This study stems from a participatory foresight exercise conducted in nine Mediterranean, Baltic, Nordic and Eastern European regions, aiming to strengthen the role of small farms and small food businesses in ensuring food security. A wide range of stakeholders participated by attending workshops. They represented farmers’ organisations, food businesses, consumers’ organisations, NGOs, researchers, extension services, professional groups, and administration and public bodies. The actions proposed by participants are scanned and categorised around six broad objectives, stakeholders’ priorities and their underlying beliefs and preconceptions are discussed around the current debates of the literature, and the drivers that influence the feasibility of the proposed actions are discussed. Furthermore, the alignment of stakeholders’ -driven objectives with the European Strategies on food, agriculture, and rural areas is examined, with a focus on: (i) the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, (ii) the Rural Action Plan contained in the Long-Term Vision of Rural Areas developed by the EU Commission, and (iii) the Common Agricultural Policy in force since January 2023.

Local food studies have stressed the importance of local food systems (LFS) in shortening the linkages between producers and consumers and in promoting resilient territories. Food consumption patterns are mostly studied around rural–urban dynamics, urban food security, and the revitalisation of rural communities, but little is known about the impact of LFS over rural residents and their capacity to access local foods. This paper explores the development of LFS in rural areas, from a food access approach, by characterising the rural landscapes promoting local food consumption. From a mapping of 74 predominately rural municipalities, statistical data of six socio-economic and political variables were collected to depict each municipality. A cluster analysis and Pearson’s correlation test informed us about the factors enabling these networks to emerge. Three clusters were identified: ‘meso-urban’, (N = 5) presenting urban-like characteristics (higher income and education levels, and reduced road infrastructure and small-scale farming); ‘dense’, (N = 26) characterised by high population density, road infrastructure and small-scale farming; and ‘castaway’ (N = 43) with low population density, income, post-secondary education, and expenditure in RD in agriculture. LFS emergence in rural Portugal was strongly determined by the levels of mean income and education levels in rural municipalities, which brought into question concerns regarding rural residents’ capacity to consume local foods. Low physical access, purchasing capacity, and awareness of food issues appeared to compromise the utilisation of these foods by the most socio-economically disfavoured groups. However, other territorial externalities and empirical work not included in this study could further complement our findings and provide a richer picture for the localisation of food systems in rural areas.

The European Union’s (EU) remote rural areas undergo unique organizational challenges to counteract geopolitical, economic, and environmental constraints and engage in a competitive global food market. A one size fits all recipe to mend specific issues has also proven inefficient and led policy-makers to acknowledge the importance of implementing sustainable landscape governance to promote rural development. This paper inquires what are the challenges and opportunities food systems must adopt in a sustainable landscape governance approach, based on a qualitative research work carried out in the Azores Region (Portugal) in 2016. Data was gathered via eleven semi-structured interviews to key stakeholders and participatory observation in six events related to the management of the Azores’ food system. A grounded theory method structured qualitatively research participants’ perceptions about the Region’s food regime. This analysis is hereby furthered according to the four criteria proposed by the sustainable landscape governance assessment method. Our results indicate the lack of coordination among actors, institutions and policies in the Azores Region could be counteracted by promoting inclusive participation and integrated knowledge to attain cohesive, sustainable, and efficient outcomes at the landscape level. The methodology has proven to be adequate and instrumental in identifying sustainable landscape governance issues in other food systems.