“Food Safety Management Systems on Mountain Areas of North-Western Tuscany”

This qualitative case study of the local dairy production in hill and mountain areas of North-western Tuscany is an examination of the “from farm to fork” approach in which key players like farmers and dairy cooperatives create and reinforce the local food movement. This thesis examines specific study areas where the production chain is underdeveloped and at risk of abandonment. I describe the current state of dairy production in the study area, the impact of landscape, regulations, and economic change on small-scale farmers. The thesis also delved into what would be needed to guarantee a high quality product for consumers by focusing on animal health and welfare in traditional husbandry conditions. Furthermore, the analysis reveals which tools are currently available to analyze welfare and quality assessment and to ensure a place-based high quality product. This research offers guidance to researchers, academics and local administrations interested in supporting a lively future for the region. This study also lends evidence that small-scale producers add value along the entire supply chain by producing a dairy product with integrity, which can inform future criteria and assessments of areas at risk of abandonment. Overall, this research demonstrates a framework to analyze small-scale mountain farming in a wide sense via the economic, environmental, ethical (as related to animal welfare) points of view, and offers a perspective on unlocked potential of this area as well as how production, valorisation and marketing of local, sustainable, traditional dairy products, can become a salient mechanism that can result in a flourishing regional food system.