To be fair if I bought a product advertised as “Australian made” I would expect it to be made in fuckin aus. The fact that they have their own special word for it is irrelevant to me. Most of the time the word for the thing is just the name of the place it’s from too. Not really their fault if the product gains more notoriety than the place.
Comment on Australia and EU on verge of striking free trade deal long stalled by beef, parmesan and prosecco
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 day ago
I fucking detest geographic indicators. How is parmesan from northern Italy meaningfully different from parmesan made in Victoria? I hope that point doesn’t get compromised on.
Fleur_@aussie.zone 1 day ago
Zagorath@aussie.zone 23 hours ago
The problem is when the region is the name of the product. That shouldn’t be allowed. Using words like “made in” should absolutely be protected and required to be honest, because anything else is dishonest marketing. But parmesan is a type of cheese, and the fact that it’s named after a region in Italy doesn’t change the fact that you can make exactly the same type of cheese in Victoria.
itsathursday@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
It’s definitely not a type of cheese. You only think that because you have seen so many imitations. The type is a hard crystalline structured cheese made in a wheel. Many have this profile, but when that’s made from the region with the methods perfected by the history of makers in that region with specific ingredients from that region (lots of history to get to the point where are now), then it’s known as Parmesan. Anyone else that eats a cheese similar to that specific cheese made elsewhere has had a copy, which while being similar, is not from that region and not Parmesan cheese. Globalisation doesn’t change a villages history or countries culture of identifying produce, and yes, that’s something worth protecting for them.
It’s like calling a Lepatata from Botswana a Dodgeridoo because they are both wind instruments. It’s their type of horn, like a Didgeridoo and you might call it a Didgeridoo, but it’s not. Most people would get what you mean but to the people that it matters to, you would be wrong.
In geopolitics and when it comes to free trade, respecting the history and origin of a product is diplomatic and the right thing to do, especially since the point of the trade deal is to exchange these goods. Once actual Parmesan hits shelves more freely, it shouldn’t have to be labelled as “real” Parmesan, or vice versa with the local produce because it just doesn’t make sense in the context of the thing you are talking about.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 19 hours ago
It’s like calling a Lepatata from Botswana a Didgeridoo because they are both wind instruments
No, it’s not. It’s like calling a didgeridoo made in Botswana a didgeridoo. Which would be fair, because that’s what it would be. A didgeridoo has a different shape to a lepatata. Saying that any two woodwind instruments are the same is absurd.
Australia already has plenty of parmesan cheese on the shelves. If parmesan from Parma is a superior product, it can succeed on its own merits. Government crony capitalism protecting it shouldn’t be forced on us to make it succeed.
Take the chocolate example I made above. In addition to the countries I listed, you can also sell chocolate as being “made in America”. And because of the reputation, I would avoid the American chocolate and buy the Swiss or Belgian chocolate. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to call their product what it is.
This is just yet another shitty example of the EU forcing its protectionism onto the rest of the world while claiming to be a bastion of free markets and capitalism. The hypocrisy is laughable. And even more laughable is the amount of people who back them up on it.
wieson@feddit.org 1 day ago
What are the ingredients? The cattle breeds of Emilia Romana, the grass that grows there and the water.
I would gladly try aged cheese from Victoria. Called it “Grand Victorious” or “Old Swan Stater” or whatever you like.
But it’s not parmigiano reggiano.
teslekova@sh.itjust.works 22 minutes ago
We can make it from all those things here in Australia. I am quite happy to make the requirements for the name just as strict as in Europe, as long as it isn’t an arbitrary geographic decision.
Geobloke@aussie.zone 1 hour ago
Would cheddar made in Parma be parma cheese? Would any other type of cheese have to specify that it isn’t parmesan?
Zagorath@aussie.zone 22 hours ago
Yes, it is. Some dumb fuck ultra conservative European laws don’t change that. Australian law doesn’t currently protect the name, and I can go out right now and buy parmesan cheese that wasn’t made in Italy.
The law changing would make it illegal to keep doing that, but it wouldn’t change reality. Reality being that the type of cheese they sell today is the same as the type of cheese they’re selling in the future.
beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 22 hours ago
Beer, wine, cheese, etc all come from the ingredients and one of those ingredients is usually the water… Which you cannot get the same taste and profile no matter how much you try, unless you’re in the region where it comes from.
Ship it if you want to use it in your cheese
Zagorath@aussie.zone 18 hours ago
If they think their ingredients are so much superior than the same product made elsewhere, they should be fine with calling it “parmesan from Parma”. As it is, in places that respect this form of intellectual property, they’re essentially given a state-backed artificial monopoly that props them up more than their product can earn on its own merits.
wieson@feddit.org 20 hours ago
I appreciate your fervour, and I too want Australia and the EU to grow closer and to have a strong foundation of middle powers and free democracies.
Just a short idea about “you can call it parmesan made in northern Italy”. You might want to look up, where the city of Parma is located, from which the cheese gets its name.
I don’t think our countries’ relationship should break on this rock. But just my perspective: I think it’s a battle of culture vs. capitalsm. To the people of Parma, the Parmigiano cheese means quite a lot. If I found out, there was a big cheese maker in my area, I honestly would rather he represented my region in the name, than some Italian region to get a bit more profit.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 18 hours ago
Why would you think I need to look anything up?
I think you’re right that capitalism is involved. But the capitalists are the ones rigidly trying to enforce one of the most ludicrous types of intellectual property. If someone says “parmesan cheese” or “champagne”, I don’t care where it was made. I care about the qualities of the product itself. Which can be made anywhere. All that happens when they restrict it is they’re artificially supporting businesses in one area by giving them a state-sponsored monopoly on an entire class of product.
It’s not super different from trademarks. And while I’m not necessarily in favour of the total abolition of trademarks, I am in favour of legal genericisation being much, much easier. Velcro, frisbee, and bandaid, for example, are so obviously genericised now in practice, they should be legally. Words like parmesan and champagne are no different. Indeed, geographic indicators are always like this, because they by definition can’t be limited in the way a true trademark is.
If the people of Parma believe their parmesan is superior, they should be able to survive by calling it “parmesan made in Parma”. And if they didn’t want their region’s name to be part of the generic name for the product…they shouldn’t have insisted on conflating their region with the type of cheese in the first place.