Economics of culture and food in evolving agri-food systems and rural areas

The role of culture in connection with the development of food and bio-economy issues has gained growing importance in recent years. In this editorial we provide background information on the three key topics addressed by the papers pub-lished in this special issue: cultural ecosystem services, cultural issues in the organisa-tion of food chains, culture and food characteristics. In a way, the common denomi-nator of these papers is the link between culture, food and territory, taken from differ-ent angles. More research and methodological advances are needed for a better con-sideration of culture in economic research accounting for the current needs of more systemic and holistic vision of the topic.