During the last few years, the definition of sustainability and the translation of its general principles into practical and operative tasks have come into the foreground of scientific research and political agendas throughout the world. The understanding and the evaluation of the environmental, social and economic performances of complex agricultural food systems is probably the real challenge, and the design of more sustainable alternatives has been recognized as necessary for a correct territorial management. This study’s primary goal is the proposition of an interpretive structure “Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology” (SAEMETH), able to guide the evaluation of the sustainability of the various organizational forms of the small-scale agri-food supply chain. As a case study, the methodology was applied to 10 small-scale agri-food systems. The application of SAEMETH, as a monitoring tool based on qualitative indicators that are user-friendly and strongly communicative, demonstrates that it is possible to carry out sustainability evaluations of the small-scale agri-food systems through a long-term approach that is participatory, interdisciplinary and multi-institutional and that integrates a solid theoretical base with an operative framework tested in the field. SAEMETH can, in this way, generate a cyclical process that increases the probability of success in the design of sustainable alternatives and the implementation of projects and initiatives at the local/regional scale.

This contribution explores the issue of urban food planning in the Italian context in a comparative perspective, basing on the case studies of Turin and Milan, the two main cities of Northern Italy, currently engaged in processes of urban food policies development. The first part of the article outlines the general structure of these tools and describes their role of new political spaces for a public debate about food policies. The second section comparatively analyses the two case studies stressing their differences and similarities. Finally, the conclusion of the article focuses on the importance of identifying the right scales for analyzing and planning food systems.

Les méga-événements tels que les jeux olympiques attirent de plus en plusl’attention dans le débat relatif aux transformations urbaines. Leurs dimensions sont multiples ; leurs plus importants impacts sont sans doute ceux de nature spatiale. Ils sont l’occasion d’entreprendre une transformation urbaine extraordinaire en termes de structure interne, d’image et de compétitivité externe. À partir de l’expérience des Jeux de 2006 organisés à Turin, cet article propose une approche théorique pour l’étude de la territorialisation de méga-événements et du défi problématique leur legs.

Les méga-événements tels que les jeux olympiques attirent de plus en plusl’attention dans le débat relatif aux transformations urbaines. Leurs dimensions sont multiples ; leurs plus importants impacts sont sans doute ceux de nature spatiale. Ils sont l’occasion d’entreprendre une transformation urbaine extraordinaire en termes de structure interne, d’image et de compétitivité externe. À partir de l’expérience des Jeux de 2006 organisés à Turin, cet article propose une approche théorique pour l’étude de la territorialisation de méga-événements et du défi problématique leur legs.

Partly due to its composite nature, geography has since long given important contributions to the multidisciplinarity of the territorialist approach. This chapter intends to continue and deepen such hybridisation of knowledge and reflection areas with reference to the evolutionary tendencies underway, both in geography and in territorialist theory and practice, in view of the transformations of the food system and the renewed public and scientific attention to food/territory relationship: a theme, intrinsically rebellious to disciplinary fences, which opens up the field of planning to a broad and multifaceted reading of the ecological relations structuring human settlements.