The gender of geographical indications: Women, place, and the marketing of identities

In Western Europe and in the United States, a rekindled interest in food and wine has stimulated the development of value-based food labels that define products based on their immaterial, cultural, and also political contents; among these, the geographical indications (GIs), now protected by the World Trade Organization, refer principally to the place of origin of the product. Despite their commercial and cultural relevance, the evaluation of the impact of GIs on a community usually does not consider gender issues, often misrepresenting or ignoring women's role as the keepers of local traditions, especially in the case of seeds, shepherding products, and their culinary uses. This article (a) analyzes the relationships between gender, place, and local tradition in the case of GIs (b) and addresses the questions of who reaps the benefits of techniques and know-how transmitted and protected by women, and how the role of women is acknowledged in the developing regulations regarding the products involved.