Ecological Indicators 34 (2013) 580–589 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Ecological Indicators jo ur nal ho me page: www.elsevier.com/locate/ ecolind Original article Revisiting the food component of the ecological footprint indicator for autonomous rural settlement models in Central Italy Maria Elena Menconi ∗ , Giordano Stella, David Grohmann University of Perugia, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 9 October 2012 Received in revised form 14 January 2013 Accepted 15 June 2013 Keywords: Ecological indicators Ecovillage Autonomous food systems Sustainable development Organic agriculture Rural areas a b s t r a c t The aim of this work is to design a model of sustainable rural settlement to ensure food self-sufficiency. The strategic objective of this study is to verify how the development of rural settlements based on this model contributes to overall sustainability. The sustainability assessment is based on an ecological footprint indicator introduced by Rees (1992) and developed by Rees and Wackernagel (1994). The operational objective of this work is to develop an ecological footprint of autonomous food systems model that is able to determine the land area needed to ensure the food self-sufficiency of an Italian settlement while varying the number of components and the diet followed. The model is also intended to determine the food component of the ecological footprint indicator. Model development started with the identification of the average diet for a community, which was determined from organic farming criteria, crop layouts and livestock farming characteristics necessary to meet demand. The research demonstrated that by promoting food self-sufficient rural settlements, the food component of the ecological footprint indicator is lowered by 47.32% compared to the national average and by 8.11% compared to the world average. The development of this model has also highlighted how the ecological footprint indicator is not valid for assessing the autonomous sustainability of a community, leading to a systematic underestimation of humanity’s true impact. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The present is a historical moment in which agricultural pol- icy continues to encourage product specialisation to improve free exchange (Anderson, 2005; Anderson and Martin, 2005; Hertel and Keeney, 2006; Moon, 2011) while simultaneously encouraging multifunctionality in agriculture. Multifunctionality requires that the agricultural sector produce goods, safeguard the environment, protect biodiversity, and produce energy and services (Potter and Tilzey, 2007; COM, 2011, 500 final). It is undeniable that rural areas serve an important function in sustainable development (Moon and Griffith, 2011), but in practice, multifunctionality is perceived more as a necessary tool to restore competitiveness to a key eco- nomic sector burdened by persistent inefficiency since the green revolution. In fact, existing forms of intensive agricultural produc- tion showed lower efficiency from the beginning than did previous modes of production because they rely more on inorganic input and fossil fuels (Leach, 1976; Pimentel and Pimentel, 1979). Real sustainable development in rural areas requires both diversifying ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0755856081; fax: +39 0755856086. E-mail addresses: mariaelena.menconi@unipg.it, melenamenconi@yahoo.it (M.E. Menconi). activities and renewing the integrity of the primary function of agriculture. To achieve this goal, food production needs to be geo- graphically contextualised (Bowen and de Master, 2011) and must be analysed with consideration of the entire agribusiness process chain (Amate and de Molina, 2011). 1.1. Birth of the sustainable development concept The limitations of the current model of economic growth have been highlighted in early theories: Smith (1976) wondered how unlimited growth could occur with limited resources, Malthus (1798) illustrated how population growth accelerates and aggra- vates the depletion of natural resources and consequently reduces economic growth and Mill (1848) reflected on the concept of how quality of life is not based exclusively on an increase of wealth. The environmental problem and the assumption that the econ- omy is interrelated with environmental effects has only emerged since the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the first major environ- mental disasters and the birth of the environmentalist and pacifist movements. In this atmosphere in which the whole social system was questioned, the concept of sustainable development was born. Since then, many international summits have convened to estab- lish common commitments and appropriate action. In particular, regarding Europe, the various reforms of the European Common 1470-160X/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.06.011