before this year , Atlanta mag take to the woods an infographic ofdining terms that want to go away . Among them : " farm to table " ( " You and McDonald ’s both " quipped the writer ) , " artificer " ( " As convincing as silver at a flea market " ) and " hand gash " ( " Is your name Wolverine ? " ) .
A few class ago , " artificer " might have entail something . " Artisan tall mallow " conjured up images of a farmer making Armerican cheddar by hand a few peck at a time at her farm . But there is no USDA definition for the term , as there is for " organic " . ( Merriam - Websterdefines " artificer " as " one that produces something ( as cheese or wine-coloured ) in limited quantities often using traditional methods . " ) When Tostitos ' Artisan Recipes tortilla chips are for sale , you have to wonder if the word has any meaning impart . During the years 2008 - 2013 , about1,000 new productsincorporated the full term " artisanal " in their labels , include such supercilium - raise offerings as Dunkin ' Donuts ' artisan bagels and the artisan grill chicken sandwich at McDonald ’s .
Of naturally , for most of chronicle , solid food was " hired hand - made " because mill did not exist . But when industrialized food became the average , it was deal as being good because it was scientifically made . " take care at food ads from the 1950s , and it ’s about [ being ] scientific — that was the cultural capital , " says Tom O’Guinn , merchandising prof at the University of Wisconsin - Madison . " That [ lasted until ] the sixties and 1970s . Then we ’re haunt with authenticity . "
He likens it to the merchandising of blue jean . " First blue jean were utilitarian . Then designer . Then robotically perfect . Then you had ripped , rhinestone constellate jeans at ridiculous prices because of their imperfections . So you may mass - produce eggs and cheese and have them utterly unvarying , eminent lineament . But it ’s not nerveless because they ’re too perfect . "
No one knows for sure when " artisanal " first appeared on food intersection . But"craft beer"made its debut in the mid-1980s . And " farm - to - mesa " ? That was Alice Waters of the restaurant Chez Panisse who , in the 1970s , started the vogue of link up diners with their food sources bylisting the namesof contributing farms on her computer menu .
Initially , artisanal product were crack up by people with a little supernumerary money who wanted to demonstrate their higher-ranking taste and societal status , says O’Guinn . " It ’s a neat affair for marketers , because it ’s a great way to differentiate things . To make differences that may not be meaningful at all , " he notes . low-toned - income folks were stick to with inexpensive items like canned veggies and squishy white dinero . But as the artisanal trend caught fire , it quickly propagate .
Samuel Adams , which offered its first beer in 1985 , is often advert as one of the nation ’s earlier craft brewer . But by 2014 the companionship was shipping4.1 million barrels of beerannually , which hardly seems craft - comparable . According to the accepted definition of foxiness beer , indite by the Brewers Association , " craft " can be applied to any beer with a 6 - million - gun barrel - or - less annual production volume . So Sam Adams does make the cut . Of course , that 6 - million figure sat at 2 million just a few long time ago;it was raisedwhen Sam Adams — a revered industry loss leader — go over the limit .
The " specialty solid food " category , which admit artisanal offerings , turn nearly 22 percentfrom 2013 to 2015 , as U.S. sales of specialty foods ( cheese and coffee tree were the top two categories ) hit $ 120.5 billion in 2015 . And by 2015 , America ’s craft brewers had becharm 12 pct of the overall beer mart by book ; in 2010 , their share was just4.9 percent . No wonder Sam Adams is hanging on to its " craft " tag .
But the heyday of these lofty food for thought label may be on its way out . O’Guinn asserts that when such furor spread across the class , taste and income stratum — call back of that " artisan " McDonald ’s sandwich — the labels intend to secern products end up meaningless . And thus lose their power . In plus , the consumers who initially bosom these monikers wrench to something young and on the face of it better .
" Now you have to find something else to interchange ' artisanal , ' " O’Guinn says . " No one know what that will be . But it will come . " He ’s thinking it might have something to do with vegetarianism .
