Dear Colleagues,

In a globalized world and economy, geographical origin plays a relevant role in agriculture and the agrifood system. Many producers (farmers and processors) can differentiate their products on the market thanks to their link to origin, and an increasing share of consumers pays attention to both material and immaterial quality attributes linked to the place of production.

Origin products have specific quality resulting from their geographical origin. They are the outcome of technical, social, environmental, cultural, and economic interactions, including the mobilization of local specific resources, both physical (local breeds and varieties, soil specificities, microclimate conditions, etc. ) and human ones (contextual know-how, history, cultural traditions, gastronomy, etc.). Origin products, thanks to their links to local specific resources and mobilization of local actors, have the potential to enhance economic, social, and environmental sustainability of localized agrifood production systems and rural areas, and to provide different kinds of local and global public goods (e.g., territorial reputation, agricultural landscape, food heritage, etc.) (Belletti G., Marescotti A., Touzard J., 2017, Geographical Indications, Public Goods, and Sustainable Development: The Roles of Actors' Strategies and Public Policies. World Development, 98, 45-57).

Geographical indications (GIs) often identify origin products, they incorporate their reputation and, for that reason, they are protected as collective intellectual property rights according to different legal frameworks in many countries. Collective labeling through GIs is often the pivot of valorization strategies activated by producers and other public and private stakeholders all around the world, following different aims and strategies. Collective action and GIs local governance models are the key factors in determining the (positive and negative) effects of GI valorization initiatives on sustainability and public good provision. Indeed, GI valorization initiatives can exert positive economic effects (on revenues, fair distribution of value-added, economic resilience, etc.), social effects (on employment, social cohesion, collective action, gender issues, local knowledge), and environmental effects (support to multifunctional agriculture, management of specific local resources, landscape, agro-biodiversity preservation, etc.), thus reproducing and improving local specific resources activating a virtuous circle (Vandecandelaere E., Arfini F., Belletti G., Marescotti A., 2009. Linking people, places and products. A guide for promoting quality linked to geographical origin and sustainable geographical indications. FAO - SINERGI).

However, depending on the local conditions of establishment and implementation, this potential virtuous circle between origin products, geographical indications valorization initiatives, and sustainability is not always successful, and shortcomings may arise. In particular, several studies observe some gaps in the model of the virtuous circle such as i) conflicts among the local actors (affecting the governance), ii) lack of value-added sharing (between raw material producers and processors in long supply chains), iii) adoption of mainstream innovation packages inducing loss of local knowledge, iv) strong specialization that jeopardizes the territory reducing its internal diversity, v) worsening of environmental conditions, for example, the push to the intensification due to market success or weakening of the bond with local agrobiodiversity, vi) main orientation towards external up-markets and worldwide value chains depriving the local consumers of the heritage of their specialty products.

The aim of this Special issue is to provide evidence-based knowledge at a world-wide scale on how collective action around the valorization of origin products through geographical indications initiatives is linked in an effective way to the provision of public goods and sustainable development interacting with its different pillars: economic, social, environmental, and governance.

In particular, this Special Issue welcomes papers that present evidence (positive and negative) and use innovative methodologies on the following topics:

• Social, economic, and environmental characteristics of origin products systems and of their value chains; links between origin products and agrobiodiversity, agroecology principles, traditional farming systems, the environment, and landscape
• Value chain analysis and market analysis, with a focus on short/alternative food supply chains, HORECA circuits, agritourism, and public food procurement systems;
• Collective action and governance models in GI valorization initiatives, critical points, different models, and success factors
• GI initiatives and the use of legal protection tools (denominations of origin, collective trademarks)
• Processes of construction of collective rules (code of practices) in protected GIs, conflicts and convergences; the role of local specific resources in the construction of the identity of GI products
• Producers–consumers interactions in GI valorization initiatives; the role of certification systems and innovative ways of guarantee (participatory guarantee systems) for signaling social and environmental attributes of GI products
• Integration of GI initiatives with other economic activities in the territories (i.e., artisanal activities, tourism, leisure activities)
• Assessment of the impacts GI initiatives on firms, local agrifood production systems, rural economy and rural areas; contribution to the transition to sustainable agriculture and food systems; contribution to local and global public goods
• Public policies supporting the sustainability of origin products and GI valorization initiatives; GIs initiatives in wider territorial policies
• Links to nutrition and food security (diet diversity, impacts of traditional practices on nutritional composition, sensorial/organoleptic quality and impact on diet/satiety, etc.)
• Methodologies for the assessment of the impacts of valorization of geographical indications on sustainability and public goods

Prof. Dr. Giovanni Belletti
Prof. Andrea Marescotti
Prof. Filippo Arfini
Dr. François Casabianca
Dr. Emilie Vandecandelaere
Prof. Junko Kimura
Guest Editors

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• origin products,
• geographical indications
• local and global public goods
• protected denomination of origin
• collective action
• governance
• collective labelling
• impact assessment
• sustainability
• agrobiodiversity
• agroecology transition
• localized agrifood systems