2.5 Sustainability and Gastronomic Tourism
Risk-averse tourists have long been accommodated by chain restaurants, where consistency and familiarity can appease fears of local food safety and “unpalatable” meals. Food systems have developed to standardize food choices on a global scale, and many of these cater to tourists. A U.S. tourist may choose to stay at a Hilton, a brand located in 78 countries around the world that offers accommodations ranging from the high-end Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts to budget-friendly, family-focused lodging such as Embassy Suites. They might choose to eat at familiar chain restaurants while dining abroad, say McDonald’s, Jollibee, or Pret a Manger. Although more adventurous tourists might not book a trip because of a destination’s food, they nonetheless enjoy trying new dishes and flavors once landed. Yet other tourists seek out a destination specifically for its food.
In her 2019 essay on “Sustainable Supply Chains,” Jane Eastham differentiates the main categories of supply chains as extended, proximate, and face to face. Food chains such as McDonald’s, Jollibee, and Pret a Manger participate in extended food chains, which include a number of intermediaries that are involved in transferring food and food products from where they were grown or produced to the cook or eater. Proximate supply chains limit the intermediaries to one or two. Then there are the face-to-face interactions in which the consumer buys directly from the source who grew or produced the food or food product. Although, on first glance, local food supplies that rely on face-to-face and proximate supply chains, might appear to be more sustainable—requiring fewer miles from farm to table and having a smaller carbon footprint—the reality proves far more complex and nuanced.
Eastham, who specializes in food security and sustainability, summarizes the importance of social cohesion to the sustainable supply chain. Social cohesion, she notes, has the power to prevent conflict, especially the sort of emotionally fraught tensions that often result when drawing together people who have different cultural values, hail from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and have disparate shares in the economic gain. Eastham explains that working actively to achieve and maintain social cohesion “may be even more critical for gastronomic tourism, which by its nature attracts the more affluent consumer, which, in regions of high financial and food poverty, could result in open or latent hostility to tourists” (2019, p. 230). Sustainable gastronomic tourism not only requires social cohesion, according to Eastham. It also necessitates an appreciation of the interlocking nature of the food supply chain and of the power of changes to exacerbate or to lessen economic inequities among the various players.
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Key Takeaway: Sustainability is hard-baked into true gastronomic tourism. By its very nature, gastronomic tourism provides a community-driven, locally focused form of travel that yokes the taste of a place with the region’s unique geography and cultural heritage. The Caribbean shift from importing foods to serve enclaves of mass tourism to developing the region as a gastronomic destination with a unique mestizo food culture funneled money back to the community, enhanced the region’s identity, and helped reverse the harms caused to rural populations.
Significance to Gastronomic Tourism: Focusing on local food cultures creates economic and social wellbeing among destination communities and preserves culinary traditions.
Significance to Tourism: The sustainability hard baked into gastronomic tourism models the potential for other tourism sectors to harness geography and cultural heritage in a way that benefits a destination and its community.
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Eastham uses Caribbean tourism as an exemplar. During the 1970s, mass tourism developed in the region, in large part, funded by large-scale foreign investors. Mass tourism grew at a literal and figurative cost to other economic sectors, including agriculture. During the 1970s, the Caribbean economy centered around the sugar industry, as it had during the colonial era. After slavery had been outlawed, small “free villages” sprang up around the Caribbean sugar plantations, where workers used traditional farming methods to plant, grow, and harvest their food crops.
The villages kept alive their food heritage, which comprised a unique blend of the culinary traditions and techniques descended from enslaved laborers. These laborers brought with them African, Indian, and Chinese cooking traditions and techniques. The flavors of their homelands were altered by the substitution of Caribbean ingredients and cooking techniques, eventually amalgamating into a mestizo (mixed) culinary culture. As workers left the land to work in tourism, the agricultural sector and the Caribbean economy suffered. The shift toward tourism ultimately led to reduced GDP and increased malnutrition, the latter of which impacted 27% of the population by the 1990s. The decline in local food production was accompanied by an increase in food imports, which fed tourists but at a dire cost to an already impoverished population. As hotels began to compete with villagers, land prices rose and so did the loss of traditional farming skills.
In the early 21st century, a concerted effort began to yoke local agriculture with tourism in order to reverse the damage done to the Caribbean peoples. “The Resort Farmers Programme” initiative was launched, which dramatically increased sales from farmers to hotels. The Jamaica Agriculture Society, backed by local food businesses, launched an “Eat Jamaican” campaign in 2003, and the Jamaica Manufacturers Association began to market local food products to residents, visitors, and exporters. A push to promote heritage brand products began to take off alongside agritourism, food events, and festivals, all of which strengthened rural communities, reviving Caribbean food cultures and increasing local food exports. After mass tourism segregated Caribbean peoples from local food supplies, the intensive promotion of Jamaican heritage foods and agritourism helped funnel tourism dollars into the local community.
Yet another type of gastronomic intervention occurred to save a village in the Piedmont region of Italy. Following World War II, the hillside village of Costa Vescovado began to decline as residents abandoned life on farms for work in urban centers such as Genoa, Milan, and Turin. The fate of the villagers would eventually be transformed when three locals created an agricultural cooperative, known as Valli Unite, in 1981. Driven to build a community that could sustain itself and live in harmony with the land, Valli Unite initially focused on breeding cattle suited to mountainous free range grazing. Soon it expanded to milk cows and pigs and began to offer workshops to teach attendees how to make cheese and salami.
The cooperative eventually expanded from 10 to 100 hectares and began to cultivate grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and vineyards. Soon, the cooperative taught workshops on making bread and preserves and founded a winery. Today Valli Unite creates products that are sold locally and via ecommerce. It also houses a restaurant, three solar-powered apartments for visitors, and a camping area, where tents, campers, and RVs are welcome. The integrated economy has become an educational hub, organizing workshops, cooking classes, and tastings for adults and children. It is part of the Worldwide Opportunity on Organic Farms (WWOOF), a “movement that links visitors with organic farmers, promotes an education and cultural exchange and builds a global community conscious of ecological farming practices” (Valli Unite, n.d.).
