Abstract
The agri-food sector requires a comprehensive and cross-cutting policy that also meets the needs of environmental protection. Environmental issues are always dealt with in different ways, depending on the socio-cultural context at any given time. One salient element that emerges, however, is the overexploitation of land, and permanent environmental damage is closely linked to an approach that considers agriculture exclusively as a question of producing goods. The increasing levels of welfare in industrialized countries and the ability to produce a surplus over and above domestic demand have led policymakers and practitioners to neglect the basic function of agricultural activities: providing food for people. Taking this function as a starting point, we can demonstrate the need to regulate agricultural activity in a way that goes beyond the demands of market logic. We must also recognize the importance of standards in agri-food law that enable consumers to make informed choices. In contemporary society, consumers often choose products not only for their quality or price but on the basis of other intangible values. A growing share of consumption choices take into account the environmental impact of production processes or, more generally, their compliance with ethical rules also linked to energy consumption and the proximity of the market to the area of production. In this sense, we can detect a clear spread of aggregation methods that go beyond the usual patterns [of consumer behavior] and the [growing] role of the consumer in the shift from market-oriented to eco-oriented choice.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Jannarelli (2013b), pp. 405–438.
- 3.
Jannarelli (2013a), p. 22.
- 4.
Jannarelli (2013a), p. 24.
- 5.
Jannarelli (2013b), p. 405.
- 6.
Leccese (2011), p. 45.
- 7.
COM (2011) 631 final.
- 8.
Tamponi (2011a), pp. 579–616.
- 9.
Cf. http://eur-lex.europa.eu. Accessed 2 Oct 2014.
- 10.
For the previous programs, see White Paper Together for Health: A Strategic Approach for the EU 2008–2013 COM(2007) 630 final and to Decision 1350/2007/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 establishing a second programme of Community action in the field of health (2008–2013). http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/consumer_safety/I28153_it.htm. On this point see Sirsi (2011), pp. 496–523.
- 11.
Cf. http://eur-lex.europa.eu. Accessed 2 Oct 2014.
- 12.
- 13.
On this point, see Jannarelli (2011), p. 144.
- 14.
Article 1 of Regulation 178/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of Council, of 28 January 2002, stipulating general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and stipulating procedures in matters of food safety, in http://eur-lex.europa.eu.
- 15.
On this point, see Costato (2008), pp. 299–316.
- 16.
Jannarelli (2012). Regulation 1169/2011 is read in the more general framework of regulation in order to give direct orders to information processes that are the basis of market relations. Albisinni (2012), pp. 66–78; Canfora (2012); Giuffrida (2012), pp. 79–93; Forti (2012), pp. 94–113; Ragusa (2011), p. 480, which points out that the regulation concerns allowing consumers to obtain relevant information about the products they’re interested in, apart from labeling, which, although a necessary tool, is not the only one possible or necessarily desirable because it is not usable for nonprepacked products; Russo (2012), pp. 47–65.
- 17.
Jannarelli (2012), p. 41.
- 18.
Whereas 3) Regulation 1169/2011/EC.
- 19.
Whereas 4) Regulation 1169/2011/EC.
- 20.
Carmignani (2012), p. 98.
- 21.
Bigliazzi Geri (1987), pp. 495–507.
- 22.
Carmignani (2012), p. 155.
- 23.
Carmignani (2012), p. 91.
- 24.
Cf. Tamponi (2011b), pp. 481–495.
- 25.
Canfora (2011), pp. 304–329.
- 26.
Brambilla (2013), pp. 406–421. The significant point is on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions—Flagship initiative under Europe 2020 Strategy, COM(2011) 21 final, where we read that in order to operate appropriate choices, even over longer distances, we need to examine the entire cycle of how we use resources, including the value chain and trade-offs among different priorities. To have the necessary information in order to evaluate different choices will help policymakers to decide where to focus their action. Among many examples, reference is made to the fact that the use of the land to produce foodstuffs may compete with the use of the land for energy, and both uses may be an obstacle to the competitive use of soil that encourages biodiversity or acts as an ecosystem, for example by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.
- 27.
Adornato (2008), pp. 5–8.
- 28.
On these issues, and the case law of the Constitutional Court on the point, see Canfora (2011), p. 311; De Leonardis (2005), pp. 889–914, he shows that if, in fact, on the one hand, those that, with an effective metaphor, have been called “windmills” of our century can contribute greatly to the reduction of greenhouse gases, on the other hand, it can have a negative effect on the landscape: it is well known that the areas of greatest wind potential are those of the ridges, hills and mountains, all extremely scenically relevant.
- 29.
Jannarelli (2013b), p. 405.
- 30.
Germanò (2011), pp. 589–603. A particular attention to safeguard production methods and traditional recipes is found in Art. 17, Regulation (EU) 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs, where it is stated that a scheme for traditional specialties guaranteed is established to safeguard traditional methods of production and recipes by helping producers of traditional product in marketing and communicating the value-adding attributes of their traditional recipes and products to consumers. On this point, see Costato (2012), pp. 648–667.
- 31.
On the important profiles regarding the “option quality terms” (according to the terms of Regulation (EU) 1151/2012), as related to the Commission’s resistance to any initiative by the Member States for further indications on labeling, see Costato (2012), p. 660.
- 32.
Canfora (2013), pp. 149–161.
- 33.
Canfora (2013), p. 151.
- 34.
Canfora (2013), p. 150.
- 35.
Koo and Jiang (2014), pp. 279–302.
- 36.
Italian Constitutional Court, 6 December 2013, n. 292.
- 37.
- 38.
- 39.
Carmignani (2012), p. 155.
- 40.
In http://www.synergy-net.info/default.cfm?fuseaction=link&id=3,39160, 9. Accessed 10 Oct 2014.
- 41.
- 42.
In http://ec.europa.eu/consumers, 2. Accessed 10 Oct 2014.
- 43.
Decision 1926/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 establishing a programme of Community action in the field of consumer policy (2007–2013).
- 44.
COM(2011) 707 def. 2; COM(2012) 225 final.
- 45.
COM(2012) 225 final.
- 46.
Proposal for a Regulation establishing a framework program for research and innovation, COM(2011) 809. On this point, see COM(2012) 225 final, 1.
- 47.
Cohen (1998).
- 48.
COM(2012) 225 final, 4, stipulates that consumers should be empowered, assisted and encouraged to make sustainable and healthy choices that will lead to cost saving for themselves and for the society as a whole. Consumers have the right to be informed on the environmental impact throughout the life cycle of the products (goods and services) they intend to buy. They should be supported in identifying truly sustainable choices. Effective tools are needed to protect them against misleading and unfounded environmental and health claims.
- 49.
Tamponi (2011a), p. 593.
- 50.
On this point, see Costantino (2011), pp. 230–247.
- 51.
In http://eur-lex.europa.eu. Accessed 5 Oct 2014.
- 52.
On the impact of the Directive in the food sector, see Di Lauro (2011), pp. 547–578.
- 53.
Tamponi (2011a), p. 593.
- 54.
- 55.
Bologna (2010), p. 359.
- 56.
Jannarelli (2013a), p. 12.
- 57.
COM(2010) 672.
- 58.
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Tommasi, S. (2015). The Agri-Food Market and Eco-Oriented Consumer Law: Towards a New Model. In: Monteduro, M., Buongiorno, P., Di Benedetto, S., Isoni, A. (eds) Law and Agroecology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46617-9_16
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