Broadening the utilitarian epistemology of agritourism research through children and families

ABSTRACT

The genesis of agritourism is rooted in diversifying income for farmers, and accordingly, epistemological framing of agritourism research has focused on understanding the direct economic value of farm visits. The literature has identified multiple measures of tourism values and we propose that a similar broad epistemological perspective is needed to expand the analysis of the full spectrum of benefits that agritourism can provide to farmers and food systems. We describe the potential, yet unmeasured, benefits of agritourism and propose to empirically examine the educational and marketing potential of agritourism through building agricultural literacy among young visitors and encouraging family-level support of local food systems. We offer this as one example of how to expand of the epistemological approach to agritourism research, which will allow for a more holistic account of its benefits.

KEYWORDS:

• Agritourism
• utilitarian epistemology
• agriculture literacy

Acknowledgements

This conceptual note is associated with the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant 2017-67023-26224 (2017-2021). We also thank the editor and referees for their valuable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This conceptual note is associated with the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) [grant number 2017-67023-26224 (2017-2021].