Local agricultural products and foodstuffs

(no name) ((no email))
Wed, 21 Aug 1996 18:10:05 -0700

Dear Anthro-l readers,


Our research activity deals with anthropological research on local agricultural products
and foodstuffs and the characterisation of their cultural specificity : local knowledge,
practices and symbolic aspects in the production, conservation, uses and
transmission/diffusion of these resources; concepts of traditions, usage, live heritage
(and the processus of "patrimonialisation du vivant"); territory management; integration
of these data within the procedures of regulation concerning the definition and
protection of these products linked to a specific place, as well as the question of
their intellectual property.

We are the scientific coordinators of a european research programme untitled : "Local
agricultural products and foodstuffs in Southern Europe : anthropological, sensorial and
socio-econimical characterisation of their specificity. Strategies of valorisation".
Frame : Commission of the European Communities, Agriculture and agro-industry,
Directorate General for Agriculture, 1993-1997.
The programme's purpose is to bring out a methodological approach in order to
characterize agricultural products and foodstuffs that are historically linked to
specific places and groups of people. An initial survey permitted to identify local
products of interest and call attention to the biocultural diversity in each of the
region treated : Rhone-Alpes (France), Cataluna (Spain), Emilia Romagna, Piemonte,
Liguria (Italy), Tras-os-Montes (Portugal). Specialists from various disciplines are
working together to define each product within its cultural, historical,
sensorial and socio-economic context. The question is especially examined within the
framework of current european regulation (designation of origin, protection of
geographical indication, certificate of specific character) and within the "hot" context
of their potential "valorization".

We are looking for contacts and exchanges of ideas in these research domains, and more
generally in the field of ethnobiology applied to these questions.

Thank you for your attention.


Philippe Marchenay and Laurence Berard



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CNRS - Centre de recherche et d'information sur les ressources des terroirs
Alimentec
F - 01060 - Bourg-en-Bresse cedex 09
Tel: (33) 74 45 52 07/08/09 - Fax: (33) 74 45 52 06
email : marchenay@iutbourg.univ-lyon1.fr