The safeguarding and promotion of food heritage are often considered as a possible way for achieving social and cultural sustainability objectives. This literature review investigates some of the dynamics underlying the heritagisation of food and explores the risks of this process. It focuses mainly on anthropological, geographical, and sociological publications. Overall, it aims to shed light on the strengths and limitations of food heritagisation regarding the improvement of the socio-cultural sustainability of the food system. The analysis highlights cross-cutting risks, namely the omission of tangible and intangible elements of the local food system, and the exclusion of key stakeholders from the recognition and institutionalisation of food heritage. The review highlights the strict interdependence between intangible and tangible elements during food heritagisation, and assesses how local and global interactions can activate and shape this process. It sheds light on the need to pay more attention to the factors, actors, and relationships underpinning the emergence and recognition of food and food-related elements as part of the local heritage.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9510/pdf

Recognising, Safeguarding, and Promoting Food Heritage: Challenges and Prospects for the Future of Sustainable Food Systems

The home garden is a unique human-nature interspace that accommodates a diverse spectrum of plant species and provides multiple services to households. One of the most important roles of home gardens is to shelter the agricultural plant diversity that provides for diverse and healthy nutrition, especially in rural communities. While tropical home gardens have received wide recognition due to their provisional function for the local communities, temperate and especially European home gardens have been discussed less frequently as a source of subsistence. The main objectives of the current study were to document plant species grown in Bulgarian rural home gardens and to explore related local knowledge and cultural practices that influence food plant diversity, its selection and preservation. Field work was focused on settlements situated in eight provinces in South and North-West Bulgaria. Participants representing 65 home gardens were approached through semi-structured interviews. Home gardens were found to harbor 145 cultivated and semi-cultivated plant taxa, used as food, medicinal and aromatic plants and as animal fodder. Members of the Rosaceae family were most numerous. The largest part of the garden area was occupied by vegetable crops of Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae. In 63.1% of the studied households, the food growing area comprised more than 2/3 of the total size of the garden. Most preferred crops reflected the social and cultural importance of food self-provisioning, especially in the rural areas. The provisional role of the home gardens in regard to preparation of traditional foods and the driving forces for seed saving are discussed.

Enough to Feed Ourselves!—Food Plants in Bulgarian Rural Home Gardens

We developed a model to demonstrate how multiple interrelated aspects of a firm influence its recourse to third-party financing, which frequently depends on the characteristics of each food production chain.,We conducted an empirical research on a relevant sample of small- and medium-sized Italian dairy firms. Our research methodology is inspired by the grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).,Our findings illustrated that firm indebtedness is the result of intertwined variables, linked to different firm dimensions, including growth, financial structure and economic dynamics.,A portion of the analysed phenomenon is not explained using the sample and econometric tools.,There are practical implications for the decision-makers in a firm (in particular, the managers and the shareholders) as the model allows to evaluate the influence of a set of mutually interdependent firm variables for the indebtedness level.,First, we considered the recourse to third-party financing within the context of the systems theory (Millova and Blatný, 2015) and from the perspective of linked causes and mutually connected variables. Second, our research focussed on a well-defined food chain and on features of firms operating in this context. Last, our model considered the impact of the recent economic crisis, which motivated us to review the existing models.

Factors driving indebtedness among small- and medium-sized dairy companies

In the past two decades the popularity of artisan cheese emerged. The present study aimed to investigate similarities and differences in beliefs towards artisan cheeses among participants from Serbia, Croatia and Spain and to determine consumer profiles. Better understanding of their behaviours and beliefs could serve as the basis for the development of appropriate production and marketing strategies and for further popularisation of artisan cheeses.,The data on demographic structure, behaviours and beliefs of 947 participants in total were obtained via a questionnaire collected online. In order to identify consumer profiles and to define their specific beliefs, a cross-country cluster analysis has been conducted. Four clusters were identified: “highly educated men”, “highly educated women”, “millennials” and “educated senior women”. Mann–Whitney U test was used to identify statistically significant differences between countries and clusters.,Respondents from different countries had different preferences for cheese types and different ways of consumption. All participants valued artisan cheeses more than industrial cheeses in terms of healthiness and quality, but they believe that there is still much to be done in terms of proper packaging, labelling, branding, widening of assortment and providing better availability. The results of the present study revealed that participants had no clear opinion regarding trust in artisan cheese safety.,Up to date, no study investigated beliefs of consumers from Serbia and Croatia towards artisan cheese. Original consumer pool has unique characteristics: they are far more oriented towards open markets and purchasing cheese directly from producers; they have different preferences towards cheese types and different consuming habits. Unique consumer characteristics provided original findings considering their beliefs.

