Taste of place, place of taste : mapping alimentary authenticity through Marché Jean-Talon

This thesis explores the discourse currently linking geography and food in the contemporary marketplace. Through a qualitative analysis of the notion of authenticity as it is reimagined and redefined in the context of the recent rise of place-based food purchasing, I contend that place has become the marker of the authentic for consumers. Drawing on communication studies, food studies and cultural geography, I articulate how the players and processes behind this narrative of authenticity operate through one particular place and one particular food. I investigate the reification and commodification of foodstuffs at the local level through Marché Jean-Talon, Montreal's largest farmers market, and at the global level through the case of Greek feta cheese, recently awarded supranational designation of origin protection. In probing the tensions between 'local' and 'global' visions of alimentary authenticity, I question the ways in which this authenticity - and these places - may be real or imagine