Introducing a Special Issue on the Reinvention of Food: Connections and Mediations

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Cristina Grasseni is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her work focuses on the reinvention of food from several points of view: food activism (Beyond Alternative Food Networks: Italy’s Solidarity Purchase Groups, Bloomsbury, 2013), geographical indications (The Reinvention of Cheese, Berghahn, forthcoming), and traditional dairy farming in northern Italy (Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality at the Foot of the Alps, Berghahn, 2009).

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities, in Anthropology, at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. She has researched the production and regulation of artisanal cheese in the United States for a decade, looking particularly at how craftwork has become a new source of cultural and economic value within American landscapes of production and consumption. Her book, The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (University of California Press, 2013), won the 2013 Diana Forsythe Prize. She currently serves on the editorial board of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Cheese.

Jim Bingen is Professor Emeritus, Community, Food, and Agriculture in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. He has published on a range of food, farming, and rural development issues in Michigan, Western Europe, and French-speaking Africa. He currently works on several applied research studies of organic farming and place-named foods and development in the Great Lakes states of the US and in Europe. From October 2009–January 2010 he was a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, and he is a past president (2011–12) of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). He holds the Chevalier d’Ordre du Mérite Agricole (Order of Agricultural Merit) awarded by the Government of France.

Amy J. Cohen is Professor of Law at the Ohio State University, where she is also affiliated faculty at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and the Food Innovation Center. She has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and a visiting professor at the University of Turin, Faculty of Law, in Italy and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata, India. She is currently a visiting professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto. She studies law and development, dispute resolution, and the political economy of food. Her present work examines the conflicts and distributional effects of efforts to restructure food supply chains in India around the imperatives of large supermarket chains.

Susanne Freidberg is Professor of Geography at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Fresh: A Perishable History (Harvard University Press, 2009) and French Beans and Food Scares (Oxford University Press, 2004) as well as numerous articles. Her current research examines the “greening” of corporate food supply chains.

Harry G. West is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Food Studies Centre at SOAS, University of London. Following many years of research in Mozambique, he now studies artisan cheese making and the relationship between food and cultural heritage throughout Europe and beyond. He is the author of Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and Ethnographic Sorcery (University of Chicago Press, 2007), and editor or co-editor of several volumes, including Food Between the Country and the City: Ethnographies of a Changing Global Foodscape (Bloomsbury, 2014).