The growing popularity of agritourism highlights the need for a unified, global definition to ensure clarity and consistency. Until recently, the lack of such a definition hindered marketing, outreach and international collaboration. To address this, the Global Agritourism Network (GAN) formed a working group to conceptualize agritourism. A clear, shared definition is important to tell agritourism apart from other types of rural tourism and to identify what 'real' agritourism is, particularly as some activities may be purely commercial or diverting from the main goals of this agricultural enterprise. GAN's definition includes four key components: agriculture diversification activity, agriculture-tourism intersection, authentic experiences, and showcasing resources. This paper presents 17 national examples from across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania to illustrate how they fit within GAN's agritourism definition. These national examples highlight diversities in agritourism and its regional adaptations, offering in-depth insights into agriculture and tourism worldwide. The cross-national approach enhances global understanding of agritourism and supports comparative insights across disciplines and policy contexts. Broader impacts on rural development and education may emerge over time, however, the primary focus of this study lies in validating and contextualizing the GAN agritourism definition across national settings. As the GAN's definition has gained social legitimacy, further case studies are needed to develop an impact assessment framework that strengthens agritourism's role in marketing, rural development, and sustainable tourism efforts worldwide. Die wachsende Bedeutung des Agritourismus zeigt, wie wichtig eine globale Definition f & uuml;r mehr Klarheit und Einheitlichkeit ist. Bis vor Kurzem erschwerte das Fehlen einer solchen Definition das Marketing, die & Ouml;ffentlichkeitsarbeit sowie die internationale Zusammenarbeit. Um dem entgegenzuwirken, initiierte das Global Agritourism Network (GAN) eine Arbeitsgruppe zur Konzeptualisierung des Begriffs und zur Erarbeitung einer globalen Definition. Diese GAN-Definition ist unerl & auml;sslich, um Agritourismus von anderen Formen des l & auml;ndlichen Tourismus abzugrenzen. Sie hilft, klarzustellen, was als ,echter' Agrotourismus definiert ist - insbesondere, da einige Aktivit & auml;ten rein kommerziell ausgerichtet sein oder von den urspr & uuml;nglichen Zielen landwirtschaftlicher Betriebe abweichen k & ouml;nnen. Die GAN-Definition hat vier zentrale Elemente, n & auml;mlich: landwirtschaftliche Diversifizierung, Zusammenspiel von Landwirtschaft und Tourismus, authentische Erlebnisse sowie zur Schau stellen von Ressourcen. Dieser Beitrag zeigt anhand von 17 nationalen Fallbeispielen aus Afrika, Amerika, Asien, Europa und Ozeanien, wie diese in die GAN-Definition des Agritourismus eingeordnet werden k & ouml;nnen. Die Fallsbeispiele veranschaulichen die Vielfalt und regionalen Anpassungen des Agritourismus und bieten wertvolle Einblicke in die Landwirtschaft und den Tourismus weltweit. Diese l & auml;nder & uuml;bergreifende Betrachtungst & auml;rkt das globale Verst & auml;ndnis und erleichtert disziplin- und kontext & uuml;bergreifende Vergleiche. Langfristig k & ouml;nnen sich daraus bedeutende Impulse f & uuml;r die l & auml;ndliche Entwicklung und Bildung ergeben. Der Fokus dieses Beitrages liegt jedoch auf der empirischen & Uuml;berpr & uuml;fung und praxisnahen Veranschaulichung der GAN-Definition anhand der nationalen Gegebenheiten. Angesichts der zunehmenden gesellschaftlichen Anerkennung der GAN-Definition ist ein Bewertungsmodell zu entwickeln, das im Marketing, in der l & auml;ndlichen Entwicklung und in den globalen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien eingesetzt werden kann.

