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Introduction: Despite international efforts, the number of individuals struggling with obesity is still increasing. An important aspect of obesity prevention relates to identifying individuals at risk at early stage, allowing for timely risk stratification and initiation of countermeasures. However, obesity is complex and multifactorial by nature, and one isolated (bio)marker is unlikely to enable an optimal risk stratification and prognosis for the individual; rather, a combined set is required. Such a multicomponent interpretation would integrate biomarkers from various domains, such as classical markers (eg, anthropometrics, blood lipids), multiomics (eg, genetics, proteomics, metabolomics), lifestyle and behavioural attributes (eg, diet, physical activity, sleep patterns), psychological traits (mental health status such as depression) and additional host factors (eg, gut microbiota diversity), also by means of advanced interpretation tools such as machine learning. In this paper, we will present a protocol that will be employed for a scoping review that attempts to summarise and map the state-of-the-art in the area of multicomponent (bio)markers related to obesity, focusing on the usability and effectiveness of such biomarkers. Methods and analysis: PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and Embase databases will be searched using predefined key terms to identify peer-reviewed articles published in English until January 2024. Once downloaded into EndNote for deduplication, CADIMA will be employed to review and select abstracts and full-text articles in a two-step procedure, by two independent reviewers. Data extraction will then be carried out by several independent reviewers. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews and Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies guidelines will be followed. Combinations employing at least two biomarkers from different domains will be mapped and discussed. Ethics and dissemination: Ethica

Based on a case study conducted in Italy in 2021, this case study examines the process of media and information literacy (MIL) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the transformation of entrepreneurial culture among practitioners. It focuses on the transformation of the food retail sector that occurred during the first and second coronavirus lockdowns in Bra, a city in northwest Italy famous for its food culture. By examining the pattern related to the use of digital resources in the city food retail sector, this study shows that the acquisition of MIL in the spring of 2020 did not lead to a structural change in the local firms’ entrepreneurial culture. Thus, this longitudinal analysis shows an opportunistic approach toward MIL that contextualized it as a resource only for emergencies. Thus, it clarifies the aspects of the entrepreneurial culture that delay deeper implementation and understanding of MIL

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Access to food is crucial not just to fight hunger. It is a key process to foster social inclusion, in particular of fragile groups within an urban environment. Based on the analysis of specific case studies, this chapter reflects on the role of the contribution provided by urban food-sharing initiatives specifically for sociocultural integration of migrants. In particular, it explores two grassroots initiatives run in Italy between 2016 and 2019, in a moment of strong public hostility against migration. In so doing, it investigates the role played by food, commensality, and conviviality in order to foster a process of empowerment that contributes to the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular SDG 10, Reducing Disequalities.

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The chapter looks at local, artisan food productions and their value chains. It explores a qualitative methodology of analysis developed in order to assess the health of these production chains, identifying their main weakness and strengths in terms of sustainable development. In so doing, it presents the state of arts of the health of short agrifood chains in Italy.

In questo lavoro si prosegue l'analisi delle strutture simboliche e rituali della ciambella offerta e consumata in alcune feste folcloriche italiane.

Il volume si pone come sintetica introduzione all'antropologia culturale

Wild edible plants, particularly berries, are relevant nutritional elements in the Nordic countries. In contrast to decreasing global trends, approximately 60% of the Finnish population is actively involved in (berry) foraging. We conducted 67 interviews with Finns and Karelians living in Finnish Karelia to: (a) detect the use of wild edible plants, (b) compare those results with the published data about neighbouring Russian Karelians, and (c) document the sources of local plant knowledge. The results revealed three main findings. First, we observed a similarity in wild food plant knowledge among Karelians and Finns from Karelia. Second, we detected divergences in wild food plant knowledge among Karelians living on both sides of the Finnish-Russian border. Third, the sources of local plant knowledge include vertical transmission, acquisition through literary sources, acquisition from "green" nature shops promoting healthy lifestyles, childhood foraging activities performed during the famine period following WWII, and outdoor recreational activities. We argue that the last two types of activities in particular may have influenced knowledge and connectedness with the surrounding environment and its resources at a stage of life that is crucial for shaping adult environmental behaviours. Future research should address the role of outdoor activities in maintaining (and possibly enhancing) local ecological knowledge in the Nordic countries.

