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Being the basic need of humans, but also an attractive element of the tourist offer, gastronomy is related to the attractiveness of a destination, and Balkan gastronomy is considered to be one of the most positive aspects of the tourist image of the region. This study aims to investigate the locals' perception of gastronomic specificity of ‘Balkan food’ and national (local) food as well. Furthermore, the study investigated how ‘Balkan food’ is perceived in terms of its tourist potential, uniqueness, quality, nutrition and its general role in the creation of a joint ‘Balkan’ tourist brand. The methodology included a historical approach and a survey which involved110 respondents. Out of 21 traditional dishes identified in the official tourist promotional activities of selected countries and a review of the relevant literature, the following are identified as regional ‘Balkan’ dishes: ‘pečenje’, ‘musaka’, ‘ćevapi’ and ‘sarma’. The following are identified as national dishes: ‘pastrmajlija’, ‘sogan dolma’, ‘raštan’, ‘pašticada’, ‘burek’ and ‘svadbarski kupus’. The results indicated that some nations have specific knowledge of certain dishes being considered national and regionally present, while other nations show a lack of knowledge of food origin and regional presence in identified countries. Furthermore, the results showed that different dimensions of Balkan cuisine significantly contribute to the tourist potential of the region, while the contribution of its nutritive characteristics is perceived as less important. Results showed that ‘Balkan food’ is considered to be important for the improvement of the ‘Balkans'’ image and promotion, as well as important for the creation of the regional tourism brand.

This chapter investigates the coffee value chain in Latin America. By drawing on the concept of just transitions as a “connective tissue” between the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the discussion zooms in on the promise of agroforestry for environmental upgrading. The chapter concludes by providing examples of trade-offs between environmental, social and economic aspects.

This chapter investigates to what extent private and public European food safety standards affect European imports of a key high-value horticultural product such as green beans from Kenya. First, we estimate the ad valorem tariff equivalents of these nontariff measures (NTMs) for the main European importing countries using an extension of the price-wedge method. Second, we embed these estimated tariff equivalents into a gravity model. We find that the trade effects of these measures during the period 1990–2011 move from being positive in the beginning of the period to being increasingly negative from 1995 until 2003 and then tend to vanish at the end of the period as if Kenyan suppliers have progressively adjusted their trade to these NTMs. We also show that the establishment of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community stimulates that trade with European countries.

This paper explores the contested notion of what constitutes a fair price in the context of grain exchanges in a subsistence farming village in the highlands of Matagalpa. Using ethnographic data, I show how Nicaraguan campesinos’ economic behavior plays out within a local moral universe of fairness: how much to produce and how much to sell in the market (or to give away); how prices and obligations vary depending on the social relation that binds the seller and the buyer (kinship, friendship, community, and so on); in what ways these notions of fair price are articulated and contested by different classes within a rural community; and lastly, what is expected of the State in terms of regulating food prices. Price emerges as the dialectic between the market in its abstract form and the specific social relationships and everyday politics that shape exchanges. What constitutes help (ayuda) and what constitutes exploitation in market exchanges and the determination of price is constantly contested, the moral economy is a discursive battlefield.

Coffee producers typically sell raw coffee beans as the first step in a global value chain. Recently, groups of producers have formed coffee cooperatives that attempt to regain market power by integrating the other steps of the value chain. This study uses matching to estimate the effect of membership in one such cooperative on the household economy of indigenous coffee producers in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. It contributes to the literature by considering new determinants of participation and outcomes of interest. First, social capital at the individual and village level is correlated with cooperative membership more than other demographic factors. Second, cooperative members report an increase in the share of coffee sold and income from coffee sales but not in per-kilo price or total income. These two results reflect particular features of the Chiapas reality and the desires of the indigenous people the cooperative serves. Thus, they reiterate the importance for economic development projects to consider the context of their interventions.

This chapter illuminates why and how a group of local social entrepreneurs improved farmers’ living conditions and contributed to the preservation of Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) through sustainable coffee farming. KSNP is the largest national park on the Island of Sumatra and is a UNESCO world heritage site. However, since 2011, it has been listed as a “World Heritage in Danger” due to illegal logging, encroachment, and poaching of KSNP land. To save KSNP and improve the living conditions of the people around the national park, a group of local social entrepreneurs gathered in 2014 and devised a vision of “preserving the nature by empowering the community” by establishing Koperasi Alam Kopi Kerinci (ALKO cooperatives). The cooperative started to recruit seasoned farmers and younger people who wanted to become agripreneurs. The coffee supply chain was strengthened by educating farmers about good farming practices and coffee traceability technology, so Kerinci coffee could compete in the export market. After seven years of collaborative work, by early 2021, the initiative empowered 516 farmers who cultivated 410 hectares of coffee plantations in 24 villages with a total production of 350 tons of Arabica specialty Kerinci coffee. Ninety-five per cent of coffee productions were exported with premium prices to Belgium, Norway, France, the Netherlands, England, New Zealand, the USA, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Farmers started to enjoy the fruit of their hard work. Some illegal loggers stopped poaching KSNP and started to plant coffee outside KSNP. The endeavor to preserve the nature and empower the community has started to show good results.

This paper suggests that a corporate-environmental food regime is emerging as part of a larger restructuring of capitalism. Like past food regimes, it reflects specific social and political compromises, which I interpret through the social movement concept of interpretive frames. The diasporic-colonial food regime of 1870–1914 grew up in response to working class movements in Europe, and created a historically unprecedent class of commercial family farmers. When world markets collapsed, those farmers entered into new alliances, including one that led to the mercantile-industrial food regime of 1947–1973. Lineaments of a new food regime based on quality audited supply chains seems to be emerging in the space opened by impasse in international negotiations over food standards. Led by food retailers, agrofood corporations are selectively appropriating demands of environmental, food safety, animal welfare, fair trade, and other social movements that arose in the interstices of the second food regime. If it consolidates, the new food regime promises to shift the historical balance between public and private regulation, and to widen the gap between privileged and poor consumers as it deepens commodification and marginalizes existing peasants. Social movements are already regrouping and consolidation of the regime remains uncertain.

Most academic work on sustainability has been focused on the organizational level, reflecting the popular “business case for sustainability” idea. However, organizations are certainly not the only locus of entrepreneurial action for sustainability, nor are they the most ideal. This chapter reports on a six-year study of the Sustainability Consortium, a collaboration started in 1999 between large companies that were seeking to lead their industry through innovative initiatives for sustainability. The findings, based on 60 interviews and many other sources of data, identify eight “ecologies of entrepreneurial action,” all of which were critical for driving change. These ecologies are: Individual Aspiration; Network Affiliation; Process Optimization; Entrepreneurial Innovation; Value Chain Collaboration; Industry/Sector Coordination; System-Wide Integration; and Social Transformation. As shown by complexity theory, the interdependent and interconnected nature of these ecologies means that only by expanding beyond organizationally focused endeavors can we help generate the social transformation that will lead to a sustainable world.