The objectives of this WP are:

develop, through participatory processes, an integrated characterization of the performance of food chains. An integrated characterization is a specific set of indicators chosen within the broader set of indicators of the database developed in WP3 and related to each of the five dimensions of performance: economical, social, environmental, health, ethical.

We assume that the characterization of the performance of a food system can only be obtained by adopting a flexible procedure exploring how a given society desires to produce and consume its food in relation to its history, culture, lifestyle, local environmental constraints and global environmental resources. In other words, we expect that different societies perceive differently costs and benefits of food and food chain arrangements.

Consequently, we expect that each national context will choose different subsets of a finite set of relevant criteria to define costs and benefits for the 5 dimensions. Moreover, these different subsets will be generated in relation to the specificity of the different case studies.