L’Alpe

Author AA.VV.

Region

The whole alpine row

In the territorial limits of the Alpine Convention.

Country: at (Austria), ch (Switzerland), de (Germany), fr (France), it (Italy), li (Liechtenstein), mc (Monaco), si (Slovenia)

Publication type

other

Abstract: The volume contains different essays that analyse one of the main resources of alpine economy, the dairy produce, from an anthropological, historical and ethnographic point of view. Particularly, the article “L’or des alpages”, written by J.-R. Pitte (pp. 13-27), presents the evolution and the history of alpine dairy produce, underlining its qualities, its organoleptic characteristics, the traditional gastronomy and the market based on it, defining a “geography of cheese” in the Alps. Dairy produce is an endogenous resource of the alpine row and it can be considered as the synthesis of the environmental qualities, of traditional know-how, of the history of peopling and of the geomorphologic and natural characteristics of the alpine regions. Another significant article is “Les paradoxes de l’AOC”, written by L. Bérard and P. Marchenay, because it contains the analysis of the EU norms on quality and origin of the products. These norms have of course led to a valorisation of typical dairy produce, but their application has also increased the risk of standardisation of the processes of production, with a consequent decrease of the richness and diversity of the products. These contents have to be remembered especially when alpine products are introduced in the European market, in order to prevent the risk of loss of diversity that characterises the alpine production.

Most relevant parts of the publication: - “L’or des alpages” of J.-R. Pitte (p. 13-27) - “Les paradoxes de l’AOC” of L. Bérard and P. Marchenay