Industrial agriculture and its requirement for standardized approaches is driving the world towards a global food system, shrinking the role of farmers and shifting decision-making power. On the contrary, a holistic perspective towards a new food-system design could meet the needs of a larger share of stakeholders. Long-term experiments are crucial in this transition, being the hub of knowledge and the workshop of 'participation in' and 'appropriation of' the research in agriculture over a long term. We present a methodology applied during the creation of a small network of organic farmers in Italy and detail the steps of the co-innovation process implemented. After a context analysis of the area to define the type of research and degree of participation, three steps were performed: (1) Identification of stakeholders; (2) dialogic identification of common activities; and (3) validation and feedback from participants. In the first participatory step, five organic farms were engaged for the second and third steps. We organized meetings to discuss future plans, facilitating the interaction process between farmers and researchers. These activities led to: (i) the definition of a research protocol based on farmers' research needs for a new long-term experiment; (ii) committing farmers to take an active role in the research; and (iii) hosting experimental satellite trials in their own farms.

The modern agrifood system has a strong socio-economic and health impact on stakeholders, from producers to consumers. According to agroecological studies, a key factor for the food system to change is a stronger connection between farmers and consumers and the implementation of Food Citizenship. In this paper, we present the results of preliminary research on the consumer approach to vegetable and fruit purchase in Italy. Our main aim was to group consumers according to the major criteria guiding their food purchase patterns, to outline the main criteria underpinning their choices and assess their degree of environmental, economic and social awareness. Cluster analysis was able to pick out two groups with significant statistical differences, i.e., 55.4% of the sample showed, through their consumption patterns, deeper environmental and social concerns. Specifically, when comparing food purchasing patterns, ethical choices, biodiversity and global warming were the most influential factors to discriminate the two clusters. Moreover, organic food consumption confirmed its status as an acknowledged way to reduce the environmental impact of the modern agrifood system for which respondents are willing to pay a higher price compared to conventional food. Nonetheless, the whole sample of respondents perceived organic food as expensive and not good for value.

The implementation of agroecology principles within organic farming research is a crux to redesign sustainable agri-food systems. To govern this transition, the local research demand should be addressed by direct engagement of all stakeholders in the research process. The first step is the involvement of farmers and technicians, with the aim of restoring their decision-making role, switching governance to local scale. The co-design/co-management of Long-Term Experiments (LTEs) can be crucial to govern the above-described transition through networking and participatory activities. In this study, we report the experience of co-designing a new LTE in Southern Italy by local actors and scientists. Through a participatory action research methodology, an LTE was considered as a biophysical component of an agroecological living lab, a public–private environment aimed to design a local food system. The setup of parallel field trials in satellite farms stands for the other biophysical component, whereas the stakeholder platform represents the social one. Through definition of common objectives, a step-by-step process is presented, which highlights the interest of local organic actors to share ideas and perspectives for the territory, pointing out the inclusion of end-users (the consumers) in the process to complete the transition to sustainable food systems.