Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

This paper is the result of an on-going research, part of my thesis on the definition of a sustainable gastronomic heritage on the Picardie coast (France) and the valorization of marine plants such as glassworts (Salicornia spp.). I explore the relationship between the definition of food heritage and the preservation and conservation of natural resources in areas where ecosystems are recognized as “fragile”, and where land-use strategies aim to enhance this food heritage. How do cultural and food heritage fit in with the preservation of landscapes and ecosystems ? What heritage are we talking about when we speek of emblematic seafood products? How do issues of sustainability, responsibility and living together between humans and non-humans interact within the “food landscape”, questioning the memory of place, eating and living? The study of food heritage in Picardie coast gives us an insight into a certain reading of the sea, its uses, and the construction of a maritime culinary landscape. Using ethnographic methods, I describe the practices of gathering marine plants and certain fishery resources, to question the memorial and heritage relationship maintained with the sea, and the construction of a maritime identity in an estuary undergoing rapid environmental changes. I seek to understand the specificities of the “taste of the sea”, in an area otherwise dominated by the agri-food industry. The aim is to understand the commoditization of certain plants that grow spontaneously on the coast, which have recently been valorized using a memorial and heritage rhetoric.