Food system sustainability, and ways of measuring it, are widely explored and discussed in academic literature.Measurement efforts are challenging because food systems are inherently complex and multifaceted, spanning diverse components, indus-tries, sectors, and scales.Several systems of indica-tors and metrics have been proposed to measure sustainability;however,most existing research focuses either on narrow scales (e.g.,farm level or within a single supply chain), expansive scales that can gloss over complexity (e.g.,national or global assessments), or limited scopes (e.g.,only consider-ing environmental factors).A gap in the literature is a holistic local or regional approach to food sys-tem sustainability that integrates components across the system at a regional scale.In this reflec-tive essay,we describe our development of a framework to measure and track sustainability in such systems.We use a tiered framework that includes five sustainability dimensions and a system of indices, indicators, and metrics that allows for the measurement of important food system charac-teristics in a feasible and reproducible way.We employ a collaborative, transdisciplinary, facilitated team science process to first propose, and then refine,a sustainability assessment framework, using the U.S. state of Vermont as a case study.This paper details our processand progress, as well as reflections on challenges and recommendations for other team scientists.We further propose a plan to implement the framework, collect data, and engage with community members.The experiences and findings described here serve as a foundation for our own team's continued work, as well as a springboard for other similar research efforts.

Agritourism is growing worldwide as farmers and ranchers seek alternative sources of revenue, and consumer demand for agricultural experiences is on the rise. Understanding this sector is important for policymakers, researchers, agricultural service providers, and others seeking to support farm viability and rural entrepreneurship. However, in the U.S., this support is hampered by the lack of a clear definition and consistent, comprehensive means for measuring the agritourism sector. The best available data for the U.S. are from the quinquennial U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA NASS)’s Census of Agriculture. However, the two questions used by the Census of Agriculture that relate to agritourism are worded in ways that limit a comprehensive understanding of the size and scope of the sector. To illustrate the limitations, we highlight cases from two U.S. states (Texas and Vermont), where different forms of agritourism are present. One such form, hunting, is included in the USDA’s economic assessments of agritourism; another, pick-your-own berries, is not. Along with tastings and purchases of locally grown products, this falls in the category of direct sales. The discrep­ancy can result in misrepresentation and misinter­pretation of the data in analyses and subsequent publications with distorted policy recommenda­tions related to agritourism. We discuss these cases alongside recommendations on how to more accurately measure, and support, agritourism development in the U.S.

Agritourism is growing worldwide as farmers and ranchers seek alternative sources of revenue, and consumer demand for agricultural experiences is on the rise. Understanding this sector is important for policymakers, researchers, agricultural service providers, and others seeking to support farm viability and rural entrepreneurship. However, in the U.S., this support is hampered by the lack of a clear definition and consistent, comprehensive means for measuring the agritourism sector. The best available data for the U.S. are from the quinquennial U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA NASS)’s Census of Agriculture. However, the two questions used by the Census of Agriculture that relate to agritourism are worded in ways that limit a comprehensive understanding of the size and scope of the sector. To illustrate the limitations, we highlight cases from two U.S. states (Texas and Vermont), where different forms of agritourism are present. One such form, hunting, is included in the USDA’s economic assessments of agritourism; another, pick-your-own berries, is not. Along with tastings and purchases of locally grown products, this falls in the category of direct sales. The discrep­ancy can result in misrepresentation and misinter­pretation of the data in analyses and subsequent publications with distorted policy recommenda­tions related to agritourism. We discuss these cases alongside recommendations on how to more accurately measure, and support, agritourism development in the U.S.

Food system sustainability, and ways of measuring it, are widely explored and discussed in academic literature. Measurement efforts are challenging because food systems are inherently complex and multifaceted, spanning diverse components, indus­tries, sectors, and scales. Several systems of indica­tors and metrics have been proposed to measure sustainability; however, most existing research focuses either on narrow scales (e.g., farm level or within a single supply chain), expansive scales that can gloss over complexity (e.g., national or global assessments), or limited scopes (e.g., only consider­ing environmental factors). A gap in the literature is a holistic local or regional approach to food sys­tem sustainability that integrates components across the system at a regional scale. In this reflec­tive essay, we describe our development of a framework to measure and track sustainability in such systems. We use a tiered framework that includes five sustainability dimensions and a system of indices, indicators, and metrics that allows for the measurement of important food system charac­teristics in a feasible and reproducible way. We employ a collaborative, transdisciplinary, facilitated team science process to first propose, and then refine, a sustainability assessment framework, using the U.S. state of Vermont as a case study. This paper details our process and progress, as well as reflections on challenges and recommendations for other team scientists. We further propose a plan to implement the framework, collect data, and engage with community members. The experiences and findings described here serve as a foundation for our own team’s continued work, as well as a springboard for other similar research efforts.

