Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Supermarketization has resulted in an abundant quantities of foods that have no “place” or “home” in many regions of the world. While local foods are getting harder to find, they become niche commodities, so they turn into rent-generating instruments. Based on a comparative study of the development of geographical indication systems in Turkey and Denmark, we discuss the cultural and historical processes behind the invention of “local food”. With a particular emphasis on the concept of terroir, agriculture, and gastronomy we examine how globalization contributes to the formation of new niche markets through place-based labels. We examine how these countries’ food cultures have changed in response to globalization, as well as how their historical particularities (uniqueness) has led to the distinctiveness of new culinary trends.