Food: Location, Location, Location

Abstract

This article examines the question of why local food has become, for many activists and scholars, a core concept for understanding food systems and globalization and for challenging systems of injustice and inequality. I begin with the French concept of terroir, which is often translated as the “taste of place,” and examine why this term, part of France's cultural common sense, is difficult to implement in other places. I then consider efforts to use local foods to grapple with the forces of globalization and efforts to use ideas about local food to moralize capitalism and humanize food distribution systems. I examine the relationship between movements for food sovereignty and food justice with local foods. Finally, I explore the uses of local foods as part of efforts to develop, assert, and sometimes market local, regional, or national identities.

Sustainable Food Supply Chains: Is Shortening the Answer? A Literature Review for a Research and Innovation Agenda

“…Some authors have underlined that SFSCs may enact different types of proximity-geographical, relational or organised, among others [15]; others have distinguished between "local food" and "locality food" [16], or "locally produced food for local consumers" and "locally produced food for distant consumers" [17], variations which stress the complexity of trying to delimit the meaning of "local". Often, subjective, less quantifiable dimensions influence the construction of the "local" in SFSCs: these include, among others, the understanding of place as a socio-cultural construction [18][19][20], producers' [21] and intermediaries' [22] spatial perceptions and how these affect their mobility, consumers' spatial perceptions and their impact on food procurement strategies [23] and the role of knowledge-based relations between local actors [17]. In the European GLAMUR FP7 project, Brunori et al [11] demonstrate that local and global chains, in practice, are far from being mutually exclusive or opposed.…”

The Methodology of Territory Zoning of the Ukrainian Right-Bank Polissia for the Gastronomic Tourism Development Purposes

“…Wylie (2007) suggests that food, as well as landscapes become "a reflection in the common and collective circles of cultural meaning". The works of Barham and Sylvander (2011), Bowen and Mutersbaugh (2014), Berriss (2019) demonstrate deep interest in studying the places where products come from. Food products that originate from certain landscapes are called "landscape products" (Ilbery and Kneafsey , 1999).…”

Mapping Online Geographical Indication: Agrifood Products on E-Commerce Shelves of Mercosur and the European Union

“…As an effect of such a process, authors such as McMichael (1996) point out that communities must reposition themselves through niches to resist globalization's pressure. Furthermore, such a process demands local, regional and national identities to sustain culture-related food (Beriss 2019). Through this it becomes clear that globalization impacts nation states differently in terms of their global position and pushes the market towards niche formation to preserve culture-related agrifood products such as GI.…”