ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an agro-food network and process centred on quality production. It explores the contribution of the food certification strategy to sustainable rural development and to illustrate the complex relations between the local and the non-local in the certification process of a traditional local food product. The scientific/technical/managerial forms of knowledge support the local food for distant markets. Focusing on the types of political, economic and social interests in the midst of which the local food networks emerge, develop and consolidate, the debate identifies two perspectives within the European alternative agro-food context. The quality production system has to do with foods that conform to defined standards of quality regulation, by virtue of which they legitimise their presence in quality markets. It includes also foodstuffs that are accredited under European Union legislation, namely under the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) systems, as well as under national legislation schemes.
