Exploring the potential of local food and drink entrepreneurship in rural Wales

This paper presents an interdisciplinary investigation into local scale case studies from across rural food and drink based activities including micro-enterprises that produce and widen markets for local foods and drinks including food tourism initiatives. Case study analysis is used to investigate firstly, how entrepreneurship may translate policy into means of addressing a range of social and economic challenges of rural communities in Wales and secondly, the broader contributions that rural entrepreneurship and social enterprises have made in delivering sustainable local food and drink based initiatives that have broader community value added.

The context for case study analysis includes discourse on equitable and appropriate development, partnership working and community decision making and empowerment within the governance framework of One Planet Wales Sustainable Development commitment. This analysis is timely given current directions in European funding towards broader rural development and the promotion of food and drink heritage based rural tourism by Welsh Government as a tool of choice for ensuring rural wellbeing.