Globalization leads to development inequalities between the so-called favorable and marginal rural areas. On a generic market, the latter can hardly compete with favorable rural areas because they are generally less endowed with production factors, located far from the markets and often have poorly developed infrastructures and unfavorable natural conditions for production-oriented agriculture. To avoid price competition some marginal rural areas demonstrate capacity to redefine their development paths through endogenous development. This model relies on local resources to offer specific products and services. The present research focuses on cheese agrifood systems in mountain rural areas. Due to the strong symbolic dimension of such systems on the one hand, and the central role of collective organization on the other hand, the territorial approach developed in French-speaking literature seems valuable for the research. In particular, the concept of Localized Agrifood Systems (LAS) appears to be interesting. LAS corresponds to agrifood systems anchored in specific territories, defined as socially constructed, culturally marketed, and institutionally regulated spaces. They rely on territorial quality differentiation of food products, as an alternative to standardized production. This process mobilizes both material attributes related to intrinsic qualities of the product and symbolic attributes linked to the geographical origin. Territorial governance, which means coordination among heterogeneous local actors, ensures the process of differentiation and the construction of cheese reputation. At the same time, this process requires a specific demand related to a higher willingness to pay from consumers. These are the conditions needed to enable a process of territorial development, as it should result in a higher price and a fairer profit distribution and, therefore, in higher incomes and satisfaction of the local needs. In addition, territorial development considers f