Centralization is one mechanism of authoritative control, where citizens receive operation guidelines from a single source. This can impact various spheres of life including local gastronomic knowledge, a cornerstone of biocultural diversity. We explored how to evaluate the effects of Soviet centralization on wild food plant local gastronomic knowledge. We considered four case studies of ethnic communities that are divided by political borders. In total, we conducted 581 semi-structured interviews. Our results suggest three main findings. The first regards the high similarity of use of wild food plants among the communities living in Russia and Finland. The second involves the higher proportion of simple preparations made with wild food plants in Soviet contexts, which is not evident in adjacent non-Soviet countries. The third concerns the low(er) number of distinct wild plant-based foods retained by non-Soviet countries and, in post-Soviet contexts, those that refer to past uses. We argue that the erosion of wild food plant-based local gastronomic knowledge guided by homogenization and repression poses a serious risk to local food security.

Empowering rural tourism in Europe. Understanding the educational needs of a rising sector, is one of the results of the European Erasmus+ project “The European Network for the Promotion of Culinary and Proximity Tourism in Rural Areas” (www.gastrotourism. eu). It presents the results of the field research conducted by the partners of the project (Pôle Métropolitain Pour L’entrepreneuriat Le Carburateur, Igor Vitale International Srl, Balkan International Academy, Rivensco Consulting Ltd, Association for Education and Development of Disabled People, EUROASIA Innovative Society Association, Asociatia De Dezvoltare Intercomunitară Harghita, University of Gastronomic Sciences), under the scientific coordination of the University of Gastronomic Sciences. www.gastrotourism.eu 9 The book is divided in three parts that guide the reader in understanding better the characteristics of the project (Part I), in exploring the results of the research (Part II) and acquiring the tools needed to replicate the research (Part III). Specifically, Chapter 1 introduces the European project and its aims and goals. Chapter 2 presents the partnership. Chapter 3 presents the research and its methodology. Chapter 4 explores the common needs of rural tourism in Europe with specific attention to education. Chapter 6 discusses the results highlighting the suggested areas of educational intervention. Chapter 7 presents the contents of the theorical and methodological toolkit of which tools are illustrated in the following chapters (from 8 to 11). The volume is concluded by the bibliography. The present book is edited by Michele F. Fontefrancesco and includes materials from all the partners. The authors of the individual chapters are indicated in the opening of each one, while the descriptions of areas as well as the summary of the individual focus group discussion has been provided by the partners operating in each location. All the partners want to thank the organizations that supported the

In the past two decades, ethnobiologists have increasingly paid attention to the scouting and documentation of endangered corpora of local food elements and associated traditional knowledge. In this endeavor, food scouting encompasses the methodological tools used for mapping, inventorying, and documenting food and food-related resources. The growing body of research in this field is shedding light on the potentialities of these practices in obtaining baseline data regarding food heritage, which can, in turn, empower local communities in their dynamic understanding and safeguarding of this resource. While food scouting have been gaining an important role in current food and gastronomic ethnobiological research, as well as in other fields of study (e.g., geography and anthropology), little attention has been paid thus far to the methods and approaches underpinning these activities. To partially fill this gap, this contribution aims to tackle some methodological issues connected to the documentation of food and gastronomic elements embedded in local knowledge. Acknowledging the plethora of methods applicable in food scouting research, we describe three specific applications of food scouting to elicit data on local food diversity, highlighting their prospects and limitations. The first case addresses market surveys to obtain baseline data on the local food systems and their associated diversity, the second focuses on context-based freelisting methods for eliciting wild food plant uses, and the third discusses methods for scouting and inventorying artisanal food products. Acknowledging the contributions of Justin Nolan to the advancement of methods in the field of ethnobiology, we suggest that the methodological toolkit of food scouting should include ad hoc transdisciplinary platforms codesigned together with local food actors.