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience of food system actors at all levels and across all geog­ra­phies. This study focuses on the experience of Vermont local food businesses by combining two surveys conducted in the first half of 2021: one of foodservice operations that procure food locally and one of Vermont farms that sell directly to con­sumers. We analyzed descriptive statistics, open responses, and conducted Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests to assess which factors were related to busi­nesses’ financial statuses before and since the pan­demic. Pre-pandemic financial status was related with business type, whether the business went on to receive emergency funds, and financial status since the pandemic. The only significant factor for financial status since the pandemic was prepan­demic financial status. We close with recommen­dations for policy and future research.

Agritourism in the US is an emerging sector of the rural tourism economy and an increasingly popular choice for farmers interested in farm diversification. Motivations for engagement in agritourism are diverse, ranging from purely economic to social, familial, and personal. Recent studies have highlighted the benefits of agritourism for both providers and consumers, but there are still gaps in knowledge associated with success factors. To help fill these gaps, we use results from a national survey of agritourism operators to examine perceived success in achieving economic and non-economic goals. Focusing on the three goals ranked most important by agritourism operators, we apply ordinal logistic regression to measure associations between farmer -reported 'success,' farm demographics and farm characteristics. Operators who offer a broad array of products and experiences tend to perceive success across these goals. For example, operators who offer on-farm direct sales and accommodations have higher perceptions of their success at increasing revenue. Women tend to perceive less success in achieving revenue goals, highlighting an important direction of future research. These findings represent a significant contribution to the growing body of literature aimed at identifying success factors for agritourism and are valuable for agritourism operators, researchers, legislators, planners and other local decision-makers.

Quality of life is at the center of decisions about tourism planning and development for residents of host communities. Stakeholders are affected in different ways by tourism development, as some stakeholders may see an increase in their quality of life, others may experience a decrease in quality of life, and still others may experience mixed impacts. Understanding diverse perspectives of stakeholders and how they are affected by tourism development is critical for constructively engaging stakeholders in planning, but designing an effective strategy is not straightforward. Several techniques exist to engage stakeholders, ranging from information dissemination to public meetings to task forces. Case studies of participatory modeling workshops, training and technical assistance, and surveys and focus groups illustrate the effectiveness of different techniques applied in different situations. Challenges to constructively engage stakeholders include resistance among stakeholder sets, ensuring equity and fairness, problematic relationships among institutions, communication issues, lack of time and money, and difficulty defining and measuring quality of life. To address these challenges, researchers are working closely with practitioners to expand the body of knowledge and practical tools available for engaging stakeholders and assessing quality of life indicators for residents of host communities.

Agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales are increasingly used as diversification strategies to generate additional farm revenue streams. Yet despite their growing importance, the impacts, interactions, and adoption of these strategies remain poorly understood. Here we use univariate and bivariate local Moran's I statistics to identify agritourism and direct-to-consumer sales hotspots in the United States and a Seemingly-Unrelated-Regression Spatial Durbin Model to examine the association between agritourism and direct farm sales to consumers. We find that agritourism and direct sales reinforce each other within the same county but not consistently across neighboring counties.

Agritourism has become a popular pursuit for farms and ranches in the United States, aiming to diversify revenue sources and meet agricultural edu­cation and community-building goals. How­ever, there has been limited research around the challenges experienced by operators and limited access to resources that can help address these chal­lenges. This article fills that gap in knowledge by examining the challenges agritourism opera­tions currently face in the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West regions of the U.S. In this study, we use a mixed-methods approach to the Five Dimen­sions of Access framework developed by Penchansky and Thomas (1981). We opera­tionalize their model in an ordinal probit regression to analyze data from a national survey of agritourism operators, analyzed by region. Results from the quantitative analysis are sub­stantiated using qualitative, open-ended comments from the same survey. The analyses show that agritourism operators encounter different challenges according to their region. We find that operators in most regions of the United States are concerned about agritourism liability. However, states in the West region experience more chal­lenges with regulations, zoning, and permitting, while operators in the South have more problems with e-connectivity. These results can be applied in three ways: support services for agritourism, policy and regulations, and future research.

