Activities

By expanding previous research and teaching activities focusing both on innovation and on the relation between agrifood law and globalization, PESTRI aims at developing a critical reflection on the many and dialogic relations between regulation, innovation and sustainability. This will be done by carrying out the following main activities:

a.    the organization of three courses:

1. a course on Wine Law for C3A students in Viticulture and Oenology;
2. a course on Agrifood Law for C3A students in Agrifood Innovation Management;
3. a course on Agrifood Law and Globalization for students attending the Faculty of Law.

The courses will deal with the following topics:

• intellectual property (especially: patents, new plant varieties certificates, trade secrets);
• Common Agricultural Policy and Common Organization of Agricultural Markets;
• organic production; private standards;
• contractual arrangements;
• regulation concerning unfair trading practices in the agricultural sector;
• regulation on access to data;
• regulation of precision agriculture;
• regulation of chemical products and additives;
• regulation of gmos (with a particular focus on so called new breeding techniques);
• regulation of novel food. The extent and level of detail with which such topics will be analysed will be different depending on the specific course that will be taught;

b.    the organization of an annual conference open to professionals, public managers, representatives of the civil society and the general public.
The workshop theme will change every year and will be cross-cutting with respect to the topics coped with during the course. In particular, the conferences will develop three themes with the goal to offer a in-depth analysis of three areas where the interaction between innovation and sustainability is prominent:
1. distribution of innovative and sustainable products in the market: the case of club varieties;
2. the regulation of precision agriculture as a tool to implement sustainable agricultural practices;
3. the role of private standards and certification schemes in promoting sustainability through innovative processes;

c.    the didactic seminars will be co-organized with professional associations; their contents will reflect the variety of interests that will emerge through the mutual interactions and the needs characterizing the local social and economic context.

A fil rouge common to the project activities is the interdisciplinary approach adopted. Such methodology aims at creating a dialogue between students and participants with different educational backgrounds; it also highlights the interconnections and complexities characterizing the relationship between the law, on one hand, and innovation and sustainability, on the other hand.
Since the law has to provide solutions that impact in other scientific/professional domains, the project contextualizes the role that law has in managing the complex relations between innovation and sustainability and the impact they have in economic, environmental and social terms.
The interdisciplinary approach will be implemented thanks to the multidisciplinary synergies possible through the cooperation with the C3A, the Faculty of Law, scientific associations, civil society, public institutions and professional associations that will take part to the various activities organized during the project.