The American life of cheese: negotiating the values of an artisanal commodity in an industrial society

Abstract

What is the place of artisanship in a thoroughly industrialized food system, as in the United States? Taking up this question, this article explores the medium and message of American artisanal cheese. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with artisan producers across the country, I propose that American artisanal cheese might be usefully viewed as an “unfinished commodity,” a good whose commercial and social value is underdetermined and subject to explicit question and debate. While American artisan producers derive personal satisfaction from the work they do to handcraft cheese, they worry that it may not “pay off” in the end, financially. As they endeavor to improve upon their craft, they also work to convey to customers the value of that labor in producing a “quality” product, one that’s worth the premium price marked well above its supermarket counterparts. The value of American artisanal cheese remains subject to negotiation.