New Meanings for Old Vegetables in Kyoto

Abstract

In 1987, chefs, farmers, scholars and government officials collaborated to designate thirty-seven varieties of produce as “traditional Kyoto vegetables.” The definition of traditional Kyoto vegetables provides a case study of how one community capitalized on national interest in nostalgia and gourmet food in the 1980s; however, this example also illustrates what happens when stakeholders subsequently disagree about the future of traditional food. Prefectural farmers, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives group and specialty greengrocers benefited from new marketing opportunities for traditional Kyoto vegetables and the high prices these foodstuffs garnered, while the same trends troubled many chefs and prompted city officials and urban farmers to coin alternative designations for local produce. At stake in this debate is not only how traditional local vegetables can be defined (and who benefits from that), but also the extent to which local foods reflect real communities of producers and consumers.