Foie Gras and Gastronomical Heritage
“Foie gras belongs to the protected cultural and gastronomical heritage of France”, according to French law (French rural code L654-27-1).
Hmm. Go read Michaela DeSoucey’s article on gastronationalism in the prestigious American Sociological Review, an article that uses all the technical tools of sociology to get to the politics underlying this preemptive claim.
Here’s her question.
How does an object vilified in some locales become morally and politically justified as traditional, authentic, and worthy of protected status in others? Foie gras, the fat- tened liver of a force-fed duck or goose, is valorized as a symbol of French national identity, history, and culinary culture. It is also a target of critical opposition, fueled by international animal rights organizations.
And here’s part of her answer.
The conditions of French foie gras production and consumption are, in fact, recent phenomena. Rates of foie gras production and consumption within France have tripled since the 1970s, due in large part to state sup port (through the National Institute for Agricultural Research [INRA]) for new technologies that lowered production costs (Jullien and Smith 2008). In the 1980s, the introduction of pneumatic, hydraulic, and computer-calibrated feeding systems allowed each duck to be fed in several seconds, rather than the 30- to 60-second feeding required for artisanal production.21 Additionally, the industry-wide switch in the 1970s to making foie gras from ducks (which are considered heartier and easier to keep in industrial farm facilities) instead of geese made foie gras less expensive and thus available to a wider range of consumers. In interviews, industry members referred to these processes as ‘‘the democratization of foie gras.’’
She calls the process of coopting certain foods as national symbols gastronationalism and points out how it counter balances the globalization of foods.
Gastronationalism is a potent force in contemporary food. Her own research shows that foie gras follows in the not-so-ancient footsteps of French wine and cheese (at least in their present incarnations).
And Michaela and I spent a great afternoon drinking coffee in the sunshine on the campus of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) teasing out parallels with tequila. This was until recently a regional Mexican drink of no particular prestige outside the region. New technologies (French and Spanish distilling apparatus for brandy), branding as national symbols and identity (the film industry), appeals to antiquity, to grandmothers and aunts and uncles, international marketing as a true taste of a different nation, and so on all follow Michaela’s gastronationalism model.
I’m sure lots of other examples spring to mind.
a good greek example is feta cheese, which became PDO – anyone producing cheese they used to call feta had to rename it to ‘white cheese’ if it was produced outside the PDO region, even though in essence it was still feta cheese
in crete, the names of different soft cheeses cause considerable confusion from one province of the island to the other; the same names are used, but they denote different cheeses in each province, although the same cheeses are available all over the island
I suppose balsamic vinegar has fallen into this trap. Traditional balsamic vinegar is only produced in Modena Italy and must be aged a minimum of 12 years. The Modenese (?) saw a potential market and now we have ‘Balsamic Vinegar” that is a sugared, colored, bastardized impostor of the real thing.
First Europe imposed an open market, where there could be no barriers to trade or the free movement of people and goods. France could not prevent Denmark to market camembert nor Spain to sell “champagne”. In fact, free market overruled even the existing AOC/DOC status of some European foodstuffs.
Now the original producers of such ‘typical’ products counterattacked by having Europe instore protected designations : (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_designation_of_origin ). Both are contradictions.
I believe this protection to be not simply nationalist, but made to preserve traditional production systems (and hence different tastes) from industrial production in low(er) wage or more efficient countries. This type of protection is in some way nationalist, but consumers do expect belon oysters to come from the Belon river, champagne to come from the banks of the Marne and Camembert from Normandy. In that case, it’s consumer protection, not so much nationalism. Belgian chocolate or Belgian beer is not a style, they are genuine quality product from Belgium (and not USA)
This idea was lost in some cases (dover sole, gouda and cheddar cheese, damast, duffel coat) which have become generic names of products, but even these are all original cases of fraudulant substitution that afterwards became the rule instead of the exception (and that has been going on for millenia)
Very interesting discussion all. I´m in Panama right now–working actually–but will reply when I get back.
FYI: http://www.vub.ac.be/FOST/attachments/FOSTColloquium2010.pdf
Thanks Nick. Looks very interesting.