Geographical Indications, public goods and sustainable development goals: A methodological proposal

Geographical Indications (GIs) are examples of food production that leans towards sustainability through management rules laid down by consortia and a Code of Specifications (CoS) that guides good practices. The objective of this paper is to develop a methodology grounded in the European union horizon 2020 Strength2food (S2F) project, which can measure the extent to which GI production systems contribute to the fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis comprises three stages. The first two use the S2F methodology: i) the identification of the benefits that the activities codified in the GI CoS bring to the territory, and ii) the definition of indicators for measuring such benefits, classed as public goods (PGs), and their evaluation criteria. The third stage represents this study's contribution to the methodology, that is, iii) establishing connections between the identified PGs and SDGs. To this end, we discuss a Protected Designation of Origin Parmigiano Reggiano hard cheese case study. Our methodology aims to provide policymakers, operators, and managers of GI value chains with a tool to define which good practices in GI production systems should be supported over time to better achieve the SDGs.