The prominence of provenance and place – ‘terroir’ – P0030
in new constructions of quality has received further impetus from the parallel, closely related rise of ethical
consumption, and a ‘moral imaginary’ of food which
encompasses ecological sustainability, social justice, cultural integrity, and animal welfare, for example. This has
certainly been the case with transnationally sourced fair
trade foods, such as coffee, and is encapsulated in the sodescribed novel ‘moral economy’ created by the discursive and material producer–consumer connections
that characterize fair trade networks. Here, moral geographies work to stitch together the various ‘poor’ places
of production in the underdeveloped South with those of
the ‘spectacular’ places of consumption in the North in
the name of transnational development for small-farmer
communities. Price premiums and guaranteed price
floors mix with the emplaced solidarity images of farmers
to facilitate a ‘developmental consumption’ that allows
Northern consumers the opportunity to convert their
‘labor’ of choosing fair trade goods into on-the-ground
Third World development. This morally charged ‘charm
offensive’ of developmental consumption is echoed in
Northern AFN discourses in the precepts of consuming
to support the livelihoods of small farmers, rural communities, and ecological farming through the purchase of
organic and local foods.