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Wisconsin’s “Happy Cows”? Articulating heritage and territory as new dimensions of locality

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Abstract

In this article, we suggest that attending to the roles of heritage and territory could help reshape local food systems in the US: first, by incorporating more producer voices and visions into the conversation; and second, by considering more deeply the characteristics of the places where food is produced. Using the Wisconsin artisanal cheese network as a case study, we have traced how artisanal producers frame their collective heritage and links to their territory. They describe a heritage that includes a cultivation of embedded, “situated” agricultural knowledge(s) and a commitment to specific quality practices as well as a connection to terroir—the specific ecologies and social contexts of their farm or region. We argue that their articulation of this heritage and terroir is both an emergent, ongoing process of adapting to changing market, cultural, and geographic conditions and an effort to recover valued traditions and practices and (re)connect to specific places.

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Notes

  1. In the late 1990s, the American Cheese Society defined artisanal cheese as one that is produced “primarily by hand,” in small batches, and using “as little mechanization as possible” (cited in Paxson 2012). Artisanal cheese is framed as an ideal type, as the opposite of industrial cheese, with artisanal being produced by hand instead of by automated machines; in open, as opposed to closed vats; creating art, rather than executing science (Paxson 2012). In practice, however, artisanal is a contested term, open to continual interpretation and reinterpretation.

  2. The USDA NASS defines a specialty cheese as a value‐added product that commands a premium price (USDA NASS 2012). Furthermore, they note that “the nature of specialty cheese is derived from one or more unique qualities, such as exotic origin, particular processing or design, limited supply, unusual application or use, and extraordinary packaging or channel of sale,” characteristics that they associate with “very high quality.”

  3. Two primary initiatives, including the Driftless Region Food and Farm Project and the Driftless Area Initiative, are engaged in collaborative efforts to link some of the key agricultural products of the area—including wine grapes, Honeycrisp apples, and artisanal cheeses—to conservation efforts.

  4. The state began licensing cheesemakers in 1916 and was the first state in the country to institute mandatory grading for major cheese categories, in 1921. The Center for Dairy Research (CDC) was established in 1986 and conducts research and consults with cheesemaking companies on technical matters; the CDC and the state’s Milk Marketing Board formed the Master Cheesemaker certification program in the early 1990s to recognize the expertise of its veteran producers (Apps 2004).

  5. Cazaux (2011) identified surveyed 19 out of the 22 raw milk producers in the state (used as a proxy for the most artisanal producers in the state). She found that 16 out of 19 used grass-based milk.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-67024-30095 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. We note that both authors contributed equally.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8107, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Sarah Bowen

  2. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California-Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall #3114, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Kathryn De Master

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  1. Sarah Bowen
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Correspondence to Sarah Bowen.

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Bowen, S., De Master, K. Wisconsin’s “Happy Cows”? Articulating heritage and territory as new dimensions of locality. Agric Hum Values 31, 549–562 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-014-9489-3

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