Country Report for FOOdIVERSE Deliverable 2.2

This report presents results from focus groups conducted in Italy as part of WP2 in the FOOdIVERSE-project.

The aim of the two focus group was to better understand the diversity and accessibility of organic and “good food” in the local foodscape of consumers.

By conducting focus groups with a strategic selection of “dedicated” citizens-consumers belonging to different types of food initiatives and “ordinary” consumer-citizens we aimed to compare and explore citizens’ foodscapes and analyze their views and ideas of their surrounding food environments.

Key discussion points:

• How is local and/or organic food accessible to different participants in terms of their preferences (meaning) and valuations of these foods?
• Do they buy or use these foods on a regular basis? What access in terms of affordability (price) do they have to local and organic food?
• How are different resources distributed in the two groups (social networks (if possible to detect), access to markets and spaces for (own) provisioning etc.?
• How is the availability of local, organic food seen from the participants’ own perspective?
• How does this availability depend on knowledge, skills, networks?
• Did descriptions/discussions of culinary practices/food culture touched upon embeddedness (or lack of embeddedness) in the local foodscape emerge?
• Did participants discuss any aspects of sustainability related to their own culinary/food practices (meat consumption, food waste, plastic packaging, organic, local food etc)? In what ways (if any) did they relate sustainability of meals/cooking practices to the local foodscape?

Read the final report

Gallery 1: first focus group/CSA members

Gallery 2: second focus group