No subject

of days, it seems to spring from a desire to protect
certain products. The question is does the product exist
outside that region or does the name denote a method or
type of product. And if an ethnic group fled from
the homeland and took how they made the product with them
to the new world why can't they also have the name?
It also seems to be a blow against
the mighty US food companies too as they are the ones
that are going to be most bothered. It's going to also
strike certain small producers of things like the speciality cheeses.
If it goes to the WTO, who knows?

The EU went through that Euroterroirs project where foods
were inventoried  and listed. Remember?
(This resulted in those very nice books by
Laura Mason on The Traditional Foods of Britain and
Cathal Cowan and Regina Sexton's work Ireland's Traditional Foods
in 1997 for the GEIE/ Euroterroirs project.)

I find it all rather interesting anyway given our recent
mullings over sandwich names and regional foods.

Here's another website that talks about it--

http://www.euroterroirs.com/en/terroir.htm

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway




"Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius" wrote:
>
> Also sprach johnna holloway:
> >If they were to completely succeed, no U.S. manufacturer
> >  would be able to use the names of the 600 products, including the
> >cheeses
> >   Parmesan, Grana Padano, Roquefort, provolone, Romano,
> >  Asiago, Gorgonzola, Fontina or dozens of lesser-known names. Nor could
> >they call their products Parma ham or balsamic vinegar.
>
> OK, so what region does the name balsamic describe? (knowing the
> answer, just pointing out that that particular example doesn't hold
> water).
>
> Maybe some Italian-American pig farmer could copyright and apply for
> trademark registration on porco. After all, it _is_ a regional
> food... The EU will just have to come up with a different name. We'll
> own it now. How about chevre cheese? Will the fine people of Chevre
> object?
>
> So is this in response to the extant and fairly comprehensive rules
> and standards of identity preventing this sort of thing in the US, or
> has there been some relaxation of the rules? I've seen American
> prosciutto, but never Prosciutto di Parma made in America. Ditto
> Parmigiano cheese, and never alleged Parmigiano-Reggiano made in the
> US. Romano (well, they can keep that anyway). Apart from the Cheddar
> referenced in the article (and US Cheddar has been known as Cheddar
> outside of that particular English neighborhood for almost as long as
> it has been in the UK), and Champagne, which American champagne
> clearly is not, how much income is being lost to EU manufacturers and
> suppliers because of this practice, and how much will it gain to play
> the name game?
>
> Adamantius
>