Gli antropologi sono sempre stati interessati al consumo di alimenti che prediligono le società per il loro sostentamento e, non ultimo, a come attivino ritualità che dicano sia alla produzione che del consumo di questi alimenti. In questa direzione l’antropologia culturale si è sempre concentrata sull’analisi delle relazioni, dei significati e delle pratiche che ruotano attorno al consumo del cibo e alle ritualità inerenti allo scambio di questi beni. Tuttavia, nonostante il crescente interesse verso l’antropologia del cibo, la birra è stata oggetto di minor attenzione da parte della comunità antropologica, a dispetto del suo ruolo sempre più prominente nelle relazioni gruppali e ludiche ormai diffuse a livello globale. In Italia, poi, la birra ha avuto uno sviluppo recente, ma, malgrado ciò, ha superato velocemente il consumo del vino. Allo scopo di approfondire la conoscenza su questa tematica, ai limitati, seppur interessanti studi italiani a disposizione, vengono affiancati anche i contributi internazionali. L’obiettivo del contributo si concentra però su una revisione sistematica della letteratura antropologica italiana sul tema, evidenziando gli ambiti di analisi principali e delineando possibili direzioni future di ricerca. L’articolo conclude sottolineando l’importanza di approfondire gli studi sull'antropologia della birra proprio allo scopo di comprendere meglio la sua rilevanza culturale e storica.

Italy was among the first countries worldwide and the first in Europe to implement a complete lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This two-month lockdown significantly disrupted daily routines, leading to the reorganization of space, time, and modalities of meals. This article presents a study conducted in Italy during the lockdown, aiming to capture real-time changes in home-based eating practices. The study highlights how food-related routines shifted around home spaces, altered schedules, and increased technology use for cooking. It also explores changes in family dynamics, emphasizing communal cooking and dining. These shifts offer insights into opportunities for broader social changes, with food practices serving as a focal point for reconsidering role dynamics and dialogue within households, particularly related to gender, generations, and work-life balance. Furthermore, the study delves into agential factors, such as healthier nutrition habits and active lifestyles linked to a renewed commitment to cooking together and local food, which has remained a priority for Italian consumers even during times of crisis.

The article analyzes the reality of the Italian short agrifood chains and the specificities of their entrepreneurship. Based mostly on micro and small businesses, these entrepreneurial agglomerates are located throughout the country and represent a fundamental resource for its development, especially in the most marginal areas. While it is becoming increasingly clear that the short agrifood chains represent a resource for rural areas both from an economic and social point of view, as well as from the point of view of the conservation of the biocultural heritage and the preservation of landscapes, this article explores their state of health to understand what are the key problems on which to intervene and the needs to be addressed to allow the short agrifood chains to find an adequate balance between innovation and preservation. To this end, based on qualitative research conducted since 2020 in the Italian countryside, the article provides a survey of these challenges. It indicates a profile of the fragility of the chains. Considering these weaknesses, five case studies are explored. They show specific bottom-up responses to the most common challenges and offer potentially replicable social and economic solutions. The article opens by focusing on the main weaknesses of the short agrifood chains as discussed in the literature, then presents the research and its data. It discusses the profiles of the fragility and explores the five case studies. In doing so, the article highlights some of the possible micro and macro-solutions to be introduced in support of this sector of agri-food crafts.

Affrontando il nodo della trasformazione sociale attraverso la lente etnografica, l'articolo introduce i contenuti del volume.

In the last decades, scholars from different disciplines have used the foodscape as a concept and an analytical framework to explore the intersection between landscape, people and food culture. Adopting a comparative case-study analysis, this article aims to show how a foodscape can be used as a lens to investigate cultural landscapes, specifically in mountain areas affected by fast structural socio-economic and ecological changes, identifying key tangible and intangible elements, the underpinning relationship and values, as well as the factors underlying their evolution and transformation. In this way, the article indicates this concept as a key tool for landscape management and conservation. We discuss three different and complementary approaches to the analysis of cultural landscapes, namely, from food products to landscape analysis (Albania), from food production practices to landscape analysis (Kenya) and from food-related rural architecture to landscape analysis (Italy). Overall, the research highlights how implementing a foodscape lens among the different levels of landscape analysis could contribute to the assessment, protection and promotion of local food-related resources. In so doing, it opens new research aimed at defining the limits of this heuristic instrument, where its most promising aspects of the foodscape have been explored in the article.

