池上稻米產業在歷經WTO的衝擊下，由地方糧商發起的地理認證試圖由一條新的路徑來開闢台灣稻米產業的品質之路。然而，受限於台灣早期商標法中，「地名」不能做為商標的限制，鄉內糧商透過以「鄉徽」為商標的取徑，統一聯合對外代表「池上米」。但因辨識度不足，未能提高市場能見度而收場。之後，受惠於WTO中的智慧財產權規範，最終取得了以「地名」作為「地理認證」的標章權利。然而，「地名」由原先的公共財轉換為帶有商品性質的標的後，其權利分配，形成各方勢力斡旋的焦點。另一方面，在池上伴隨「地理認證」而來的是一套新的治理性的誕生。雖然池上米在地理認證成功後因獲得消費者認同，而使農民收入有所增加，但原先存在於糧商與農民之間的獲利分配問題並未解決。推動地理認證的事務官通過選舉成為鄉長，在鄉長任內積極處理池上稻米產業分配結構，再建構「農民―國家」的關係，也為農民對國家的想像創造了另一種路徑，並由此得到地方政治對其治理方式的高度認同。

Suffering from the impact of the WTO, the grain merchants of Chihshang Township strove to find a new model for rice purchasing and selling through geographical indication. However, early Taiwanese trademark laws forbade the use of location name for profit. To overcome this regulation, the Chihshang grain merchants united as one group to use the logo of Chihshang Township to represent their legal status, but due to the poor recognition of the Chihshang Township logo in the market, this plan failed. Later, due to the WTO including the protection of intellectual property rights as one important provision, the grain merchants ultimately benefited from Taiwan’s entrance and were able to register the term Chihshang for geographical indication. Once public property, the location name gained commodity-like characteristics, and different powers eagerly focused on how to distribute the new rights and profits. At the same time, a new governmentality was born after the registration of geographical indication. Although the income of Chihshang peasants increased due to the success of the “Chihshang brand,” the basic contradiction of profit distribution between grain merchants and peasants was not resolved. The officer who promoted the geographical indication effectively became the head of the township and actively dealt with the structural problem of distribution within the rice industry. This action re-articulated the peasants` imagination of state effect and helped him acquire the support of most townspeople and become the first person to run unopposed in the 2018 Chihshang township election.