Agritourism has grown rapidly in many countries worldwide. However, for all this success, little is known about the concrete implementation, actual extent, and effectiveness of public and private agritourism support measures aimed at keeping up farming and promoting agritourism. Hence, the objective of this study is to provide an overview and a comparison of agritourism supports and policies in different countries. To this purpose, specific political, legal, financial, and promotional instruments for agritourism have been investigated. The focus is on three countries with strong agritourism sectors and different socio-cultural characteristics: Italy, the USA, and South Africa. The analysis of these case study areas is motivated by examination of agritourism from different continents with a diverging status of development as well as history. Italy and the USA are two countries with well-established and successful agritourism sectors; however, these are based on very different framework conditions, resulting in specific development paths and various supportive driving factors. South Africa has been included as a representative case study of a developing country where agritourism operations are growing rapidly through the support of an active private sector association. By assessing commonalities and differences in public and private support backgrounds in three different continents, the present study represents the first exploratory attempt to understand the influences of public and private national and regional framework conditions for agritourism development. Our findings suggest that both public and private supports contribute to success; however, clear criteria and further research are needed in order to fully understand the implications.

Owners of small- and medium-sized farms are increasingly interested in engaging in agritourism and direct sales in order to increase income, provide family employment, and educate the public about agriculture, among other reasons. Prior research on agritourism operator motivations largely focuses on economic goals and benefits, while acknowledging the strong influence of non-economic factors. However, more research is needed to better understand the nuances and breadth of non-economic motivations underlying agritourism operator decisions. In addition, research on U.S. agritourism tends to be at the state level, which raises questions about overall national trends and inter-study comparability. To address these gaps, we analyzed transcripts from semistructured interviews with small- and medium-sized farm owners engaged in agritourism from five states across the U.S. We examined the results through the theoretical lens of Allport's "contact hypothesis" in order to further understand how agritourism helps operators meet stated goals. Our results suggest that consistent with previous literature, nonmonetary motivations are high priorities for farmers engaged in agritourism. In particular, motivations related to community engagement/leadership and quality-of-life emerged as forceful and reoccurring themes. We found that although Allport's contact hypothesis holds some important explanatory power for understanding agritourism operators' community-related goals-including reducing prejudice and increasing understanding between farmers and consumers in relation to agriculture-increased inter-group contact also has potential to create new conflicts between farmers and neighbors related to tourism. These findings have important implications for future research as well as for policies and programs aimed at supporting agritourism.

This commentary identifies the variability in definitions of agritourism that exists in a variety of different countries, discusses reasons why this variability might produce problems, and provides examples of efforts to harmonize these definitions, including an ongoing international dialogue on the topic.

Agritourism is a growing area of the tourism sector with many positive social and economic benefits for farmers, their communities, and for tourists. While researchers have been studying the phenomenon for several decades, factors that lead to profitable outcomes for agritourism operators are still not well understood, hindering the effectiveness of agritourism development and the systems of support available to farmers. Using a survey of 1834 farms and ranches open to visitors in the United States, the goal of this study is to identify the factors that influence the profitability of agritourism operations. This study shows that several factors have positive associations with increased agritourism profitability, such as the number of years of experience of the operator, farm scale (acreage and total farm revenue), providing on-farm product sales, and offering events and entertainment. Off-farm product sales and being a female operator have a negative association with profitability in agritourism. We discuss the implications of our findings on agritourism operators, suggest their utility for tourism planning and rural community development professionals, and offer suggestions for future research.

The Farm Fresh Food Box (F3B) project is a mar­ket innovation that aims to capitalize on successful characteristics of direct-to-consumer (DTC), values-based supply chains (VBSCs), and tradi­tional supply chains with the goals of expand­ing producer sales and improving rural food access. In the F3B model, farmers sell boxes of fresh pro­duce in rural retail outlets to bring food to custo­mers with limited access to locally grown foods. We present pilot findings on indicators of relation­ship quality, communication of embedded value, and food environment, and compare these with extant research to assess whether F3B behaves like a DTC, VBSC, a traditional supply chain, or some­thing else entirely. Unlike much of the previous value-chain research, this work places a unique emphasis on the importance of the farmer-retailer relationship. We merge existing knowledge of DTC strategies and barriers with those of VBSCs and traditional supply chains to understand better the process of expanding into new outlets and con­sumer populations. We find that while the F3B model reduces some resource constraints, it adds a layer of complexity that requires time and expertise to develop a quality relationship between producers and retailers. Additionally, it is apparent that the F3B model must be tailored to fit local contexts of farmers and retailers participating in F3B market innovations.

