THE PROPERTY OF FOOD: Geographical Indication, Slow Food, Genuino Clandestino and the Politics of Property

Abstract

This paper explores the political struggles behind the definition of geographical indication (GI), and the different uses for these food labels. It examines both the geopolitical and local conflicts around the definition of what GIs are, and the implications of GIs for the conceptualization of property. The article argues that the international geopolitics embodied in GIs is not simply creating class stratifications; it is dispossessing rural, local and underprivileged populations of a crucial resource: their tastes. Ultimately, the article argues for the utility of property as a theoretical and political concept, and suggests that we see it as a site of conflict.1