As the United States has entered into free trade agreement-related discussions recently with the European Union, there\u2019s been a significant uproar over European proposals to eliminate usage of certain cheese-identifying terms in the States. We\u2019re talking about terms like \u201cBrie,\u201d which Americans use liberally to refer to any soft-ripened cheese, \u201cGouda\u201d to identify all sorts of hard or semi-hard cheese\/cheese products, and \u201cParmesan\u201d to refer to the grated stuff in the can.<\/p>\n
The Europeans are raising all this fuss over a type of intellectual property called \u201cGeographical Indications,\u201d or \u201cGIs\u201d for short. That legal area doesn\u2019t really manifest itself in the US\u2014the closest thing we\u2019ve got is trademark law. There are some agricultural products associated with certain geographical areas like \u201cFlorida Oranges\u201d or \u201cWashington Apples,\u201d but there aren\u2019t any stringent regulations on what exactly constitutes a \u201cFlorida orange.\u201d In contrast, in Europe, these GIs are often strictly regulated.<\/p>\n
In France, for instance, for a cheese to earn the Appelation d\u2019Origine Prot\u00e9g\u00e9e (AOP) label of \u201cCamembert,\u201d it must be made in a precisely defined region in Normandy (there\u2019s a list of each individual town in this region). The cows must be Normandy cows kept under specific circumstances (e.g., they must be pastured at least 6 months a year and the pastures must be of a certain size, depending on the herd), and dairy farmers are required to keep stringent records of each cow in her herd, subject to review. The cheese itself must meet strict production, physical, and gustatory standards. The milk must be raw. Since it\u2019s aged only 21 days, before the 60-day raw milk aging minimum imposed by the US, we can\u2019t buy true Camembert in the States. Let\u2019s pretend that we could, though, and that consumers could encounter AOP Camembert and any old soft-ripened cheese labeled \u201ccamembert\u201d in stores. From a consumer\u2019s perspective, seeing an AOP label cheese sends unambiguous signals that the cheese will meet specific quality, taste, and texture standards. It\u2019s a lot like branding. For instance, when you go have lunch at McDonald\u2019s, you are going to expect a certain quality and experience because you know the McDonald\u2019s brand. Same thing with these AOP cheeses\u2014if you buy a Camembert, you know how the animals were raised, what the cheese looks and tastes like, and where it\u2019s from. With this kind of quality guarantee, the Camembert can also be sold at a premium over another non-AOP cheese (which, by the way, MIGHT be delicious. You just don\u2019t know from the labels alone).<\/p>\n
Things are different in the States. There\u2019s no Designated Protection of Origin (DPO) regime. On the contrary, there\u2019s an abundance of creativity in cheese names and styles\u2014think Humboldt Fog, Wabash Cannonball, Tarentaise. There are, however, lots of those strictly protected European terms that have become generic terms in the States\u2014\u201cparmesan,\u201d \u201cbrie,\u201d \u201cfeta,\u201d \u201cgouda.\u201d As a result, all sorts of cheeses and \u201ccheese products\u201d are sold with these descriptors. Consequently, consumers, faced with a non-AOP \u201ccamembert\u201d and an AOP Camembert can\u2019t always tell what kind of qualities to expect based on labels alone. Or, in the case of Camembert, because true Camembert can\u2019t be sold in the States, consumers are more likely to associate some less tasty cheese with the name \u201ccamembert\u201d without having ever tasted the real, certified, deal. That\u2019s a big problem when the European agricultural industries have so painstakingly worked to identify, label, and protect their cheese making traditions.<\/p>\n
In some ways, the goals behind GIs are similar to those of trademark law. All around the world, businesses use their trademarks, such as logos, words, images, smells, sounds, symbols, etc. as a sort of business signature when communicating with consumers. People learn to recognize a company\u2019s trademarks and identify certain qualities and values with the company. However, in the case of GIs, we\u2019re talking about something broader – traditional food production – part of the larger scheme of traditional cultural expressions (which also includes traditional medicine, folk songs, traditional craftsmanship, rituals, crafts, and a whole lot more). Cheese producers in Europe want consumers to recognize the qualities of their cheeses based on labeling. Currently, some cheeses sold in the US are riding on the goodwill established by their European counterparts.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry to say, the US doesn\u2019t seem to be a great proponent of traditional cultural expressions in general, so I\u2019m not surprised that they\u2019re not warming to this cheese labeling debate. But I do think the US should be more sensitive to these issues. This debate isn\u2019t new; The Europeans have been fighting mighty hard for a long time to protect these terms and others.<\/p>\n
For me, the well-defined DPO cases are where I most easily swing in favor of the Europeans. But what about non-DPO words, like \u201cgouda\u201d or \u201ccheddar\u201d? Currently, I\u2019m going to have to side with the US. It\u2019s just impossible to enforce something that\u2019s not defined, or defined only by local customs. However, if Gouda does eventually gain DPO protection, then, I think North Americans should respect that and refrain from using the word. If the US ever develops a DPO regime, it would reasonable to ask for the Europeans to respect it as well. That way, we\u2019d get move closer to more transparent labeling for everyone!<\/p>\n
Practically, what would our cheese landscape look like if the US did<\/em> agree to curb use of these words? Cheese companies would have to come up with some new names for some of their products. Good luck trying to get everyone to agree on generic terms right off the bat. They\u2019d be better off using some creativity to give their cheese names some individuality. It would be costly to reeducate the public about a whole cheese vocabulary. Very. It would take a lot of time. It might not even work. People might cling to the terms they know. But if it were successful, there would be no confusion about the differences between Parmigiano-Reggiano and \u201cparmesan\u201d cheeses, where they come from, what they taste like.<\/p>\n The alternative is what we have today. I think sometimes cheese appreciation is lost in a lot of cases because people have come to associate poor \u201ccheese product\u201d substitutes with real cheese. Especially now that momentum seems to be building for more transparency in food production, the fact that cheese labeling and \u201ccheese product\u201d production is so unclear and acceptable surprises me.<\/p>\n Do the costs of implementing such a change in our cheese labeling outweigh the benefits? What benefits are there to American consumers? To American cheese companies? For now, the US is deciding that the costs of the change outweigh benefits. In the short term, costs would indeed be high as everyone transitioned. But in the long run, it could be a chance for the American cheese scene to redefine itself, quite literally, in developing a truly independent, vibrant lexicon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What’s all the fuss between the U.S. and E.U. around cheese names? Miss Cheesemonger jumps into the fray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":5642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[319,360],"coauthors":[325],"class_list":["post-5620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-community-culture","tag-global-cheese"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n