Placed-Based Foods

[Chris Amirault]

Interesting story this morning on NPR's "Morning Edition" on place-based foods, using Maytag cheese in Iowa as their focal point.

What's your sense of local place-based foods? Do you have particular favorites?

[Mayhaw Man]

I hope that placed based foods will become more and more a part of the North American food diaspora as people become more aware of how much difference climate can make on a food. It's a good thing.

Fritz Maytag is, by any standard, a hell of an interesting guy. Without Fritz and a couple of other guys, the microbrewery movement in the 80's and most notably mid 90's likely would never have occurred. Fritz started making "American Whiskey" long before the current crop of American small batch distilleries showed up.

Now he's back to his roots-working in the midwest near where his family has been in the appliance business for a hundred years or so. They are making cheese of incredibly high quality and marketing it to people who are interested in who made the stuff that they are putting into their bodies and where the food came from.

I hope that the trend continues. I would love to see Texas Grapefruit on the shelf with Louisiana Navels and Alabama Satsumas. Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and California rice, Oregon, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, Louisiana cheeses labled seperately and served as distinct products that are interesting as a group or standing alone.

[MarketStEl]

Until I listened to the NPR report, I wasn't even sure what the term "place-based food" referred to. Fortunately, the report made the term very clear.

I agree with Fritz Maytag that there aren't too many examples of place-based foods in the US (the report offered the Vidalia onion, which Georgia law restricts to onions grown in a 20-county area surrounding the eponymous town, as the best-known example). In general, it seems to me that the place-based distinctions we do observe are either very broad or not strictly enforced, or both (Wisconsin, New York State and Vermont cheeses; Napa and Sonoma County wines; Jersey tomatoes). Yet even within these often broad categories, you can make distinctions much like those embodied in that French word "terroir".

Even with pasteurized milk, Vermont Cheddar cheese is different from New York State Cheddar, and neither taste like Wisconsin Cheddar. (IMO, New York State cheddar has the most bite, Vermont is sweeter and Wisconsin milder).

But with care and attention--and maybe a little help from the state legislatures, as happened in Georgia--these broad terms could evolve into the sort of regional distinctions so common for European foodstuffs (Roquefort and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses, Champagne, Westphalia ham...) I know there is a cheese manufacturer in upstate New York that goes to the trouble of identifying its cheese as from Herkimer County, for instance. Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, which is facing tremendous development pressure, could perhaps save its farming industry by promoting the designation "Lancaster County" -- which already is identified with quality farm products in the minds of Philadelphians (a popular local brand of supermarket ice cream is labeled "Imported from Lancaster County") -- as a quality control mark on a variety of foodstuffs that could travel well beyond the region (Green Valley Dairy's Pennsylvania Noble Cheddar, for example, a raw-milk cheese which is the best American Cheddar I've ever had and the rival of the best Cheddar from Britain). I'm sure that there are consumers beyond the Philadelphia region who would willingly pay a premium for high-quality foods certified as of Lancaster County origin.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Study highlights uniqueness of Iowa's diverse foods and traditions

This paper should not be viewed as a call for Iowa to return to its agricultural heritage and compete with other states in producing an array of commodity-type foodstuffs when other states have competitive advantage for those products. Rather, the study of the integration of this food history, ecology, and culture can teach valuable lessons about what is unique and different in Iowa, and perhaps shed some light on how we can capitalize on those differences in the marketplace with a focus on place-based foods linked to agritourism and economic development.

the research study

[MarketStEl]

Study highlights uniqueness of Iowa's diverse foods and traditions

This paper should not be viewed as a call for Iowa to return to its agricultural heritage and compete with other states in producing an array of commodity-type foodstuffs when other states have competitive advantage for those products. Rather, the study of the integration of this food history, ecology, and culture can teach valuable lessons about what is unique and different in Iowa, and perhaps shed some light on how we can capitalize on those differences in the marketplace with a focus on place-based foods linked to agritourism and economic development.

the research study

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Hmmmm. Reading this, it struck me that one problem that would have to be overcome in the US is the now well-established practice of naming food products for places that bear no connection to the ones where they are actually made based on the manufacturer's desire to tie into strong positive associations.

In the late 19th century, a manufacturer of cream cheese decided to name his product for a city that had a reputation for fine cooking. As far as I know, Philadelphia Brand cream cheese has never been produced in the city.

