Dive Brief:
- Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is meeting with his counterparts in Europe this week to talk about the use of "geographical indicators" that limit food imports.
- At issue are European Union rules that say that foods like feta cheese and Black Forest ham are specific to certain European regions. Food made overseas and sold as, for example, muenster or bologna, is banned.
- Vilsack has the backing of Congress in his efforts to roll back the bans. Both the House and Senate have voiced opposition to Europe's use of geographical indicators to limit imports.
Dive Insight:
To American consumers, this sort of arguments sound silly. Parmesan cheese is parmesan cheese, no matter where it comes from. But in Europe, there's considerable support to keep food processing local and, for some foods, artisanal.
It's also worth nothing that some overseas companies are now seeking to impose similar, although not geographical, limits on what is and is not a particular food. Sabra, for example, wants federal regulators to ban the use of "hummus" to describe bean spreads that are made with something other than chickpeas.
