Abstract:

Transportation and logistics today are widely considered an aspect of, not something that follows, the production of goods. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research with cheese importers and exporters, this paper traces the work of importing perishable foods (especially cheese) into the United States as a job of navigating trade regulations and employing cold chain technology to preserve perishable values — both the edibility and palatability of perishable foods, and the commodity value of goods. To do so, importers and customs brokers must manage the syncopated rhythms of mobility and perishability. The skilled work of importing artisanal cheese reveals the role of time — in addition to elements of place — in consolidating the material qualities that are valued in imported specialty foods.

Bio:

Heather Paxson is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and Associate Dean for Faculty in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at MIT. She is the author of The Life of Cheese: Crafting Food and Value in America (2004) and the editor of Eating beside Ourselves: Thresholds of Foods and Bodies (2023). Heather was an area editor on the Oxford Companion to Cheese and served a 5-year term as co-editor of the journal Cultural Anthropology.