Terroir in Transition: Environmental Change in the Wisconsin Artisanal Cheese and New England Oyster Sectors

Even as the concept of terroir becomes more salient in diverse cultural and national contexts, climate-driven environmental change threatens to alter the ecologies that contribute to the distinctive terroir of place-based products. Yet few studies examine how producers of terroir products perceive a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-05, Vol.11 (10), p.2969
Main Authors: Teigen De Master, Kathryn, LaChance, James, Bowen, Sarah, MacNell, Lillian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidification
Adaptation
Agriculture
Aquaculture
artisan cheese
case studies
Cheese
Climate change
Codification
Common Agricultural Policy
Culture
Dairy products
Environmental changes
farmers
Food
Fraud
interviews
Maple syrup
Nature
New England region
Oysters
Physical sciences
Rural development
surveys
Sustainability
traditional technology
Wine
Wisconsin
Working groups
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Summary:Even as the concept of terroir becomes more salient in diverse cultural and national contexts, climate-driven environmental change threatens to alter the ecologies that contribute to the distinctive terroir of place-based products. Yet few studies examine how producers of terroir products perceive and experience environmental change. Our comparative case study addresses this gap, as we examine ways that changing ecological conditions will influence the emergent terroir of Wisconsin artisanal cheese and New England oysters. Drawing on in-depth interviews and a survey, we describe the environmental and sociocultural elements that Wisconsin artisanal cheesemakers and New England oyster farmers identify as characteristic of the terroir and merroir (terroir’s maritime adaptation) of their products. We then compare cheesemakers’ and oyster farmers’ perceptions and experiences of climate change. We find that both groups perceive climate-related threats to the terroir and merroir of their products, though each group experienced these threats differently. We argue that the ongoing constitution of terroir—which has always reflected a tension between nature and culture—will be further complicated by changing ecologies. We suggest that a generative understanding of terroir that emphasizes terroir’s sociocultural dimensions may help artisanal cheesemakers and oyster farmers mitigate some climate-related threats to their products.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11102969