RISULTATI RICERCA

Afghanistan has been an understudied country despite its current difficulties stemming from political conflict for decades and its adverse impact on the country and society, such as food security. This article presents firsthand findings on the potential of collaborative agribusiness initiatives as part of Afghanistan’s food system to address food security challenges.These embody an emerging body of literature known as alternative food networks, as part of the Slow Food movement that prioritizes community wellbeing, as a solution to food security. Findings are drawn from selected interviewees who are key Afghan stakeholders, ranging from farmers to experts in the agribusiness sector, relating to collaborative agribusiness initiatives which play a crucial role in fostering food security in Afghanistan. Specifically, it argues that through collaborative initiatives among farmers and the integration of marginalized groups, agricultural productivity increases, which ultimately leads to better food security. Three components emerge – resilience, resource enhancement and revelation (3Rs) – as the conceptual contribution. This approach of alternative food network improves access to markets and resources, particularly for smallholder farmers in remote regions and provinces.

The research examines integrating the Slow Food Movement (SFM) with Ireland’s lobster industry, emphasising preserving local culinary heritage as crucial for Sustainable Food Systems. This heritage includes both tangible elements, like agricultural practices and intangible ones, such as traditional food preparation. Slow food aims to protect these traditions from the homogenisation of food production. Using Social Practice Theory, the research analyses lobster consumption in Ireland, underscoring its symbolic importance in Irish culture to develop a novel framework adapted from the Social Practice Framework. The study combines qualitative interviews and secondary data analysis to explore lobster’s role in Irish culinary heritage and its potential for promoting sustainable seafood consumption. Results from the study highlight the critical role of Irish lobster fishing communities in maintaining cultural food heritage, with traditional practices contributing to ecological and economic sustainability. The SFM influences lobster consumption, supporting sustainable and culturally important food practices. This research underscores the intricate link between tradition and sustainability, suggesting a model to balance cultural integrity with sustainable practices, contributing to a more culturally informed and environmentally conscious food consumption approach.

Internet purchases are no longer a new form of purchase, but they are successfully complementing conventional product sales channels. This study aims to understand factors, such as: product performance risk, distance, trust and risk reduction that affect consumer’s intention to buy food products online. The following data was collected through a structured questionnaire.Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to develop measures and Structural Equation Modelling was used to test hypotheses. The results show that trust and risk reduction have a positive effect on the consumers’ intention to buy food products online.Product performance risk has a negative effect on the intention to buy food products online, meanwhile distance does not show any significance on their intention to buy food products online. These findings provide significant insights into what limits consumers to consider the online channel as a complementary alternative of shopping for food products.

Recently, the Alps have been experiencing new social phenomena, as a return to agriculture. In this context, the alpine food heritage has been reconsidered after a period of neglection, and is now under application to UNESCO Register of good safeguarding practices in the frame of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. This paper reflects on a specific case study, the cultivation of red berries in the Entremont region (Switzerland), in the light of an action-research at the Centre régional d’études des populations alpines (CREPA) in Sembrancher (Switzerland), also financed by the Interreg project Living ICH - Cross-border governance instruments for the safeguarding and valorization of the Living Intangible Heritage. The extent of the red berries from the 1930s to the 1990s shows the importance of this cultivation for the local economy in the last century. Nowadays, there are few evidences of the red berries, due to the preponderance of the meadows used for mowing but, after several decades of abandonment, a reconsideration of the cultural, social and economic values of these berries seems to be in order.