Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between artesan food producers in the UK and the Protected Food Names system, which protects geographically linked agroalimentary products. It will highlight negotiations and debates that surround the system and changing perceptions about products and place.

Paper long abstract:

Regional foodstuffs in the United Kingdom have a fraught history, in part because of the legacies of post- World War II governmental food policy. In recent years, however, forces have emerged to encourage a revival in such products, particularly due to changes in approaches to food culture worldwide. These changes couple with the establishment of an European Union- wide legal system (Protected Food Names) to protect geographically linked specialty products, which has led the way such products are constructed and articulated started to evolve even further. This paper will consider the relationship between the spread of Protected Food Names legislation and debates about the system among artesan food producers in the United Kingdom, with a focus on the relationship between law and communities. The Protected Food Names system works to reaffirm linkages with traditional foodstuffs, techniques of artesan productions, real and reconstructed history, and the particularities of place and locality. I will explore the kinds of communities being built by engagement with the Protected Food Names system, the motivations and choices being made by producers, and the ability of status to encapsulate values and a sense of tradition. Studying the system and the engagement of producers with that system highlights the spaces for cultural debate about British artesan foods in a broader context, as well as aligning with ideas about place, tradition, and culturally significant products.