Ecological Balance of Agri-Food Supply Chains—The Case of the Industrial Tomato

Angelo Martella, Ilenia Maria La Porta (), Marco Nicastro, Elisa Biagetti and Silvio Franco
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Angelo Martella: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Ilenia Maria La Porta: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Marco Nicastro: Cooperativa OP Mediterraneo, 71017 Torremaggiore, Italy
Elisa Biagetti: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Silvio Franco: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Tomatoes are one of the major productions in Italy. One of the main cultivation areas is the southern plain of Capitanata (Puglia, Southern Italy). However, a series of impacts from cultivation to distribution are connected to this production. Different methodologies have been proposed to evaluate and quantify these impacts from the single product to the supply chain. This work proposes a methodology for assessing environmental sustainability, using the agri-food chain of industrial tomatoes in a specific area of Italy (Puglia) as a case study. The theoretical approach adopted refers to the paradigm of ecological economics, recalling the concept of strong sustainability through the conservation of natural capital and its non-replacement with economic capital. This condition can be assessed through the ecological balance tool by comparing the availability and use of natural capital in economic activities. The aim of this study was to understand the extent of the load generated on the environment, thus evaluating whether the carrying capacity of the agricultural system was able to support the environmental load of the entire supply chain. The results show an overall unsustainability of the entire supply chain with a value of EB = −1911.49 gha. The agricultural phase is the only one to present a positive value EB = +62.99 gha, which fails to compensate for the impacts of the transport (EB = −349.13) and industrial (EB = −1630.96) phases. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the sustainability of the tomato food chain using the ecological footprint method. In the agricultural sector, there is a constant search for tools capable of combining economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. In this sense, the ecological footprint methodology provides essential information that can be used by policymakers of different levels to define sustainable development strategies.

Keywords: ecological footprint; industrial tomatoes; agri-food chain; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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