Is Buying Local Food a Sustainable Practice? A Scoping Review of Consumers’ Preference for Local Food

Lucio Cappelli, Fabrizio D’Ascenzo, Roberto Ruggieri and Irina Gorelova
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Lucio Cappelli: Department of Economic and Law, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Fabrizio D’Ascenzo: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Roberto Ruggieri: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Irina Gorelova: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Access to healthy food and the introduction of sustainable nutrition practices are two important issues today. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to food security but it has also provided opportunities for local food production. The discussion on local food has been gaining attention in recent years, but there is still a lack of clear understanding of the term ‘local food’ in the literature. The relationship between local food and sustainability issues is still unclear and has various connotations. This discordance leads to further discussions on whether buying local food should be considered a sustainable behavior and whether consumer preference for local food can be perceived as a sustainable practice. A scoping literature review was conducted in order to fill this gap and to shed light on the main tendencies of the scientific literature regarding this topic. The outcomes of the research revealed three dimensions of ‘local food’ definitions in the literature: geographical, geopolitical, and organic; while the problem of a unified local food definition remains open. The studied literature did not show any sound evidence for sustainability attributes in the definition of local food and consumer perception of local food.

Keywords: local food; local food definition; sustainable lifestyle; consumer preferences; scoping review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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