Purpose: Demographic and socioeconomic changes, and health issues, promote interest in emerging countries for healthy foods, taking traditional foods under the perspective of functional foods. Amaranth has moved from local to a wider consumption as a functional food. The purpose of this paper is to identify consumers’ perception about amaranth and its relation to consumption motives.Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was applied to 610 respondents, and free word association determined their perception about amaranth through categories. Cluster analysis identified groups of consumers according to their motives for consumption. Globalχ²and correspondence analysis related consumers’ perceptions in the groups were identified.Findings: A total of 16 word categories reflected consumers’ perception about amaranth. Most mentioned were: Traditional product, Hedonism and Health and well-being. Three groups showed significant differences regarding motives of consumption. It is concluded that perceptions about amaranth are closely linked to the motives of consumption. Perceptions of health benefits are related to motives for health issues and taste. There is a group that still consumes amaranth perceived as a traditional food.Practical implications: As a functional food, these results could be useful to promote amaranth from its perception as healthy. Producers might develop products based on amaranth that meet perceptions considering gender and age in Mexico and other emergent countries.Originality/value: This work contributes knowledge to international research that analyses traditional foods as functional foods and consumer perceptions on these. It is a first approach to identify perceptions of Mexican consumers towards amaranth as a traditional and a functional food.

Purpose: The study aims to identify the perceived authenticity of cheeses by consumers of different sociological generations in Mexico.Design/methodology/approach: An online questionnaire was applied to 1,204 consumers. A Free Word Association (FWA) tool was used to determine the perceived authenticity of cheeses creating categories and dimensions. The sample was segmented into sociological generations. A chi-square test and a correspondence analysis were used to identify differences in the perception between generations. The information was complemented with word clouds of the cheeses mentioned and consumer testimonials about cheese consumption.Findings: A total of 29 categories and ten dimensions revealed consumers' perception of cheese authenticity, most important of which were hedonic, rurality and new consumption. Authenticity is a mix of the pleasure of consuming the product, the link to rural life and new consumer values. Perceived authenticity is different in each sociological generation according to the dimensions of raw material, identity, market, new consumption and distrust, since it is related to the experiences of each generation. The results made it possible to contextualise another vision of the reality of the cheeses in the search for a quality seal.Practical implications: The information contributes to the typification and promotion of cheeses in the process of patrimonialisation, by creating differentiated marketing tools that allow their valorisation.Originality/value: This work contributes to the knowledge of the perceived authenticity of cheeses in the sociological generations, due to their differentiation by age, sociocultural, ethical, political and consumer aspects. It enables the knowledge of the consumer's perspective on these products.

Background: The apparency hypothesis in ethnobotany (common plants are used more than less frequent ones) has been studied mostly by comparing usefulness with woody plant density, or large plants (trees) with herbs, with uneven results. Here, we explore the hypothesis for wild-growing medicinal plants, separately for different life forms. Two methodological subjects relevant for testing the hypothesis are also treated: We compare various importance indicators, including recent use, and evaluate active healers’ knowledge of plant population size. The study area was the Tenancingo-Malinalco-Zumpahuacán Protected Natural Area in central Mexico in the upper part of the Balsas River Basin, a biogeographic region with a long tradition of using wild medicinal species. Methods: Previous work on the vegetation of the protected area contributed information from 100 survey plots and a species list, which included preliminary data on the medicinal plants. Then, in 2019–2020, we held in-depth and repeated interviews with 13 traditional healers in three rural communities. They were interviewed on uses and population size of a selection of 52 medicinal species of different life forms and abundance (number of individuals in survey plots). The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, use values and linear regression models. Results: For all species, use value correlated significantly with abundance. When separated by life forms, only herbs and shrubs/lianas showed this association, though with statistical limitations. Trees did not, perhaps because some of the most useful trees have been overcollected. We found a good correlation of recent use with frequency of mention and most other importance indicators; the correlation was weakest for number of uses. Also, active healers had a good estimation of population of their collected species. Conclusions: The apparency hypothesis should be studied separating life forms to reduce the influence of this variable. To measure importance for the study of this hypothesis, the data show that frequency of mention is a good indicator and correlated with actual use. Also, local plant users’ appreciations of population size are quite accurate in the aggregate and may be more efficient than costly vegetation surveys.

Indigenous groups possess environmental knowledge that allows them to identify the landscape as a supplier of goods to meet needs such as food, clothing, housing and health. The present study has a biogeographic approach that aims to identify the traditional Mazahua herbalism in the biocultural landscape of two communities of the State of Mexico. Documentary research and semi-structured interviews were applied via digital media to contact the communities. The study shows that women of both communities give meaning to their environment by using it to care for their families' and communities' health; it highlights their knowledge and preservation of medicinal plants, which is part of their biocultural landscape manifested in the cultivation of medicinal plant and the conservation of communal collection sites where they obtain medicinal plants. The study also shows that the cultivation and collection sites of medicinal plants are also used for other purposes, which shows the biocultural nature of the landscape.

Esta obra es el resultado de un trabajo colaborativo entre disciplinas como la agroecología, la antropología y la ética social, las cuales aportan una mirada crítica y propositiva sobre el tema de la alimentación como acto socioambiental. En este sentido, incluye un posicionamiento frente a los embates del modelo agroalimentario homogeneizante, por lo que propone sea abordado desde una metodología transdisciplinaria que promueva los diálogos plurales, que incluya a todos los procesos vinculados en la siembra, transformación, distribución, adquisición y consumo de alimentos, considerando también el papel de los tianguis y mercados locales. Este libro considera a la soberanía alimentaria como un movimiento que busca la cogestión del alimento desde la comunidad a través de una perspectiva agroecológica. Los autores destacan la posibilidad de una co-creación de diferentes condiciones de convivencia que requieren basarse en el respeto y el cuidado de la vida. Esta obra acentúa la importancia de la responsabilidad que posee toda la sociedad, tanto urbana como rural, para modificar su realidad, así como la necesidad de asumir una postura recíproca con la Tierra. Por ello, se propone un trabajo más cooperativo entre sociedad, universidad y Estado, el cual provoque una sinergia en aras del escalamiento hacia la soberanía alimentaria.