Consuming the Earth? Terroir and Rural Sustainability

Terroir is a French concept suggesting that the qualities (and quality) of agricultural and rural products and services are determined by the physical and socio-cultural environment of their origin. In this paper, we refine the conceptualisation of terroir to clarify the integrated relationship between its physical-natural and socio-cultural constitutive domains through place, history and the senses. Using this reconceptualization, we theorise terroir's unique and powerful contribution to sustainability through the integration of place and sensory, visceral experience. In turn, we derive six propositions that describe the relationship between terroir and business actions, with clear implications for the sustainability of rural businesses and regions.