Written by: Arianna De Conno

On June 21st-23 rd, the PAGE group attended AIEAA’ Young Researchers’ Day and the 12th AIEAA Conference in Milan.  

This event was coordinated, among others, by Michele Moretti (University of Pisa), researcher and member of the PAGE group. 

The objective of the AIEAA – Young Researchers’ Day (June 21st) was to give PhD students and earlier career researchers in agriculture and food economics the opportunity to present their work in an informal setting, getting feedbacks from peers but also from senior economists on how to conduct high-quality research. 

During Young Researcher’s Day, PAGE group PhD students and researchers presented their work, sharing objectives, and methodologies, but also questions and doubts with colleagues from other Italian universities.  

Below is a list of the presentations’ titles, which reflect the variety of the ongoing research works within the PAGE group:  

• Letizia Forzoni: “Future of Livestock in Europe in the era of the Farm to Fork strategy: socio-economic sustainability assessment” 

• Tommaso Trinchetti: “Mapping and assessment of ecosystem services” 

• Tarek Allali: “Value chains’ sustainability assessment and sustainability perception in eastern Algeria”. 
• Daniel Alpízar Rojas: “Transformation of food systems in developing countries and its impact to inequalities through the lens of food security and nutrition” 
• Arianna De Conno:  “Sustainable and healthy food environments. The role of Public Food Procurement (PFP) in  urban food policies” 
• Mehdi Hassan Mohammadi: “ The Role of Digital Platforms in Smallholder Agriculture Value Chain” 

• Selene Righi: “The innovation needs of organic farms in the Marche region” 
• Luciano Pagano  (as co-author of an abstract): “Soil health and ecosystem services: emerging narratives and policy integration of incentive-based instruments in Italy”  
• Pedro Navarro Gambín: “Towards transformative change through biodiversity prioritisation in governance: insights from the case of Tuscany’s fashion system”.

The research group also attended the pre-Conference and the AIEAA Conference (22^nd– 23^rd June). 

The pre-Conference focused on the EU “Farm to Fork” strategy, and during this event, Prof. Gianluca Brunori   participated as a discussant in the presentation of the book “La Politica Agricola Europea. Storia e analisi” (“EU Agriculture Policy. History and evolution”), written by Prof. Franco Sotte. 

The second event was titled “Guns, Germs and Climate: Food Security and Food Systems in a Risky World”.  The 12th AIEAA Annual Conference in particular aimed to discuss the impacts of different types of shocks (extreme weather events, health-related shocks or anthropogenic events (e.g., conflicts)) on food systems and to explore how these systems can be transformed to react to shocks but also to slow on-going disruptions.  

In this framework, the Annual Conference aimed to contribute to scholarly but also policy debate, “putting together different (economic) disciplines and approaches to discuss innovations, incentive schemes, and policies to create more resilient, equitable and inclusive food systems while reducing their environmental footprint”. 

The conference covered a wide range of topics, from environmental issues (e.g., carbon farming mechanism; strategies and tools for the adaptation to climate change) to social sustainability challenges (e.g., food security and nutrition in migrant and left-behind households; food poverty and affordability of nutrient-adequate diets in the face of shocks). 

During the second event on 23^rd June, PAGE PhD students and researchers had the opportunity to share the abstracts they are currently working on as co-authors. Below, are the titles presented, representing the results of meaningful collaborations with professors and researchers in their respective fields:  

• Letizia Forzoni:  “Reforestation of inactive quarries: a path for socio-economic development of marginalised areas” 
• Lorenzo Pagni: ”The value of social innovations: an SROI assessment of an ethical farm work initiative” 
• Tommaso Trinchetti: “Assessment of ecosystem services for new governance models in two mountain areas of Tuscany Region” 
• Oybek Norboev : “Comparative analysis of climate change impact on Italian agriculture: A Ricardian regression analysis” 

Selene Righi participated to the Conference as one of the session chairs (discussion group “Agricultural Research and Innovation”). 

The event represented a great opportunity for the research group to share experiences with other Italian colleagues and also to widen their perspectives on agriculture and food economics.