Capitalism, industrialisation and territorial identification: at first glance, the last of these terms seems completely incompatible with the two preceding ones. While the quest for profit and capital accumulation go hand in hand with the industrial organisation of production, the territorial identification of food products can, on the other hand, appear to be 'naturally' linked to artisanal production. Capitalism and industry, being endowed with ubiquity, would therefore seem to contradict the territorial identification of food products. Yet, in the latter half of the 19th century, some entrepreneurs managed to build a capitalist food industry model rooted in a single territory. It was thus that Roquefort - a village in the south of the French department of Aveyron, located along the edges of a limestone plateau, the Larzac, approximately 200 kilometres from Montpellier and 800 kilometres from Paris - went through a major capitalist and industrial revolution. In just a few decades, this poorly accessible village, built on a scree, became the factory town for affineurs of roquefort cheese. Was this a far cry from the rationality that is normally attributed to capitalism and industry?
