Sustainability Performance of Mountain Food Value Chains

In the framework of the Brotweg project (“The bread route for mountain areas”), the performance of alternative food value chains was evaluated. Geomorphological considerations on the territory, namely the high slopes and highly uneven terrain, meant that the chosen sites are suitable for the cultivation and processing of different types of cereals and for animal husbandry. Four alternative supply chains were considered: (1) rye-bread, (2) barley-beer, (3) cow’s milk-cheese, (4) goat’s milk-cheese. Regarding the cereal cases, the innovative cultivation and post-harvest methods developed during the Brotweg project were considered. For the dairy farming ones, the haymaking phase was also included. Two methodologies were used to assess the performance of the supply chains: Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA). Both approaches present pros and cons, hence affecting their applicability depending on the context and decision-making processes that they must support. The article introduces the preliminary results of the supply chain analysis and the resulting considerations. In particular: (a) for both approaches there is a need for consistent knowledge of the performance of different alternative supply chains, (b) for territories such as the studied ones, a further assessment of short supply chains (all on-farm) and cooperative models (e.g., sharing of plants and machinery) is necessary and needs to be integrated with logistics considerations, and (c) the short cereal-bread chain is an interesting alternative, but very much linked to the climatic risk—e.g. loss of primary production. On the contrary, alternative systems linked to animal husbandry are less risky.