Spatializing Quality: Regional Protection and the Alternative Geography of Food

TLDR

Global food trade is widespread yet contested, while a counter‑trend of local and regional foods is reshaping the landscape, suggesting an emerging alternative geography of food. The study investigates how European PDO and PGI protections reflect and reinforce distinct north‑south food cultures, with the north prioritizing efficient commodity production and the south valuing terroir, tradition, and artisanal methods. By analysing the development of PDO/PGI labels, obstacles and opportunities within northern and southern food systems, and applying conventions theory, the authors map spatial patterns of regional food protection across Europe. More than 75 % of registered PDO/PGI products originate from five southern EU states, and a comparable share comes from Less Favoured Areas, underscoring a complex, geographically differentiated alternative food system.

Abstract

The globalization of trade in foodstuffs is now a firmly established feature on the landscape of economic geography, although its impacts and desirability remain the source of controversy. Yet, while the liberalization of trade in food continues apace we are simultaneously witnessing a reassertion of foods with local and regional identities. This ‘counter-trend’ has led some economic and agricultural geographers to propose that an ‘alternative geography of food’ may be coming into view. If this contention is correct, it would seem to be implicated in new forms of food governance, notably European legislation that has provided legal protection to designated regional foods, through the ‘PDO’ and ‘PGI’ labels. In this paper we explore the background to the development of these protective devices, which, we argue, illustrates profound differences between ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ food cultures and agricultural systems within Europe. In stylized terms, we argue that the former places great emphasis on ‘efficient’ production of commodities while the latter retains strong affiliations to ‘ terroir’, tradition and artisanal production. Analysis of the spatial distribution of registered regional foodstuffs reflects this north-south divide, with more than 75 percent of the products registered in five southern EU states (France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain). Our analysis, which compares the two ‘cultures of food’ using conventions theory, shows that spatial differentiation also exists at a regional level and that a similar proportion of PDO products originates from Less Favoured Areas (LFAs). This implies that the new geography of ‘alternative’ foods is becoming increasingly complex. We explore the obstacles and opportunities, arising within the two distinct food cultures of ‘north’ and ‘south’.