Serbian, Croatian and Spanish consumers' beliefs towards artisan cheese

This is the first study on the brand–land link for quality wines with a strong identity produced in extreme territories using the Policy Delphi methodology. The objective of this study is to assess the existence of a relationship between the wine brand and the territory of origin for wines produced in the Etna valley in Sicily (southern Italy). Awareness among producers and stakeholders of the recognizability of local wines by the market was investigated. Moreover, the forecasts/reliability, issues/importance, options/feasibility, and goals/desirability of development factors for wines with a brand–land link in the Etna valley were analyzed. The results were used to design a model of the value chain for wines with a brand–land identity which is generalizable to other wine regions. In this study, the policy Delphi method was adapted, consolidated, and improved for marketing studies in the agri-food sector. This adapted method can be replicated in other studies focusing on similar contexts. The findings provide insights into the characteristics (type and category) of development factors that add value to Etna Rosso DOC wine and provide interesting food for thought for wine-producing companies in other wine-growing areas with unique pedoclimatic characteristics that determine a strong brand–land link between wine and its territory or origin. Practical implications encompass new elements for winemakers, as well as for local decision-makers and stakeholders, for the formulation of more effective communication strategies and territorial revitalization strategies to enhance the competitiveness and appreciation of wines with strong geographical identity traits. To highlight these elements, a new theoretical model was designed that includes the experience of the territory and the product in the value chain of iconic wines.

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The Brand–Land Identity of Etna Volcano Valley Wines: A Policy Delphi Study

The purpose of this paper is to examine the initiatives of value enhancement and the promotion of local agri-food products in Argentina and Spain to address some of their limitations and contradictions.,Based on processes of participatory action research, data and knowledge were produced dialectically with the actors, linking the research process to rural development processes.,Value enhancement and promotion of local agri-food products is a complex system where values, preferences and availability of resources converge, allowing to consume products of higher quality, “heritage” products or products differentiated by the production mode. This consumption is not only aimed at tourists who are willing to pay something more for a “certified” local product, but also for the estrategic allies who appreciate the taste of the food of their territory: local consumers. These processes develop strategies such as the “fairs” of each product, or the classic “quality seals.” In the comparison between experiences of both countries, the controversies raise with the high prices of the products as a synonym of value enhancement instead of the right to quality food and the seeking of food sovereignty.,Problematizing the recovery and valorization of local products reveals the necessity, awareness and inclusion of consumers as actors in the innovation processes and not simply as buyers of luxury products. The originality is also based on specific intervention experiences with territorial actors (social, economic, scientific and political) that shape new forms of intervention, based on strategies that link patrimonialization, knowledge systems and territorial development.

We recovered food heritage, and then? Value enhancement and promotion of local agri-food products in Argentina and Spain

El libro surge a partir de la sistematizacion de materiales didacticos y experiencias desarrolladas a lo largo de mas de dos decadas en la catedra metodologia y tecnicas de la investigacion geografica. El proposito es presentar a los estudiantes principios fundamentales y elecciones teorico metodologicas con el objeto de acompanarlos en el camino de la investigacion cientifica desde un paradigma emergente que trabaja con la Investigacion Accion Participativa y contempla la construccion, no solo de un Objeto de Estudio, sino tambien y de manera articulada, el planteo de un Objeto de Intervencion y un Objeto de Transformacion, vinculados a la implementacion de los saberes cientifico-academicos para la transformacion de los territorios. Se espera que el libro realice un aporte a un nicho de materiales en el cual no abunda el material bibliografico especifico con una perspectiva disciplinar centrada en la investigacion geografica. La obra se estructura en cinco capitulos. Comienza dando cuenta de los temas que eligen los estudiantes, continua con algunos planteos epistemicos y metodologicos basicos y luego aborda tres fases o momentos del diseno de una investigacion, el campo problematico teorico-empirico, el objeto y los objetivos, y la estrategia metodologica.

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Metodología de la investigación en Geografía

Este trabajo examina las practicas de extension predominantes en un particular proceso de intervencion para el desarrollo rural. Analizando la interfaz entre tecnicos (docentes-investigadores y estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional de la Plata) y productores (asociados a la Cooperativa de la Costa de Berisso) se intenta identificar las representaciones sociales que construyen el uno del otro, los desfasajes entre interpretaciones sobre asuntos comunes, y abordar las transformaciones generadas en el territorio a partir de las diferentes racionalidades que emergen del proceso. La intervencion es estudiada a partir de perspectivas teoricas complementarias: los estudios de interfaces y de sistemas de conocimiento local (Norman Long, Jean-Pierre Darre) y la perspectiva latinoamericana de comunicacion / educacion (Paulo Freire; Jorge Huergo). La estrategia metodologica se basa en el analisis cualitativo de informacion obtenida en el periodo 2012 – 2013 para un estudio de caso. La investigacion ha permitido caracterizar las practicas de los extensionistas universitarios dentro de un enfoque dialogico; sin embargo tambien posibilito reconocer practicas residuales del enfoque difusionista. Las discrepancias, en relacion con las practicas vitivinicolas tradicionales y modernas que permiten producir un "vino de calidad”, han ayudado a comprender la lucha por los significados y el poder que legitiman los diferentes tipos de conocimientos que estan en juego. Esto pone de relieve la co-existencia de diferentes representaciones sobre el conocimiento cientifico y los saberes locales; un debate vital en el campo de la Extension Rural.

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Cintia Analía Barrionuevo

Papers

We recovered food heritage, and then? Value enhancement and promotion of local agri-food products in Argentina and Spain

Metodología de la investigación en Geografía

“Nosotros, con lo básico que tenemos, queremos hacer un vino”