Organized Session, Workshop or Roundtable Title
Eating Local in Virginia: Taste, Community, and Healthy Living
Participation Type
Organized Session
Participant Type
Multi-presenter
Organized Session, Workshop or Roundtable Abstract
This panel explores what it means to eat local in Lexington Virginia. Focusing on producers, retailers, and consumers, these posters discuss the challenges of creating and sustaining a market for locally grown foods. Panelists investigate the ways that producers and sellers entice customers to buy their expensive craft and quality items that symbolize healthy living in symbiosis with, rather than against, nature. This drive to establish a more community-based and humane food production system in the area enacts, as well as challenges, the Slow Food Movement’s ideologies of “terroir” (relational taste) and “sensuous pageantry” (bringing smell, sight, and sound back into eating experience). Posters focus on a wide variety of sites in which producers, retailers, and consumers interact – a sustainable farm, a craft beer pub, and a shop selling cheese and olive oil. In all of these places, there is a drive to reinvest local food with economic, social, and political value so as to generate viable alteratives to such mega stores like Walmart, as well as foster a sense of community responsibility through responsible eating.
Organizer
Sascha L. Goluboff
At-A-Glance Bio- Organizer
Sascha L. Goluboff is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology and the Department Head of Sociology and Anthropology, Washington and Lee University. Her work focuses on the anthropology of emotion in a variety of geographical and historical contexts.
Type of Session
Poster
Presentation #1 Title
Cheese To You: Redefining the Taste of Local
Presentation #1 Abstract
Cheese, in the context of the growing industrialization and homogenization of food production, evokes a strong sense of nostalgia and local identity. Meg Hall, owner of Cheese to You in Lexington, Virginia, feels deep, personal ties to “real” cheese, which she calls a “perfect food” – handmade, healthful, and inextricably tied to the place from which it comes. My poster shows how this perspective represents a new definition of local that encompasses not just any geographical local product, but selected quality products with unique local identities. By placing the emphasis on her cheeses’ terroir identity and narrative “stories,” rather than on geographically local products, Meg effectively redefines the value and taste of local cheese not only for herself, but also for the entire Lexington community. Her effective marketing of these characteristics to her loyal customer base gives her almost exclusive control over the local taste for artisan cheese. Therefore, the taste for cheese is not that of truly local Lexington production, but instead of Meg’s personally chosen tastes. This paper will explore Meg’s redefinition of local cheese further by explaining the deep importance of terroir, the significance of a cheese’s “story,” and the great diversity inherent amongst those stories, and briefly, the development of “gastronatinalism” as a way of understanding identity and control in Meg’s cheese shop. Finally, I will look at the potential implications of the shop’s monopoly over local tastes and consumption.
At-A-Glance Bios- Participant #1
Hannah G. Howard is a senior at Washington and Lee University. A major in Sociology and Anthropology, she is planning to go to graduate school in Anthropology next year.
Presentation #2 Title
Olive Oil Terroir and Import Locality in Cheese To You
Presentation #2 Abstract
In recent years, local foods have regained popularity in America as part of the “health craze.” Unlike many fad diets, local items provide a more lasting staple of the market, as producers and retailers are able to gain customers back from the convenient, industrially produced food products. A case for this can be seen in Lexington, Virginia, in a small shop named “Cheese To You.” Meg Hall, the owners, supports the Slow Food Movement, and her affiliation with the group led her to begin selling olive oils alongside her cheeses. But unlike her cheeses, her oils are not labeled for locality. While she says she is part of the movement, her goal is to provide the highest quality products for customers rather than preserve the taste of a specific place, but this is only in the case of olive oils. She disregards terroir as a part of the quality of her oils. In this poster, I argue that Meg Hall employs a “third space” strategy to mimic local food retailing despite selling only imported products. I discuss how Hall’s business practice with her olive oils both aligns with and contradicts the Slow Food Movement. As a result, she enjoys the benefit of selling as a local food producer without the troubles of dealing with local economics, so that she can buy products for top quality.
