The aim of this research is to contribute to food security by studying the development of integrated organic production models related to the biodiversity of food sources, soil fertility and water availability, both in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sicily. Using the FAO's multi-facetted approach of the Sustainable Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Tool, combined with interviews and visits to two organic farming communities in the UAE and Sicily, preliminary results were obtained consisting of: SAFA reports for each farmer and each community and the identification of some additional SAFA Tool indicators for local markets and migrant worker relations. Overall, the two systems contain elements described in the literature, such as Short Food Local Systems and as such contribute to territorial food support. Some best practices in organic production, direct marketing and migrant worker integration were identified and shared with farmers. The study highlights some operational issues that will be further focused upon in the future.

Climate change, recurrent economic and financial crises and food security issues are forcing society to look at the increasingly widespread use of “sustainable” production practices. These are often translated into innovations for businesses that are not always easily achievable other than through specific investments. This work sets out to assess the sustainability performance of organic farms, which represent a sustainable production model in terms of values, standards, practices and knowledge on the ground. The research was carried out in two geographical contexts (the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sicily, Italy) which have certain environmental and socio-economic issues in common, particularly in productive sectors representative of organic agriculture. This was done with the help of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA, in the rest of the text) framework and social network analysis to study the sustainability performance of organic farms within non-structured local production systems in the form of formal enterprise networks that, on the contrary, operate with a recognized and common aim. The results demonstrate both their attainment of excellence and the existence of criticalities, thus, identifying routes to possible improvement.