Food and Geography

Culinary Theory

Essay Question

Food and Geography/Economics

(Of course make certain to research what terroir is before answering the question.)

In the short essay What is the Value of Terrior? the authors are trying to determine how vineyards are valued in relation to terroir, location within a terroir, and quality imparted by the terroir on the grapes and wine.  What is more important to real estate “value” in this study of vineyard sales?  Terroir (wine quality) or the appellation designation (AVA in America. AOC in France)

We learn also that most consumers cannot judge wine quality based on its bestowed terroir characteristics —most consumers respond “to extrinsic qualities of wines, such as price and area of origin.”  Most consumers, when pressed to buy a nice bottle of wine will defer to the more expensive bottle or appellation recognition—not really taking the true quality of that specific wine into consideration. Is this true when you purchase a bottle of wine? Are you more influenced by where the wine came from, the colorful label, a familiar vintner, the price? Or the terroir characteristics imparted by a specific geology, solar angles, humidity, rainfall, soil integrity, etc.?

When it comes to food, do we pay more attention to the extrinsic or the intrinsic qualities? The intrinsic quality would relate to the actual taste and flavor.  The extrinsic might be a brand name, where it came from, a company’s social awareness, who else consumes the product, etc.

For example, do I purchase Taza chocolate over Lindt chocolate because of quality issues or because Taza  uses Certified USDA Organic, non-GMO cacao? Does Taza’s philosophy add value to their chocolate? Or do I buy Taza chocolate because the chocolate is a better quality?

Please write a two page response paper on how you approach procuring food and beverage. (Include four properly cited references.) Do you consume based on intrinsic factors or extrinsic factors? Do you ever buy food based solely on its brand, origin, affiliations, and corporate philosophies or do you choose to buy the best product based on taste and flavor?