Can't they just oh, I don't know, clearly mark the production origin of the product? Instead of flat out banning the naming of it? It's kind of like how over the past few years I've started to noticed things saying "now made with real <insert item here>". Just make it blatantly obvious that the Parmesan cheese that I'm purchasing comes from wherever and we can all be happy.
The EU, and by that I mean France, is deeply, deeply protectionist of its agriculture. It took the EU 11 years to decide on naming conventions for wine amongst EU countries - never mind export outside the eurozone. Its agricultural bloc is heavily subsidized and enjoys heavy foreign tariffs and extensive domestic subsidies. The whole "France hates our cheese/we're mean to the French cheesemakers" thing boils down to this: That's about the time you say "Only ze Franch no ze treu meaning of ze Brie!" before Wisconsin eats your lunch."Actually, just last year, the U.S. became the largest single country exporter of cheese in the world," she says.
France is what, the second largest exporter of agricultural products to the United States? It is a deeply-agricultural country, no doubt about that and many of the farms (at least in northern France) are family-owned and operated. I suppose this makes sense and any food that takes the name of something produced in France usually pales in comparison. "French" bread baked in America is generally a travesty. You could say the same thing about Brie, I suppose. Oh and hard cider. I was wondering if restricting name usage actually changes anything in terms of imports/exports and production and did some research into champagne. Looks like it does make a significant difference. Huh.
Changes things a crapton. The fact that the United States is the only country that attempts to call sparkling wine "champagne" has caused deep trade rifts. It's also limited American access to legit "sparkling wine" - I've had sparkling merlot, sparkling shiraz and sparkling something else and they were all australian, all delicious and all never seen again.
To be fair, this is for extremely good reason. The US is currently wrecking havoc on Latin American countries with its cheap-ass corn exports.Its agricultural bloc is heavily subsidized and enjoys heavy foreign tariffs and extensive domestic subsidies
It's perhaps getting off topic from the OP, and I can't say my knowledge of global agriculture is great. That said, my impression of the US food policy has been more one of economic aggression. Corn subsidies here have resulted in us off-loading excess onto other countries, throwing heavy a wrench into foreign markets.
Well, some of it is because of the EU's Protected Designations of Origin, where things like Parmesan cheese can't be called as such unless it's from Parma, Italy (Otherwise it's probably Grana Padano), or Champagne from Champagne, France. I think that the fact people are upset over people's use of Brie (a non PDO item) is silly, but I do think that Americans should do more labelling of their own cheeses. There's a difference between the Brie made here and in Europe, so celebrate it!
Like they did with Feta in greece years ago? because here in denmark, locally produced feta must be labeled "salad cheese" and not feta unless it comes directly from greece even though the product is almost exactly the same (greek tastes better though). pretty stupid IMO.
I guess I can see the point, though I don't agree in every case. Here in the US, the population was established by waves of immigration and I think that it's great that so many food ways have been imported into the country, though they've really only taken root in places with high concentrations of various ethnic or cultural populations. I'd be fine purchasing "American Feta", but honestly if a whole lot of names were to be changed at once, it would be really confusing.