security. They, in particular, illustrated the role small farms play in contributing to food and nutrition security and described science-policy interactions taking place around small farms in regional food systems.

Prof. Gianluca Brunori moderated a lively session on food policy initiatives where the four presidents of the agricultural economist societies (Prof. Marangon from SIDEA, Prof. Viaggi from AIEAA, Prof. Pulina from SIEA, and Prof. Casini from CESET) discussed what a food policy is and why it is important from both a research and societal perspective.

Check out what the Seminar was about here