At-A-Glance Bios- Participant #2
Chant’e is a senior at Washington and Lee Univeristy. A major in Neuroscience, she intends to go to Medical School next year.
Presentation #3 Title
Brew Ridge Taps
Presentation #3 Abstract
Lexington, Virginia is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and so it is fitting that its new bar is named Brew Ridge Taps. The emphasis on the local continues with its beer selection. Over half of Brew Ridge’s 199 beer selections are from the surrounding Virginia area. And, with the recent explosion in microbreweries and the consumption of craft beer, Brew Ridge attempts to fill the open niche with its unique variety. This tap house aims to answer the “what, who, and how” of local craft beer tasting within a “sensuous pageantry” experience. This experience is coupled with a laid-back atmosphere, reminiscent of a coffee shop, which fosters an educational “third-space atmosphere.” Brew Ridge has the largest selection of both bottled and draft beers in Lexington, and it targets the demographic of law students and associate professors from the two universities in town. Even with the competition of local breweries, Brew Ridge is the only place that can satisfy customer’s “quest for the exotic.” The craft beer sampling, along with the casual atmosphere, creates a unique experience of education and taste variety.
At-A-Glance Bios- Participant #3
Shawn C. Caton is a Junior and a double major in Politics and Sociology and Anthropology.
Presentation #4 Title
The Sacred Vocation: Buddy Power’s Christian Approach to Sustainable Farming
Presentation #4 Abstract
Buddy Powers, a Lexington, Virginia local, is the owner of Big Spring Farm, thirty-seven acres in Lexington’s backcountry. He and his wife, Jill, run a wedding venue, volunteer as leaders for Young Life at Washington and Lee University, own a photography business, and travel the world. Buddy also plays music and coaches fellow entrepreneurs. To get his start, Buddy apprenticed for several years with Joel Salatin who is famous for his advocacy of a back-to-nature approach to farming. While he no longer raises animals, Buddy once had 5,000 to 7,000 broiler chickens, 100 to 250 heads of cattle, 500 turkeys, 500 hogs, and 500 layards each year. This poster explores Buddy Powers’ Christian perspective on “healthy food” that challenges mainstream motivations for healthy bodies and healthy eating. Although his driving ideology is different from that of the local and Slow Food movements, Buddy shares their ultimate goals of relational taste and terroir.
At-A-Glance Bios- Participant #4
Bowen H. Spottswood is a Sophomore at Washington and Lee University.
Keywords
Commodification, Community, craft, Culture, Health, North America
Start Date
4-9-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
4-9-2016 3:00 PM
Cheese To You: Redefining the Taste of Local
Big Sandy Conference Center - Tech Room 02
Cheese, in the context of the growing industrialization and homogenization of food production, evokes a strong sense of nostalgia and local identity. Meg Hall, owner of Cheese to You in Lexington, Virginia, feels deep, personal ties to “real” cheese, which she calls a “perfect food” – handmade, healthful, and inextricably tied to the place from which it comes. My poster shows how this perspective represents a new definition of local that encompasses not just any geographical local product, but selected quality products with unique local identities. By placing the emphasis on her cheeses’ terroir identity and narrative “stories,” rather than on geographically local products, Meg effectively redefines the value and taste of local cheese not only for herself, but also for the entire Lexington community. Her effective marketing of these characteristics to her loyal customer base gives her almost exclusive control over the local taste for artisan cheese. Therefore, the taste for cheese is not that of truly local Lexington production, but instead of Meg’s personally chosen tastes. This paper will explore Meg’s redefinition of local cheese further by explaining the deep importance of terroir, the significance of a cheese’s “story,” and the great diversity inherent amongst those stories, and briefly, the development of “gastronatinalism” as a way of understanding identity and control in Meg’s cheese shop. Finally, I will look at the potential implications of the shop’s monopoly over local tastes and consumption.