A Place at the Table Lab

The "A Place at the Table Lab” (APAT Lab) is a proposed "open workshop" for the study and celebration of working farmscapes and the special foods they produce. Scholars, students, community leaders, and citizen scientists are welcome to engage in our lab work, including policy analysis, geographic transecting and boundary analysis, economic geography, food studies, cultural anthropology, and community-led projects to document and celebrate these special places such as through agritourism, culinary tourism, and heritage area establishment.

 

Agrifood Landscapes or "Agrifoodscapes” for short are unique regions (i.e., valleys, basins, highlands, watersheds, plains, bottomlands) that have evolved over generations through the sustained interaction of land, water, climate, and human stewardship. Naturally endowed areas with the right soils and microclimates often develop agricultural clusters, which include not only farms, but also allied enterprises such as input suppliers, packers, processors, artisanal food makers, distributors, and restaurants and other food service businesses.

​

Many Americans, especially U.S. citizens are familiar with the taste of place of wines and cheeses from other countries (especially Europe), but they may be unaware that this so-called “gout de terroir” (French for taste of place) also applies to many agrifoodscapes in North America such as the Chimayo chili and other landrace chilis grown by Indigenous seed savers on Puebla tribal communities in the high desert of Northern New Mexico. Or the Aroostook Potato Growing area in Northern Maine, the last community in the U.S. where children are recessed from school for two weeks to help with the harvest.

 

A Range of Agrifoodscapes

Examples agrifoodscapes include large specialty crop landscapes like the Concord Grape Belt on Lake Erie (where 400+ vineyards supply much of our grape juice), to Indigenous heritage landscapes like the wild rice lakes of Minnesota, as well as more vernacular agricultural areas with strong regional food systems like San Juan Islands of Washington State that feature vibrant farm-to-table and farm-to-school programs, as well as multiple farmers markets and CSAs. Each place is unique, and has something special to offer the local residents that steward the land as well as to visitors who have the chance to experience a rich cultural immersion. Some contribute to our nation’s critical food supply, and thus our health and well-being.

 

Complex and Dynamic Systems

These resilient agrifoodscapes are complex and dynamic systems in which ecological processes and cultural practices co-evolve, giving rise to distinctive foods, rewarding livelihoods, and ways of life. Moreover, these places also serve as large reservoirs of Indigenous and local knowledge that is based on decades and sometime centuries of trial and error, longitudinal experimentation, and even citizen science. 

 

Gout de Terroir (A Taste of Place)

The foods that emerge from agrifoodscapes carry the imprint of their origins. They reflect not only environmental conditions, but the choices people have made—how they selecte breeding stock, design specific tools for production, and in some cases work collectively to establish codes of practice. In this sense, taste becomes a form of geographic knowledge, and understanding these relationships is central to the work of the APAT Lab. 

 

Fragility and the Need for Stewardship and Recognition

But some of these places are fragile and at risk, due to industrialization, climate change, globalization, and even benign neglect. By documenting, mapping, and calling attention to these remarkable agrifoodscapes, the APAT Lab seeks to make visible the connections between place, practice, and food—connections that are essential to the resilience of food systems in fast-changing world.

​

For more information, including calling our attention to a special Agrifoodscape, contact Duncan Hilchey: duncan@lysoncenter.org