Agritourism is a complex activity, a chance maybe today to ensure both human health and the “health” of the environment and rural settlements in order to achieve a most wanted desideratum, the sustainability of the rural environment. The idea of this paper starts from the trend of the current period, meaning the strong emphasis on natural, organic, bio, in all human activities, health and environment, in a word, sustainability. The necessity of implementing the sustainability of activities, health and environment in rural areas, taking into account the agritourism field, was a subject pursued in the study, taking as area of study the mountainous rural environment, the reason of this choice deriving from the fact that the mountain area offers great opportunities for agritourism development, the practice of which is even necessary in the current period. The sustainability of agritourism on rural health and environment cannot be dissociated from the economic, social and cultural life of the community in which it manifests itself, and has a multiplier effect on all the domains with which it interacts. So the purpose of the paper is to follow the development of the agritourism field and, based on some present information, to make a future forecast for some specific indicators, to highlight the representative aspects related to the development and capitalization of guesthouses from a rural mountain environment through agritourism and to come up with a forecast for future transformations that need to take place in the studied area in order to support the sustainable development of the human environment through agritourism.

The debates regarding sustaining the rural world by improving the quality of life are numerous; one of the proposals being agritourism activity. This activity can be a “smart chance” for the sustainability of the mountain rural environment, because it has a multiplier effect on some important parts of economic and social life of the community. For instance, it can be an ally of agriculture, ensuring a diversification alternative for farms, an alternative for local guesthouses to capitalize their own local products, while ensuring the opportunity to obtain additional/complementary income, a possibility of adjusting the depopulation phenomenon and the abandonment of old houses and lands, at the same time offering a pleasant activity/alternative, especially for young people. In this context, the purpose followed in the paper is oriented through the transposition of agritourism activity into a “smart chance” for ensuring rural mountain sustainability. Being simultaneously an innovative and diversifying alternative, it is an actual one that starts from the study of two areas which are similar in terms of tourist potential. However, the approach is a different one, especially regarding the combination of agricultural resources with those specific to the rural way of life, and it also follows a different degree of development. Our scientific approach aims to present some aspects from the two areas, to achieve a general image of tourism potential, to identify how the agritourism activity is seen by those directly involved in its implementation, to point out some aspects due to which agritourism activity can be considered as a “smart chance” while bringing multiple benefits, and to ensure the sustainability of rural mountain areas by playing a vital role in the transition towards a more sustainable future.

The necessity of entrepreneurship in rural area is an actual one. A smart entrepreneurial variant of contemporary village’s development could be “the smart tourist village”, to capitalize rural resources. Thus, in this research we come to a variant of contemporary village’s development, respectively “smart tourist village”, which is the basic idea of the work. To demonstrate that the notion of “smart tourist village” can be a future idea of sustainable rural entrepreneurship the steps undertaken were: the identification of the representative aspects of the villages from Maramures and of their specific resources presentation of the specific aspects; the study also made a quantitative presentation of the rural tourism infrastructure from Maramures by localities; and identifies the perception and “vision” of tourists and owners of tourist structures about Maramures tourist village as an innovative solution with benefits for tourists and locals. The information collected by using the method of qualitative case study served to sketch a possible projection such as “smart tourist village” taking into account the possible costs, return on investment, possible design and advantages.

In our days consumers are interested and visibly reoriented towards natural/local/organic products. Starting from this specificity, the development of rural tourism can come as a possible sustainable response to be implemented in many of the rural areas, such an example being the Moieciu area subject to our analysis. The main objective of this paper is to achieve an analysis of rural tourism activity’s development stage from Moieciu area, from the tourist’s perspective, using case study method and as “main tool of research” the questionnaire. Thus, several research-oriented goals followed are: establishing the arguments for practicing tourism in rural areas; describing the development of Bran-Moieciu area from economic, agricultural and tourist point of view; identifying the reasons for which Moieciu area is a place where tourism can ensure sustainable development. The measure of appreciation of this area by the tourist is analyzed through a face-to-face questionnaire, having as purpose to identify: the capitalization level of local resources through rural tourism activities; the extent to which local resources are present in the product consumed by tourists; the satisfaction degree and expectations regarding the tourist product; the connection between tourism and area development in terms of satisfaction. Based on the information obtained some proposals/possible directions will be proposed to transform the area into “a possible model of sustainable rural tourism development”.

Food security is a matter of global concern, as the supply of food is one of the basic needs, ensuring the survival of the species. The trend of globalization and development of the global economy has shifted the responsible, local consumption patterns towards an increased homogeneity of diets, with food products being disconnected from their source, leading to two major results: (1) increased global consumption and (2) increased uncertainty in the supply chain. To determine what is the nutritional model of Romanians, we developed a questionnaire of 32 questions and distributed it using simple random sampling method. The questionnaire was issued both in physical and digital form and received 1053 responses. The survey was conducted during 2021 and 2022, both in urban and rural areas with the aim of investigating the consumption pattern of the population. The analysis of the questionnaire data reveals overconsumption of animal products, starchy vegetables and bread and pastry products. This nutritional pattern with a high intake in animal protein, correlated with a lack of diversification, is extremely unsustainable, having a negative impact on human health and environmental health.