Rural areas receptivity to innovative and sustainable agrifood processes. A case study in a viticultural territory of Central Spain

The objective of this work is to determine the perception, in terms of sustainability, of stakeholders involved in an innovative process developed in a rural area. The innovative process focuses on the introduction of green technologies and low carbon emissions linked to the product and the process in the context of a circular economy model. The methodology is based on a variation of the MESMIS evaluation framework through which ex ante sustainability is analysed following the participatory process using focus group techniques. The results show that acceptance is conditional on obtaining positive economic results from farmers and wineries. The local scale of implementation of the project and the identification with technology based on the use of endogenous resources such as microalgae by the label of origin of the wine are factors that favoured the interest of the participatory process to address the sustainability of innovative technology.