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I mean.. great and all that we are growing closer to Australia, free movement and trade are wonderful. But we really dont't need to ship stuff all around the globe for the sake of trading. We have beef in Europe and Australia can make our cheese if we send them the recipe.
I'm very much an eu fanboy and love this. I'm so sad that my dual citizenship with the UK no longer gets me EU status. I hope EU people love Australia too, though I do know of that one French Lemmy cooker who hates us with a firey passion God bless him. Fighting the good fight mate!
As an Aussie i wish that we were closer and were invited to join in the EU itself.
No fucking way would the general public go for it though
Yo!
Chuck in some French Subs and you got yourself a deal!
While I wholly understand that free trade is a good thing, I can't help but notice the immense amount of CO2 needed to produce and ship a bunch of beef from Australia to the EU and vice versa.
Also, this is probably in part an attempt to secure non-US/Russian gas supplies long term.
And the EU wants a a rare earth supplier other than China
You mean that plus the fuck tonne of CO2 cows already produced.
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.
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. Call it "Grand Victorious" or "Old Swan Stater" or whatever you like.
But it's not parmigiano reggiano.
But it’s not parmigiano reggiano
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.
edit:
Let me put it this way: parmesan is a type of cheese. Think of it like "milk chocolate". I could buy milk chocolate made in Switzerland, or in Belgium, or the UK, or here in Australia. Differences in ingredients and the sources of those ingredients would all affect the ultimate taste and texture of the chocolate. But they don't change the fact that it is chocolate. There's no good reason that cheese and wine should be any different, except for nationalism and conservatism. If you want to call it "parmesan made in northern Italy", be my guest. And that should be protected, because "made in X" is a clear descriptor, and you shouldn't be allowed to lie about things like that. But the name of the product itself should not allow some conservative fucks half a world away to have special privileges. And a so-called "free trade" agreement shouldn't be honouring those strict restrictions on the act of free trade.
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.
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.
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.
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.
TFW Parma, Champagne are places
Soon you'll say Scotch Whisky can be made in Adelaide.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You are conflating the produce “cheese” with a specific cheese product made in a specific place. You can make cheese where ever you want, but it won’t ever be from that place unless it’s from that place, that’s how the naming scheme works. The name isn’t that name because they named it and gave it a label, the name is the name because it’s where it came from. The only compromise that would make what you are saying more accurate would be to say that all cheese you are taking about outside of the Parma region is “Parma style” cheese.
Trade works both ways, so if the Victorian cheese you are talking about gets its way to Parma shelves, then it’s a mislabelled product.
No, I'm pointing out that one particular style of cheese has been conflated by the region. But parmesan cheese is a style of cheese. You wouldn't start calling a smooth, creamy, yellow cheese "parmesan" just because it was made in Parma. No, that's still gouda. Likewise, a hard granular aged cheese doesn't become gouda when you make it in the town of Gouda. In fact, if that was true, I'd probably have more respect for the geographic indications. If any style of cheese was Parmesan when made in Parma, then the word "Parmesan" would be an accurate adjective worthy of protection, in the same way I'm saying "Belgian chocolate" should be protected for chocolate made in Belgium. But they insist on saying it's one specific style of cheese. But they want you to only call it by the name of the style of cheese that it is if it's also made there. No thanks.
The name belongs to the style, and the EU's protectionist policies don't change that fact.
"British Sausage"?
"Australian Parmesan"?
"Yes, Minister" has already covered this ground...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpNY2KfF92k