The practice continues today, as evidenced by numerous products that bear the name of a place prominently on their labels (e.g., West Virginia Brand bacon, Jamestown Brand sausage) and elsewhere, in smaller type, where the thing actually came from ("Made in Wilson, NC"). As long as this remains a widespread practice, it will be that much more difficult to get American food shoppers to trust the place associations the folks in Iowa or at Green Valley Dairy seek to establish.

The success of the Vidalia onion, though, gives grounds for optimism.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The success of the Vidalia onion, though, gives grounds for optimism.

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Well said indeed! As someone who lives within the "roaming area" of Vidalia, Georgia, I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am to read of encounters with this "golden globe" in the far corners of this country ...

[docsconz]

It is interesting that onions figure so prominentlay here. Besides the glorious Vidalia, let us not forget the equally glorious Walla-Walla from Washington.

[Chris Amirault]

It strikes me that seafood usually comes with a place designation (as well as other terroir sorts of things like farm-raised vs wild, etc.), and that types of shellfish in particular are identified with names that can be related to specific places.

Unless you ask the lunk at, of all places, the Whole Foods fish counter who shrugged his shoulders in response to the question, "What kind of oysters are those?"

[Luckylies]

shelburne cheese smithfield ham

[Devotay]

Dr. Elizabeth Barham addressed this at a conference I attended last summer. Here are some brief excerpts from the minutes of that conference:

Dr. Elizabeth Barham, Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri, discussed the subject of Appellations.

  Appellations such as the French AOC and Italian DOC systems are important because they support a strong, fair connection between the local and the global

  Slow Food is important to her work in this area because “it represents the consumers voice in a changing food system”

  Unlike the existing “American Viticultural Area” system, which has a tax-producing purpose, appellations are partly about intellectual property.  In addition, appellations are unlike trademarks because trademarks are owned by a person or a company and can be moved anywhere while appellations belong to a place and are unmovable.

  Dr. Barham is working on a pilot project in American appellations in Southeast Missouri.  There is much more information on her publications site at www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/ebarham/

  She asks that everyone contact your congressional Representatives and Senators to urge them to keep “Geographical Indications (GIs)” on the “Doha Development Agenda” with the WTO.  There is more information about that at her site (above) as well.

Check out the website, it's very deep.

Also, Maytag is not the best blue from Iowa. Check out "Schwartz und Weiss" from the Golden Ridge Cheese Co-op in Cresco to know good Iowa Blue

[MarketStEl]

Dr. Elizabeth Barham addressed this at a conference I attended last summer.  Here are some brief excerpts from the minutes of that conference:

Dr. Elizabeth Barham, Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri, discussed the subject of Appellations.[...]  Dr. Barham is working on a pilot project in American appellations in Southeast Missouri.  There is much more information on her publications site at www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/ebarham/

  She asks that everyone contact your congressional Representatives and Senators to urge them to keep “Geographical Indications (GIs)” on the “Doha Development Agenda” with the WTO.  There is more information about that at her site (above) as well.

Check out the website, it's very deep.

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I see one of her papers is on promoting Missouri wineries. I hope her efforts pay off.

Historical trivia: Before Prohibition, Missouri was one of the leading wine-producing states in the country. The Germans who settled along the Missouri River in the east-central part of the state (about an hour west of St. Louis; Hermann is the heart of the region) brought their viniculture with them and gave rise to a flourishing industry. Unfortunately, the vintners had nothing else to fall back on, unlike the big St. Louis beer breweries, so Prohibition killed them. Judging from the paper, the state's revived wine industry is still small, but has grown smartly and has plenty more room to grow.

[Chris Amirault]

Historical trivia:  Before Prohibition, Missouri was one of the leading wine-producing states in the country.  The Germans who settled along the Missouri River in the east-central part of the state (about an hour west of St. Louis; Hermann is the heart of the region) brought their viniculture with them and gave rise to a flourishing industry.  Unfortunately, the vintners had nothing else to fall back on, unlike the big St. Louis beer breweries, so Prohibition killed them.  Judging from the paper, the state's revived wine industry is still small, but has grown smartly and has plenty more room to grow.

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(This is a bit off topic -- but I started the thread, so....) I read somewhere recently that the only wineries that made it through Prohibition were the ones that shifted to making sacramental wines, particularly for Catholic mass, and grapes for home winemaking (not illegal, apparently, which I also just learned). That's how Mirassou stayed afloat; check out the "Third Generation" page at their website.