It’s wrong, I know, I’m a terrible person, but I sort of love the idea of our true blue Aussie wogs going to war with a bunch of Eurocrats over cheese naming rights, which are holding up a hundred billion-dollar trade deal with the EU.
A proud dual citizen, Melbourne-based Mr Linguanti seamlessly blends his two cultures, using recipes from Italy and milk from Australia to make bundles of creamy burrata, bite-sized balls of bocconcini and shavings of parmesan, among other varieties, at his factory in Thomastown.
But two decades after he left Italy, the founder of That's Amore Cheese fears bureaucrats in Brussels could be about to rob him of his deep cultural links to his homeland.
"I come from Italy, I'm making cheeses exactly like they're made in Italy so of course I would be upset.
"It's our identity."
At issue is EU demands for a deal on so-called geographical indications (GI) to protect the names of distinctive European products.
Both New Zealand and Canada have capitulated to the EU on this thorny issue, giving up the rights to the names "prosecco" and "feta" in their recent trade deals.
But Australia's Trade Minister Don Farrell isn't budging, arguing Australia, as a nation of immigrants, shares the Europeans' emotional attachment to these products.
Ooooh i bet that was a hard one for the kiwis to take considering they lost out on the whole manuka naming rights with Aus recently. . . . . . We should just capitulate as well and make it an opportunity to take the piss. This kind of thing always reminds me of when Aldi first started out and they put out a chocolate bar that was basically a bounty but they called them a Mutiny bar. That's some grade A piss taking there. Can i also add that the copy editing (hope that is the right term) at the ABC is appalling lately - i read one article that switched titles of two different people from Ms BlahBlah to Mr BlahBlah to Ms BlahBlah and back again - it was bloody hard to read. As i was rereading i was trying to figure out if it was a story about two people or four lol
Yeah, I work in local government and really want to add my personal pronouns (which are hey/you) to my email signature but am worried I'll offend someone 😎
Well, we lost the right to call wines champagne, burgundy or chablis, then it was decided that our stuff is better quality than the French varieties anyway. So let's see what happens to the feta, parmesan and prosecco!
They got away with Champagne, Burgundy and Chablis because those are in fact the names of places (towns) in France. Not the case with Prosecco or Feta, and only maybe with Parmesan (i.e., "as in Parma").
I doubt that there's much additional trade either way: Europe is a long way away. I reckon we should hold out a bit longer. Hold our breath until we turn blue, as they say. Perhaps a bit of foot-stamping into the bargain.
Yeah, but the whole deal is about geographical association with the designated food. Arguably, and this is the argument, champagne had become, or was at risk of becoming, linked only with the dry, fizzy alcohol, and not a region that had a huge economical interest in being linked to the alcohol.
Chicken and egg, especially if that is a chicken from Kiev, I'd say.
These regions are seeking trade protection. Good luck to them, too. Lots and lots of buyers of wine want to know that they're buying a Cabernet Sauvignon and have no idea what a Burgundy wine is. Let's see if Australian dry aged crumbly cheese wins out over parmagianno reggiano/pecorino/grana-padano.
Well humanity has come to blows over dumber things. Keeping with the Italian theme above for example Guerra della secchia rapita or War of the Oaken Bucket comes to mind.
Australian cheese manufacturers are really up against it anyway, because our over-cautious health bureaucracy won't let them use natural fermentation: we only get a choice of twelve types of approved bacterium. We can import Roquefort now, but we can't make it ourselves (legally) (or anything like it, but with an Australian name...)
What I found disturbing though is that according to the EU, Oz is building the bomb. Why else would you import 7B worth of reactors? And who's the perve who has bought nearly 2M in whips and canes???? https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/australia
Ooooh i bet that was a hard one for the kiwis to take considering they lost out on the whole manuka naming rights with Aus recently. . . . . . We should just capitulate as well and make it an opportunity to take the piss. This kind of thing always reminds me of when Aldi first started out and they put out a chocolate bar that was basically a bounty but they called them a Mutiny bar. That's some grade A piss taking there. Can i also add that the copy editing (hope that is the right term) at the ABC is appalling lately - i read one article that switched titles of two different people from Ms BlahBlah to Mr BlahBlah to Ms BlahBlah and back again - it was bloody hard to read. As i was rereading i was trying to figure out if it was a story about two people or four lol
Some people like to choose their pronouns, while others like to keep their options open.
Yeah, I work in local government and really want to add my personal pronouns (which are hey/you) to my email signature but am worried I'll offend someone 😎
Well, we lost the right to call wines champagne, burgundy or chablis, then it was decided that our stuff is better quality than the French varieties anyway. So let's see what happens to the feta, parmesan and prosecco!
They got away with Champagne, Burgundy and Chablis because those are in fact the names of places (towns) in France. Not the case with Prosecco or Feta, and only maybe with Parmesan (i.e., "as in Parma").
I doubt that there's much additional trade either way: Europe is a long way away. I reckon we should hold out a bit longer. Hold our breath until we turn blue, as they say. Perhaps a bit of foot-stamping into the bargain.
Yeah, but the whole deal is about geographical association with the designated food. Arguably, and this is the argument, champagne had become, or was at risk of becoming, linked only with the dry, fizzy alcohol, and not a region that had a huge economical interest in being linked to the alcohol.
Chicken and egg, especially if that is a chicken from Kiev, I'd say.
These regions are seeking trade protection. Good luck to them, too. Lots and lots of buyers of wine want to know that they're buying a Cabernet Sauvignon and have no idea what a Burgundy wine is. Let's see if Australian dry aged crumbly cheese wins out over parmagianno reggiano/pecorino/grana-padano.
Well humanity has come to blows over dumber things. Keeping with the Italian theme above for example Guerra della secchia rapita or War of the Oaken Bucket comes to mind.
Yeah, let's get them rubbed down in olive oil, and get a cage match setup
Surely that will be, or become, shavings of parmOzan...
Oh. My. God.
We should bring out the big guns and threaten those uppity Europeans with exports of large quantities of Dick Cheese.
Lighting the fire, I see! Possibly using the good old Dick Head Matches (I wish I had kept a box of those!)
I did
Australian cheese manufacturers are really up against it anyway, because our over-cautious health bureaucracy won't let them use natural fermentation: we only get a choice of twelve types of approved bacterium. We can import Roquefort now, but we can't make it ourselves (legally) (or anything like it, but with an Australian name...)
Wasn’t that how WW1 started?
Is it that bad there won't be Oz made Brie? Call it Billabong Cheese and everybody is happy. Hell look at what Oz producers did with wine ... In more then one occasion superior to French ones. So if you can't join them, beat them. (figures: https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/countries-and-regions/australia_en )
What I found disturbing though is that according to the EU, Oz is building the bomb. Why else would you import 7B worth of reactors? And who's the perve who has bought nearly 2M in whips and canes???? https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/australia