Promoting local food products for sustainability: Developing a taxonomy of best practices

Abstract

AbstractThe number of practices promoting local food have been rapidly growing in recent years, mainly in response to the increasing interest from consumers and their sustainability benefits. The objective of this scoping review is to present a taxonomy of the most promising promotion practices in this domain. A targeted search within a database specialized in storing newspaper articles resulted in the identification of 78 documents that were published prior to COVID‐19 pandemic. Their analysis led to the development of a taxonomy containing four major categories regrouping 14 types of initiatives to promote local food products. The review also highlighted the principal strengths of these initiatives (e.g., facilitating access to local food products, promoting social diversity, integration, and solidarity), as well as some obstacles (e.g., funding, infrastructure, and volunteer recruitment). The taxonomy presented in this review can be used to guide the analysis of existing or the development of new local food promotion initiatives, thus encouraging sustainability in this domain.