Affective values of cheese: exploring producer sentiments of 'felt value' in Tasmania's artisanal cheese industry

This article investigates producers’ sentiments of ‘felt value’ used to convey the sense of value of artisanal cheeses. Focusing on producers’ perspectives, the article explores three key windows into the affective value of cheese—storytelling, embodiment, and validation—as the settings where producers ‘felt value’ is attributed to products and conveyed to consumers. Ethnographic research was conducted in the Australian state of Tasmania between mid-2022 and early 2023 and included site visits and open-ended interviews with artisanal cheesemakers. This study emphasises the importance of subjectivity in the food narrative by highlighting how storytelling and the embodiment in associated cheesemaking activities can potentially add value to and validate the products of food producers. The article answers the following question: How do artisanal cheesemakers convey the ‘felt value’ they associate with their cheese? Acknowledging the role that producers’ sentiments of felt value play in the production and selling of food provides a critical perspective needed to understand how producers’ narratives capture consumer attention.<p></p>