passaporto etico 4-5

Page 4 / 5

Step 7: Main difficulty or obstacle

During information collection, when approached companies appeared mistrustful. The initiative was seen as an additional bureaucratic practice. After the programme explanation and illustration through joint meetings with the involved operators, the attitude has changed and companies have recognized in the Ethical Passport an opportunity for the communication and enhancement of their characteristics and products. Diffidence has been immediately overcame and membership demands have started to grow when stickers bearing the logo of the Ethical Passport (and implying the message of adhesion to the initiative) have been placed in companies. Different was the attitude of approached consumers (during the opinion survey) who have enthusiastically welcomed such type of valorisation to them addressed, although this final form has not yet objectively started. However, this problem will be easily overcome, by the possibility to access information through the information system.

Adhesion stickers
The image illustrates the sticker bearing the logo of the Ethical Passport placed in adherent companies.

Results - SOLAT 

Interview
 with Giancarlo Corini, chiarman of the SOLAT farm opertaing in Leno 
(Bs). Mr. Corini evidences the results to which the adoption of the 
Ethical Passport can bring to.

      

Step 8: Environmental impact
The Ethical Passport gives value to production by providing markets and consumers with the quality, safety and nutritional documentation, descriptors of the companies’ ethical behavior concerning environment protection and care, animals welness, respect for tradition, energy savings, use of water resources, and preservation of ancient species.
The communication of these actions has a high value in relation to the consistency with the current trends and the global policy that lead countries towards the adoption of policies concerning environmental careful management rewarding positive results. The quantitative evaluation of the ethical descriptors can represent a step towards boosting the improvement of environmental management, given also the eventual perspective of a production payment based on the degree of the ethical value achieved. In this context, major lending institutions would grant soft loans to companies aiming at the improvement of their ethical score.

Animals wellbeing
The milking process is not complete; moreover it could result traumatic if this process is limited to the sole action of the milking machine. For a complete physiological and emptying of the breast is necessary activating the Pavlov reflex, generated by the calf’s mouth or by "constraints" such as music, the milking machine noise, feeding activity, animals litter change, etc., as long as these actions occur repeated at each milking.

Bio-protection
Uncontrolled access by persons, vehicles and animals could represent a possible pathogen vehicle from which the herd should be protected. Physical barriers and signals are the first form of deterrence and control.

Water resources management
Water saving is a categorical imperative also in territories rich in water resources. Corn, a typical plant of dry farming, if used for forage purpose with fast-growing cultivation needs irrigation. While traditional systems, such as scrolling system involve the spreading of water large amounts, higher than the plant requirements, drip irrigation is a method of judicious utilization of this valuable resource.

Environmental impact 

The video illustrates the Ethical Passport and environmental descriptors.

Ethical Passport and environment
The document illustrates that the Ethical Passport emphasizes descriptors of the companies' ethical behavior especially towards environment and animals wellbeing.

Step 9: Sustainability, transferability and duplicability
The ethical passport, knowledge and diffusion of total quality instrument of individual products and companies that produce them, was born as an initiative to promote the products of a single Province – Brescia. Actually, the ethical passport is being spread also to other regions and provinces (Varese , Milan, Sicily, Abruzzo, etc.). Over 4,500 agro-food products included in the list of traditional products (although spread over a wide territory) were born and were been established according to common criteria and respect for the environment and local resources. Therefore, the ethical passport has been recognized as a tool for the products enhancement and was adopted in relation to knowledge concrete actions and production valorization.
Thus, the ethical passport can be considered as model to be proposed for foreign productions (not only at European level) and for the e-commerce promotion in controlled conditions, through certification and international recognition.

Food Seminar
During the food seminar organized by the Italian Federation of doctors in agriculture and forestry the Ethical Passport was discussed and thus disseminated.

Health
The animals and deriving products movement can be considered free only if concerns countries that produce documentation certifying their health or at least that they have been controlled against the diseases listed by the OIE lists (International Office of Epizooties) for each animal species.

Steps of the project
The documents illustrates briefly the project's main steps in terms of number of collected Ethical Passports, products categories and geographical areas concerned.

Page 4 / 5