Using a mixed-methods design, we evaluated Farm Fresh Food Box (F3B) a market innovation designed to expand producer markets, stabilize rural retail businesses, and improve rural food access. In the F3B model, pre-ordered Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)-style produce boxes are sold through rural retail outlets. F3B was implemented from 2016 to 2018 as part of a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded multi-state extension and research collaboration project in 3 geographically diverse and rural areas: Vermont, Washington, and California. The F3B evaluation aimed to (1) assess market potential; (2) determine logistics for successful implementation; (3) describe the benefits and drawbacks for farmers and retailers; and (4) measure consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior. A national market survey indicated consumers would be likely to purchase F3B if it was perceived to offer good value on fresh local produce, without need for a subscription. The model put a few additional labor burdens on farmers and retailers, but required time for relationship-building and more record-keeping time for farmers. Those who purchased a F3B were generally satisfied with the quality, quantity and variety of produce each week and a high proportion considered F3B to be a good value for the money. As a new business innovation, F3B showed only modest profit, but retailers and farmers felt it was worthwhile to expand their customer base, promote their brand and develop their partnership. F3B began a means to address flattened growth in direct to consumer produce sales, food deserts and dwindling retail options for fresh foods in rural areas. We discuss F3B as a potential solution to food system weaknesses exposed by the COIVD-19 pandemic because it offers touch-free, high-quality local produce ready for curbside pickup at a convenient location.

First paragraph: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service’s Food Expenditures by Outlet data provide insight as to why the lockdowns related to COVID-19 have been so devastating for U.S. farmers. In 2018, American consumers bought a total of $628bn[1] worth of food, of which $460bn was spent at grocery stores and $168bn at warehouse clubs and supercenters (see Figure 1 and Table 1). But expenditures on food away from home exceeded that amount: $680bn was spent at restau­rants, $337.8bn at full-service restaurants and $340.2bn at limited-service restaurants.[2] The social distancing and stay-at-home orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic have forced many restaurants to close and those remaining in business to switch to pick-up or delivery only options. Because restaurant supply chains are highly specialized and time sensitive, reallocation of these supply chains has not come quickly enough to accommodate the shifts in consumption toward at-home eating patterns. . . . [1] All amounts are in U.S. dollars. [2] Not all of this represents the value of agricultural products; a large share of this is value-added in the form of rents and wages.

First paragraph: Our food system has been disrupted. Shopping at a grocery store during the COVID-19 pan­demic is not a pleasant experience, and, for some of the most vulnerable, it can be outright dangerous. It may become worse. How long will supply chain disruptions continue and what are upcoming challenges? From illness in the fields where agricultural workers pick our food and the closing of food processing facilities to the threat that trucking lanes may be shut down, the possibilities seem real right now. . . . See the press release for this article.

The Farm Fresh Food Box (F3B) project is a mar­ket innovation that aims to capitalize on successful characteristics of direct-to-consumer (DTC), values-based supply chains (VBSCs), and tradi­tional supply chains with the goals of expand­ing producer sales and improving rural food access. In the F3B model, farmers sell boxes of fresh pro­duce in rural retail outlets to bring food to custo­mers with limited access to locally grown foods. We present pilot findings on indicators of relation­ship quality, communication of embedded value, and food environment, and compare these with extant research to assess whether F3B behaves like a DTC, VBSC, a traditional supply chain, or some­thing else entirely. Unlike much of the previous value-chain research, this work places a unique emphasis on the importance of the farmer-retailer relationship. We merge existing knowledge of DTC strategies and barriers with those of VBSCs and traditional supply chains to understand better the process of expanding into new outlets and con­sumer populations. We find that while the F3B model reduces some resource constraints, it adds a layer of complexity that requires time and expertise to develop a quality relationship between producers and retailers. Additionally, it is apparent that the F3B model must be tailored to fit local contexts of farmers and retailers participating in F3B market innovations.

First paragraph: Our food system has been disrupted. Shopping at a grocery store during the COVID-19 pan­demic is not a pleasant experience, and, for some of the most vulnerable, it can be outright dangerous. It may become worse. How long will supply chain disruptions continue and what are upcoming challenges? From illness in the fields where agricultural workers pick our food and the closing of food processing facilities to the threat that trucking lanes may be shut down, the possibilities seem real right now. . . .