THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF SHORT AGRI-FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

In the last decade both the Italian and European agrifood sector have been characterised by a deep changes as follows: 1) concentration of primary products supply; 2) globalization of the food industry that has increased the transport system and integrated logistics. This has principally led to huge use of trucks for food transportation from the production sites to the distribution centres; 3) increase in purchases at large-scale retail trade. These transformations have caused an increase of distance travelled between the farm and customers and, consequently, the kilometres travelled by trucks to transport food to consumer’s tables. However, in the last years increased consumer’s awareness of the environmental impacts of food production has pushed the large-scale retail trade system to propose an alternative model of production and transportation called "short supply chains" or “local food” or "farm to table". This has many advantages in contributing to reduce kilometres travelled by the truck to delivered food, to protect the cultural heritage of a territory and to guarantee more revenue for local producers. Furthermore, the short-distance transport can be the most sustainable solution from an environmental point of view, because principally it reduces the fuel consumption. The British scientist Tim Lang has defined "food miles" (FM) the kilometres that separate the production site of a food from the sale or consumption location. So, to assess FM can be applied the Carbon Footprint (CF), a methodology that calculates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions deriving from the transportation of the food from farm to table. In this contest the present paper aims to carry out a systematic review on carbon footprint applied to FM, assessing its advantages and disadvantages. The literature review was conducted by using as the keywords for online research the words “food miles”, “local food”, "farm to table” and "short supply chains", with “carbon footprint” in the databases Scopus, ISI -Web of Science and Google Scholar. Results show that CF studies on FM can be used to integrate those on the environmental impact of food production processes. Moreover, this methodology can be useful to: a) exploit the suppliers that are near the production sites; b) stimulate a transport company to promote rational logistics; c) promote in large-scale retail stores the local products. It is clear that these evaluations are valid only with similar supply chains. Additionally the results of FM studies can help administrations to promote policies that aim to: 1) stimulate local agriculture and industry; 2) supporting companies that adopt a more efficient logistics organization; 2) support local market that promote products from the territory; 3) limit the use of the private vehicles to purchase food. However, quantifying separately the impact generated by the transport of food alone can be, in some contexts, a reductive concept and can lead to serious errors of assessment of sustainability. In conclusion the CF of a food and, in particular, the assessment of FM, is becoming an important tool for a company, since it can contribute to make choices and commercial strategies that can improve its competitiveness.