ABSTRACT
There is much evidence that perceptions of food are changing in many countries: food quality, production processes and the origin of foodstuffs have all become vastly more important to consumers (Hall & Gössling 2013; Yeoman et al. 2015). As examples from all over the world in this book illustrate, changes along the value chain of food production and consumption are increasingly becoming visible, as manifested in the success of food regions, food events or niche foods (Hall & Mitchell 2001; Hall et al. 2003; Hall & Sharples 2008; Getz et al. 2014), which appear to be co-evolving with the growing awareness of the social and ecological implications of food production, and in particular a growing interest in healthy and “quality food” in significant parts of the population (Martinez et al. 2010; Belasco 2014; Johnston, Fanzo & Cogill 2014). Changes in perceptions of the role of food may be primarily driven by consumers who are increasingly becoming aware of where their food comes from (Roy, Hall & Ballantine, this volume), though actors with influence on consumer perceptions are now as diverse as celebrity chefs, micro-lifestyle producers, farm shop owners, initiators of farmers’ markets, food critics, journalists and culinary writers, agricultural organisations, destinations, and politicians seeking to support the development of more regional (and sometimes organic) agricultural production systems with strong economic linkages between producers and consumers (Hall & Gössling 2013). It is evident that food has become the new recipe for rural development, economic diversification, innovation and the strengthening of regional economic networks on a broad basis.
