The present paper aims to provide a critical review with respect to the literature on Local Agro-Food Systems (LAFS) in America and Europe over the last two decades, devoted to investigating the geographies of the relationships between territory and identity-based food products. In studies on LAFS, the concept of origin of food products is based upon a historical and bio-cultural analysis of food identity. Debates on territorial anchorage focus on the causal factors —natural, cultural and socio-economic— that a distinctive territory imprints on the specific attributes of identity-based foods. Moreover, the notion of geographical and organisational proximity aligns with a socio-cultural and economic approach to collective action aiming at rural development. A LAFS implies a certain spatial density and a network of mutually cooperating farms, firms and institutions, specialised in producing and marketing an identity-based food product, what can in turn be used to valorise the food identity both on the markets and also by contributing to the creation of common and public goods. A transdisciplinary view is required both for comprehending the emergence and evolution over centuries of the identity-based foods and also for understanding the role they play in constructing more sustainable rural development in the future.

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Geographies of Origin and Proximity: Approaches to Local Agro-Food Systems

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

Fungal transformation and reduction of phytotoxicity of grape pomace waste.

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

https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/118/11820085004.pdf

Estrategias de desarrollo local a partir de productos alimentarios típicos: el caso del vino de la costa en Buenos Aires, Argentina

Nuestro trabajo parte de proyectos de Extension Universitaria en el territorio costero de Berisso, a 15 km. de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales de La Plata. La finalidad del proceso de intervencion fue mejorar las condiciones socio-economicas de productores familiares en un contexto de recuperacion de oficios, practicas y saberes. El camino iniciado de revalorizacion de los oficios de viticultor y vitivinicultor, durante los ultimos doce anos, ha dado como resultado un incipiente resurgimiento de la actividad agroalimentaria en Berisso. Nacen asi adaptaciones, innovaciones propias de la interaccion social y como resultado del propio proceso de intervencion. Las propuestas que se plasmaron en proyectos compartidos por Ciencias Exactas y Agronomia [2006, 2007 y 2010], en los que uno de los ejes trabajados fue la construccion participativa de practicas en la produccion primaria [vinedos y montes de ciruelos] y agroindustrial [vinos, fermentados] permitieron contribuir al mejoramiento y puesta en valor de productos agroalimentarios tipicos. En el propio proceso educativo surgen conflictos que presentan obstaculos a la construccion conjunta de saberes, dificultando la incorporacion de conocimientos que contribuyen al aseguramiento de la calidad de los productos. Esta construccion conjunta de conocimientos no ha sido armoniosa y ha generado, tanto en los productores como en los tecnicos involucrados, un proceso de reflexion acerca de lo que es una "buena practica agricola o de manufactura" y lo que no lo es. Asi, el debate se inscribe en la valorizacion de distintos tipos de saberes: los saberes codificados versus los tacitos, que son encarnados por diferentes personas: tecnicos y productores respectivamente

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La construcción social de productos agroalimentarios típicos en procesos de desarrollo territorial local: disputas entre saberes teóricos y saberes prácticos

El vino de la costa de Berisso es un producto que nacio junto a la llegada de inmigrantes de origen europeo a fines del siglo XIX a la Argentina. En la ribera del Rio de la Plata se inicia la produccion de Vitis labrusca var isabella que en bodegas familiares dio origen a un vino que gano una reputacion en sectores obreros y de clase media argentina. Su decadencia era constatable en los anos ’90, llegando a su casi desaparicion con 6000 litros producidos. El presente articulo desarrolla el resurgimiento de la produccion y los fundamentos en base a la identidad, de vinateros que lo vuelven a producir y de consumidores que buscan en productos tipicos principios de inclusion basados en la historia, la naturaleza, tradiciones. Recientemente en Argentina se empiezan a considerar iniciativas de desarrollo rural basadas en la valorizacion de productos tipicos. En este contexto, desde 1999, la participacion de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales de la UNLP ha permitido contribuir desde las funciones de ensenanza, investigacion y extension, al retorno del vino de la costa como una alternativa economica y cultural en la region.

/pdf/al-gran-pueblo-argentino-salud-el-retorno-del-vino-de-la-ep9fay199m.pdf

¡Al gran Pueblo Argentino, salud! El retorno del vino de la costa de Berisso

El partido de Tandil tiene una larga historia y tradicion en la produccion lactea y la elaboracion de quesos. La actividad quesera en la zona comienza a mediados del siglo XIX. Tradicionales, locales y naturales son los significantes asociados a los quesos tandileros, cuyo saber hacer se ha trasmitido a traves de generaciones. Desde fines de los ´90, en un contexto de crisis economica, se produce un nuevo impulso a la queseria, debido: a) a las dificultades que la crisis impuso a muchos tambos su reconversion a queseros; y b) al crecimiento de la demanda de productos artesanales causado, entre otros, por el desarrollo del turismo interno. La busqueda de la valorizacion de la tipicidad de los productos de Tandil, se verifica en un conjunto de iniciativas promovidas por productores y actores locales (Denominacion de Origen del Salame Tandilero, Marca “Producto tradicional Tandil”). En la construccion de la imagen y valorizacion del producto, interviene ciertamente la concepcion de la calidad de los quesos. La calidad no es un elemento que pueda ser definido por criterios objetivos, sino que depende de las percepciones de los productores y otros actores, que se generan en relacion y siempre en tension, entre los atributos intrinsecos al alimento (sabor, aroma, color) y los atributos simbolicos. La finalidad de esta comunicacion es indagar la manera en que se combinan los distintos niveles de construccion de una determinada nocion de "calidad” aplicada a las queserias de base rural para poder reconocer las transformaciones que se producen en el territorio tandilense. Conceptualmente apoyaremos el analisis de caso en la corriente de pensamiento economico que propone el caracter endogeno de la calidad en la definicion del producto agroalimentario. Esta nocion se conoce por la teoria de las convenciones (TC) que hemos aplicado para caracterizar al universo de productores estudiados de Tandil. La metodologia combino tecnicas propias de las ciencias exactas y las ciencias sociales y su triangulacion. Se presentan los resultados de la idea de calidad, artesanalidad, tipicidad de los distintos tipos de productores y las tensiones resultantes entre las diferentes representaciones y las nociones normativas que las contextualizan.

Las nociones de calidad percibidas por productores queseros de Tandil, Argentina: diversidad de estrategias y tensiones en procesos de desarrollo territorial

Irene Velarde

Papers

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

Estrategias de desarrollo local a partir de productos alimentarios típicos: el caso del vino de la costa en Buenos Aires, Argentina

La construcción social de productos agroalimentarios típicos en procesos de desarrollo territorial local: disputas entre saberes teóricos y saberes prácticos

¡Al gran Pueblo Argentino, salud! El retorno del vino de la costa de Berisso

Las nociones de calidad percibidas por productores queseros de Tandil, Argentina: diversidad de estrategias y tensiones en procesos de desarrollo territorial