I think I'll have myself a (local) beer

Abstract: There is a consensus in circles of academia and policy that the term ‘local’ is used to differentiate food systems that are not of a global or national scale. While many have looked to define local in specific regional settings and contexts, little has been done to understand the different discourses of local in different sectors of the food & beverage (F&B) industry. This thesis investigates to explore this gap, asking the question How is ‘local’ operationalized by producers and consumers in the craft beer industry? To answer the question, interviews with craft beer brewers in Skåne, Sweden were conducted and analyzed using discourse analysis and a theoretical framework provided by Kloppenburg et al.’s Coming in to the Foodshed (1996). Using the narratives of geography, knowledge, and relationships as part of a foodshed analysis, this paper determines that there are major overlaps in the social dimensions of these narratives, with the environmental and economic dimensions of local in the craft beer sector and local food sector have wide cleavages. Rather than placing narratives of local of other F&B sectors into the narratives of local food, this thesis concludes that different sectors, in different regional and social contexts, have their narratives of local that are specific and unique to their sector. For the craft beer sector in Skåne, those narratives are ‘the craft’ and ‘engagement.’ Understanding that different F&B sectors have their own narratives of local can help policymakers better incorporate multiple F&B sectors into their local food communities and promote holistic rural economic development, social preservation, and environmentally sounds food & beverage systems.