A Food Tourism Textbook Served in Four Courses

was packing my suitcase to fly to Italy for the 1st World Congress on Agritourism when a large brown envelope showed up in my mailbox. I ripped open the package to find Susan L. Slocum and Kynda R. Curtis’s new textbook, Food and Agricultural Tourism: Theory and Best Practice. Perfect reading for my flight to Europe! Flying over the Atlantic Ocean, I flipped through the book and was immediately drawn in by the colorful case studies of food tourism around the world. The study questions for students had me hooked: How would you define authentic food from your area? How does globalization lead to specialization in agricultural production? What does “rice for life” mean? How can the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail enhance the visitor experience? Slocum and Curtis explore these questions and many more in their well-written and well-organized textbook for college students. Professors seeking textbooks for their courses will appreciate the layout of the book, where each chapter begins with an overview, followed by a list of learning objectives. The meat of the chapter is presented in sections with clear headings, illustrated with relevant images, figures, and tables. Each chapter ends with a summary, study questions, and definitions. The final touch is a case study or two for each chapter, located just before the chapter’s reference list. These compelling case studies include images and end with questions for students to ponder. The book is divided into four parts. Part I focuses on food tourism and sustainable rural development, with chapters on (1) tourism, agriculture, and rural economic development; (2) food tourism and sustainable communities; and (3) food tourism offerings. These three chapters lay the groundwork for the rest of the book. Chapter 1 I