This paper investigates the socioeconomic and cultural transformation in food artisan entrepreneurship due to the complexification of the food sector and ongoing globalisation through a case study conducted among the artisan butchers of Genoa, Italy. The butcher’s trade has enjoyed centrality and social and cultural promotion that made butcher shops key places in the urban foodscape. However, this centrality is challenged by both new consumption trends and the imposition of large-scale organised distribution as the fulcrum of mass food trade. These changes raise the question about the future of the profession and its knowledge. This paper addresses this question by investigating the structure of the butcher’s business and the practices involved in knowledge creation and transmission, exploring the factor of change and its effects on the butcher’s profession, as well as the very foundational aspects of the artisanship. The research suggests that artisanship should be read as a form of entrepreneurship capable of placing and moving the craftsman within the global social hierarchy of a community. Therefore, the preservation of artisanship and its sociocultural complexity cannot be limited to the mere preservation of gastronomic forms and techniques.

Rural culinary tourism is a growing sector in European tourism and is a key resource for rural development, in particular in Southern Europe. The boom of the sector that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, however, poses important questions concerning the actual capacity of local actors to grasp this opportunity. The paper investigates the main trends in rural tourism in Southern Europe and the specific educational needs entrepreneurs express based on extensive research conducted in seven Southern European countries (France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey) within the Erasmus + project “The European Network for the Promotion of Culinary and Proximity Tourism in Rural Areas” in 2022. Specifically, the research was conducted through focus group discussions with professionals and stakeholders of the project carried out in the target countries involving 76 respondents. Based on the data collected, this paper indicates a way forward for the new gastronomes to understand this sector and invest their professionality in it.

What is the market for small farmers in Kenya? What does farming mean for them? These are the key questions that move the article that investigate the process of market integration of small farming, and the strategies, meaning, and aspirations that farmers associate to their activities. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nakuru County between 2018 and 2020, the article discusses how small farmers relate with their cultivated land and the market in their everyday life, appreciating the material conditions and the hierarchy of values that inform particular choices. In that way, it points out the small farmers household economy is enmeshed within the market and shows the centrality of money and cash flow as interpretative category used by the farmers to justify their farming practices and strategies.

The affective economy is a concept that emerged within the field of social sciences, focusing on the interplay between emotions, affects, and economic processes. It explores how emotions and affective experiences shape economic practices, consumption patterns, and the production of goods and services. In the affective economy framework, emotions are seen as not merely individual but deeply embedded in social and political contexts, shaping and being shaped by social structures and power dynamics. The affective economy emphasizes how emotions circulate and contribute to the construction and maintenance of social orders, impacting economic actions. It acknowledges the profound impact of emotions and affects on economic behavior. Thus, this concept sheds light on the intricate relationship between emotions and economic processes, demonstrating how affective experiences influence consumption, production, labor, financial decisions, and the overall dynamics of the market economy. It emphasizes the need for a more nuanced understanding of human behavior in economic contexts, recognizing the significance of emotions and affective responses as integral components of economic activities. This concept is connected to notions of dwelling, topophilia, and affective atmospheres, providing insights into the complexities of economic transactions in diverse cultural contexts.

Nell’ambito della riflessione sul processo di polarizzazione sociale e gastronomica, l’articolo affronta attraverso uno studio di caso, il ruolo svolto dalle Osterie Slow Food nel dare risposta alla tendenza in corso. La ricerca origina dalla particolare filosofia che individua questi ristoranti e li vedrebbe come luogo di risocializzazione e valorizzazione del cibo del territorio. L’indagine mostra come nella realtà attuale, questi esercizi solo parzialmente rispondono al modello ideale, offrendo un luogo di educazione gastronomica e promozione locale, ma non attivano momenti di riavvicinamento tra segmenti proiettati lungo traiettorie divergenti all’interno del campo sociale.