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A Matter of Taste: Local Explanations for the Consumption of Wild Food Plants in the Catalan Pyrenees and the Balearic Islands1

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A Matter of Taste: Local Explanations for the Consumption of Wild Food Plants in the Catalan Pyrenees and the Balearic Islands. Previous research has documented different trends in the consumption of wild food plants but has rarely analyzed the motivations behind their continued (or lack of) consumption. In this article, we use empirical data to explore the factors driving the consumption of a selected set of wild food plants. We start by analyzing the different trends (i.e., abandonment, maintenance, and valorization) across 21 selected species with different food uses. We then explore the reported motivations that drive such trends using data collected among 354 respondents in three Catalan-speaking rural areas. The consumption of wild food plants is decreasing in the three study areas and across the categories of food use analyzed. Respondents listed sociocultural factors, rather than environmental or economic factors, as more prominent determinants of consumption trends; taste preferences seem to be the most relevant motivation for those who continue to consume wild food plants, whereas a myriad of motivations related to changes in lifestyle were provided by those who explain the abandonment of their consumption.

Cuestión de gusto: ¿Qué explica el consumo de plantas silvestres? Estudio en los Pirineos catalanes y las Islas Baleares. Se han documentado diferentes tendencias en el consumo de plantas silvestres comestibles, pero raramente se han analizado las razones que explican por qué algunas plantas se siguen consumiendo y otras no. En base a una selección de plantas silvestres comestibles, en este artículo exploramos los factores que explican las tendencias en el consumo de plantas silvestres. En la primera parte analizamos las tendencias de consumo (abandono, mantenimiento y valorización) de un grupo de 21 especies con diferentes usos alimentarios y en la segunda exploramos las motivaciones esgrimidas por 354 habitantes de tres áreas rurales catalanoparlantes en relación a estas tendencias. El consumo de plantas silvestres parece haber sufrido una reducción generalizada en las áreas prospectadas. Para todas las especies, los encuestados mencionaron factores socioculturales, más que ambientales o económicos, como importantes a la hora de explicar sus patrones de consumo. Específicamente, el sabor parece ser el principal argumento para aquellos que continúan consumiendo plantas silvestres mientras que una combinación de motivos relacionados con cambios en estilos de vida predomina entre las explicaciones de aquellos que han abandonado su consumo.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was conducted under the framework of the project “Sociocultural factors that explain the gathering and consumption of food wild plants and minor crops. Case studies in the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Islands,” funded by the Economy and Competitiveness Ministry (CSO2011-27565) of the Spanish government. The contribution of Generalitat de Catalunya is also acknowledged (project 2014SGR514). E.C. benefited from a predoctoral contract from the Spanish Ministry for Education. We thank M. Mayans, A. Noguera, and C. Prat for their help in data collection, Marta Borrós for cartographical design, and three anonymous reviewers for comments to a previous version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratori de Botànica–Unitat Associada CSIC, Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Ginesta Serrasolses, Esperança Carrió, Ugo D’Ambrosio, Montse Parada & Joan Vallès

  2. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Laura Calvet-Mir & Victoria Reyes-García

  3. Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Laura Calvet-Mir

  4. Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB-CSIC-ICUB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Ugo D’Ambrosio & Teresa Garnatje

  5. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

    Victoria Reyes-García

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  1. Ginesta Serrasolses
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  2. Laura Calvet-Mir
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Correspondence to Victoria Reyes-García.

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1Received 12 December 2015; accepted 17 April 2016.

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Serrasolses, G., Calvet-Mir, L., Carrió, E. et al. A Matter of Taste: Local Explanations for the Consumption of Wild Food Plants in the Catalan Pyrenees and the Balearic Islands1 . Econ Bot 70, 176–189 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-016-9343-1

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