Urban gardening (UG) as a component of urban agriculture (UA) has reached popularity during the last decades. This growing interest depends on several factors including the different functions that have been attributed to UG over the years, operating from the economic to the social, health and cultural levels. While multifunctionality of UG is well documented, only a few studies investigated individual gardeners’ motivations, which can be subjective and heavily affected by the local context in which it takes place. The paper aims to detect some peculiar features of Milan city gardeners, in order to highlight the motivations of their activity through an innovative and replicable approach based on multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA). The analysis has been applied to the Milan case study, in the North of Italy; the results suggest a great importance of the social component of UG, and trace some different gardeners’ profiles.

The shift towards more sustainable consumptions and habits have had tangible impacts on food markets, which have accepted this challenge by offering a variety of certification systems to pull consumers aside. However, food purchasing choices are also guided by ethical, environmental and cultural motivations, functioning as drivers of food acquiring. This study aimed at assessing the influence of consumers’ attitudes in purchasing an Alpine cheese labelled with a food sustainability logo, as the mountain product brand, following a two-step approach. We estimated the consumers’ preferences for some sustainable labels by using Choice Experiments (CE), followed by a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to assess the influence of three attitudinal scales on the consumers’ behavior. The main results show the influence of green consumers’ values on the mountain product brand choice, and a strong relationship between green consumers’ and animal well-being values. In the conclusions, some policy indications are provided.

The valorization of typical food products contributes to local economy sustainability. The European Union introduced the optional "mountain product label” (European Commission, EUR-Lex 2014, European Parliament 2012) to promote the mountain economic system sustainability. Although some researchers have focused their studies on the mountain product label, at our knowledge, the mountain product label value has never been investigated before. The aim of the study is to assess consumers’ willingness to pay for a typical mountain cheese with different sustainable production characteristics, among which the “mountain product label”, using a Choice Experiment approach. More in detail, we tested as sustainable issues: the presence on the label of the mountain product certification (i), the organic certification (ii) and some animal welfare information (iii). We also investigated socio-demographic and attitudinal variables influencing consumers’ propensity towards the three attributes. The main results confirm the consumers’ interest for the mountain product label, probably for a renewed consumers’ interests for environmental respectful production process in food market and because the mountain territory is perceived as carrier of positive values. Moreover, also the other attributes, organic label and especially the indication on animal welfare resulted to have a premium price. Another result emerging from our study is the sensitivity of young people to the issue of mountain product brand and animal welfare, suggesting an interesting target to address.

Purpose: Consumers' concerns about the environmental impacts of food production have been increasing over the last years, and several certification systems for environment-friendly food products have been created. This research investigates wine consumers' preferences for a certification that guarantees the use of agricultural practices that better protect the biodiversity in the vineyard during the production of grapes.Design/methodology/approach: Using a choice experiment, we investigate consumer preferences and willingness to pay for biodiversity-friendly wines on a sample of 334 wine consumers. The experiment was carried out by direct interviews at a wine-tasting event in an Italian winery located in the Franciacorta area, in northern Italy. A between-subject design and two different questionnaires were used, one presenting the Brut bottle and one the Satén bottle.Findings: Estimates from a mixed logit model reveal that consumers are generally willing to pay a higher price for biodiversity-friendly wines, but they have stronger preferences for organic certification and quality indications. When consumers perceive a specific product as having high quality, i.e. Satèn, they might be less willing to pay for further environment-friendly certifications. Moreover, preferences depend on sociodemographic and attitudinal variables such as gender, wine consumption frequency, wine education and knowledge degree of the labels.Originality/value: This paper broadens the knowledge about consumer preferences and willingness to pay for biodiversity-friendly wines, focusing on a specific market segment of Italian sparkling wines.

Packaging is an important economic component of the wine industry. However, while glass bottles are the leading wine container globally, their production and handling entail severe problems in increased carbon footprint impact and waste and logistic management. As a result, the wine packaging industry has developed and commercialised several alternatives to glass bottles, including aluminium cans. However, despite producers’ efforts in proposing alternative wine packaging, there are several barriers to their diffusion, especially in countries with a long tradition of wine consumption such as Italy, and it is still uncertain if and to what degree consumers would appreciate a wine in an aluminium can. This research investigates Italian wine consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for canned wine through a survey and the contingent valuation method. We collected data from 551 consumers regarding attitudes and preferences about their wine consumption, alternative packaging acceptance, and motivations for accepting and refusing to buy it. Only a minority of the respondents declared they would buy canned wine, while the majority would refuse for reasons related to low-quality perception and poor consideration of alternative wine packaging. The lack of knowledge is one of the main obstacles to the diffusion of canned wine. However, canned wines could address different groups of wine drinkers and consumption occasions, increasing the opportunities for winemakers, especially among non-regular consumers.