Organic Resistance: The Struggle Over Industrial Farming in Postwar France

Author/Contributor(s):	Bivar, Venus
Publisher:	University of North Carolina Press
Date:	03/12/2018
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

"The concept of terroir (the unique quality that a particular habitat imparts to food) and practices of organic farming are essential to the image of French food and are assumed to have developed alongside a left-leaning political tradition. However, as Venus Bivar reveals, the origins of organic farming and food actually lie with the far right. This book narrates the rise of organic farming in France, showing the dark side of the concept of terroir that became an inspiration to farmers, chefs, and taste-makers worldwide. As Bivar demonstrates, many of the earliest proponents of organic agriculture had ties to the fascist politics of Vichy and the eugenics movement. Quality for these white Catholic men was about purity and the regeneration of the French race through a superior organic diet"--