Sustainable agriculture, food security and diet diversity. The case study of Tuscany, Italy

Urban population growth has raised concerns about food security. Agricultural systems are asked to satisfy a growing demand of food while addressing sustainability issues and facing resources constraints. Ecological footprints are widespread instruments for the study of human impact and dependence on natural resources. Amongst these tools, Land Food Footprint (LFF) is used to measure the land actually used to produce the food needed to satisfy the demand of a given region or country. Understanding the differences between alternative production methods and the gaps between available and needed land is a crucial issue in order to integrate food security and sustainability issues into the food system. The objective of this study is to analyse the Land Food Footprint of Tuscany (Italy) for both organic and conventional agriculture, taking into account the nexus of diet. In this aim, Land Food Footprint for the considered production processes is assessed under four different diet scenarios with different levels of animal protein consumption. The study suggests that the gap between land needed by organic and conventional agriculture varies considerably between vegetable and animal products. It confirms that organic agriculture needs more land than conventional one but the gap between land footprints shrinks because of dietary changes. In this study, the most important finding is that organic agriculture might feed the case study population if the diet shifts towards a reduced intake of animal protein. In fact, with a diet reduction of 50% in animal proteins, the organic land food footprint value is equal to the conventional land food footprint under the status quo diet scenario indicating that organic agriculture would be able to address food security issues if food consumption was properly adapted to agriculture carrying capacity.