Crafting innovation: Continuity and change in the “living traditions” of contemporary artisan cheesemakers

Abstract

Artisan cheese enthusiasts often celebrate the preservation of tradition, while the marketplace in heritage foods pays a premium for products cast as traditional. But ethnographic research with cheesemakers revealed a complex dynamic between continuity and change. Practices that some considered essential to tradition were considered dispensable—even problematic—by others. While external forces compelled some changes, cheesemakers voluntarily—sometimes enthusiastically—embraced others. Cheesemakers sometimes saw new technologies as means of enhancing product quality, consumer safety, environmental sustainability, animal welfare or even crafting practice itself. Those dispensing with elements of tradition often saw doing so as essential to preserving other elements and, hence, continuity was sometimes the very justification for change. This article explores the varied ways in which artisan cheesemakers reconcile innovation and the conservation of tradition, and reveals the inventiveness of those who sustain “living traditions”.