New Nordic Rurality. Enacting terroir as rootless American innovation or soiled European tradition

Summary

The Nordic foodscape has changed and a new reservoir for rural enactments emerged. In this new Nordic reservoir the notion of terroir seems pivotal - not least when considering cheese production. Terroir, however, is primarily understood in a strictly European sense, accentuating soil and tradition. Drawing on readings of ‘dairy produce strategies’ and deploying a possible world induced STS attitude, a crude model for differentiating American and European enactments of terroir is investigated in this paper. I claim that in the US, geographical claims are ‘uprooted’ and generally highlight alethic modalities – centerstaging individual competence and innovation. Geographical claims in EU, on the other hand, steers towards communal practices and deontic modalities grounded in soil and tradition. Both food systems make use of sustainable claims, but render their authority from different institutions of legitimacy. In Europe the concept of collective regional enterprises or consortiums flourishes. In the US collective patrimony is less propagated, whereas privately owned farms and production facilities secure personal recognition through intellectual property.