Fabio Parasecoli

Knowing Where It Comes From invites us to analyze and reflect on the changes and the future of place-based labels. It offers us a wide-angle view of the different tools that have been created to keep food linked to their place of origin and how their ripples affect everyone involved.
The first chapters introduce geographical indications and their implementations under the mark-based and sui generis systems: what they are, how they came to be, characteristics, interactions, pros and cons, evolution, controversies and potential impact. The last three chapters focus on other contributors that have a more human-centered approach without intellectual property rights implicated.

What I specially enjoyed about this book is how Parasecoli organized and threaded the concepts and examples, making them flow naturally from one chapter to the next. I also liked that it is filled with case studies from around the world, this helps the reader build a well-informed opinion based on how the historical, cultural, political, economical, social and legal aspects interact with each other and how they differ from case to case.

If expository writing is not your cup of tea, this book might not be for you, but if you like books that are well backed-up, approach a subject from different angles and make unbiased comments, I recommend you this book. As a tip, if you haven’t heard about place-based labels before, familiarizing with the basics would make the book appear less daunting at the beginning. But even if you don’t, it doesn’t take long to understand and get fully immersed in the subject.

Disclaimer: I received this e-ARC through NetGalley… (más)