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You can use the same recipes in Australia as in Greece. Ingredients could be tricky, but let's assume that you can make sheep milk in Australia that has the sam

You can use the same recipes in Australia as in Greece. Ingredients could be tricky, but let's assume that you can make sheep milk in Australia that has the same properties as Greek sheep milk. Then why should it matter where the feta has been manufactured?

dopidopHN 5y ago
Cybernetic again, cheese is more than the sum of its part. I’m only half joking. Plus, for some recipe the food that the cow ate and the altitude do make a difference in the output. I’m all for other places making cheese and whatnot. But when you buy the said cheese to find the exact taste you know since childhood, and that you miss in the exotic land you are living as a adult… You can be picky on the product. I want the Madeleine de Proust. Not a taste-a-like. Those labels help me do that. If I want the real deal I will buy it and the label will help me archive that goal. ( not always, see below ) If I feel adventurous, I have nothing against trying other cheeses. Some are good, some might event be identical to the label-cheese. I’m open to that. Furthermore, and tangentially related … folk should be open to the idea that some produce don’t travel well. They just don’t. My favorite cheese is embarrassingly bad when I found the official label in the US. The taste is more sauer and the consistency different. It’s just sad.( to eat )
- anoncake 5y ago
  You ignored > but let's assume that you can make sheep milk in Australia that has the same properties as Greek sheep milk.
  - alkonaut 5y ago
    That’s still just a property of the physical product. That’s just half the story. The important thing is keeping the production in the original region. So I want it to have the competitive advantage of the name. As a consumer I want my money to support the producers in the original location, which is easier if I know that the name means it’s produced there. Note that zero of these arguments have anything to do with quality or whether I could even distinguish the product from one made elsewhere. That’s secondary.
  - dopidopHN 5y ago
    I thought it was encompass in « more than the sum of its part ». The milk is core, the process is key, the conservation and timing is deceptively important. You might feed the same breed of cow the same altitude grass, at the same season… and still end up with a different product. But I see your point, and I think it’s a reasonable one. It’s possible to duplicate a cheese making process and be successful ( or wine: California comes to mind ) But that might be tricky, and maybe i don’t want to be disappointed so I will go with the Geographical indicators label. It’s a safe bet. A sister response to my earlier comment bring a good point. Sometime you want to patronize a particular region for sentimental reasons.
    - anoncake 5y ago
      Valid point. If the conditions in a given region actually make it impossible to replicate Greek Feta – then you just can't make Feta there. However, it might make sense to allow some leeway to avoid unnecessary shipping. Not very relevant in Macedonia, but if an Australian gets Feta from Greece instead of a local substitute which is close enough for most customers that should be an explicit decision on their part. In any case, you can still look at the "made in..." label to determine the product's origin.
  - ginko 5y ago
    As a customer, why would I assume this? It's one thing for an Australian cheese maker to write 'feta' on their product because they think it's similar enough to the Greek cheese and another of it actually being similar. As a customer the only way to find out would be to buy it and try it out. I don't want to have to go through the fine print on the packaging when all I want is some feta cheese for my greek salad. For the record, I usually buy Turkish sheep's milk cheese because I like it better than feta cheese, but I very much prefer that those are clearly labelled differently so I can tell them apart.
alkonaut 5y ago
Because I as a consumer buy more than the sum of the ingredients. I don’t want to buy a product that’s indistinguishable from the product made in the original location. I want to buy the priduct made there. One reason is that I want to support the production there, as it would be a tragedy if (say) Parmesan producers in Italy were out competed by producers in the US (again, regardless of quality or properties of the product).
- rhn_mk1 5y ago
  What would make that a tragedy? If the production of Parmesan in Italy is an important cultural phenomenon, then it can be preserved using other means, even non-economical ones.
  - alkonaut 5y ago
    It seems more genuine to have it remain a business/industry and not a museum. I quite like having genuine Parmesan from the right place. I’m happy to see any amount of ham fisted protectionism to keep it that way too. So to me it’s an easy win.
    - dantheman 5y ago
      So all you have to do is look at where it where it was made on the label -- is that too difficult?
      - alkonaut 5y ago
        > So all you have to do is look at where it where it was made on the label -- is that too difficult? Apparently yes. Otherwise why would anyone insist on this? I’m also not at all against seeing the entire new world having to eat “Parmesan style cheese” just to reinforce my own feeling of old-world superiority (I’m half joking, but you get the point of why this may be a thing)
        rhn_mk1 5y ago
iso1210 5y ago
Lets assume you can make a trainer in exactly the same way as Adidas do, can you stick Adidas on the side? No, it's a trademark. That's effectively what PGI is, and unlike patents and copyright, trademarks have a direct benefit to the consumer (they know what they are getting. Nobody is stopping people buying a Gutchy handbag, but the selling can't pass it off as Gucci) Same with "100% Florida orange juice" or "Idaho potatoes". I can buy "Southern Style Whiskey" and that's fine, but if I see "Tennessee whiskey" I am assured it's made in Tennessee. That may be important for me, it may not be, but I have the power.
- anoncake 5y ago
  > Lets assume you can make a trainer in exactly the same way as Adidas do, can you stick Adidas on the side? I absolutely should. What I obviously shouldn't be allowed to do is claim it's actually made by Adidas.

dopidopHN 5y ago

Cybernetic again, cheese is more than the sum of its part. I’m only half joking. Plus, for some recipe the food that the cow ate and the altitude do make a difference in the output. I’m all for other places making cheese and whatnot. But when you buy the said cheese to find the exact taste you know since childhood, and that you miss in the exotic land you are living as a adult… You can be picky on the product. I want the Madeleine de Proust. Not a taste-a-like. Those labels help me do that. If I want the real deal I will buy it and the label will help me archive that goal. ( not always, see below ) If I feel adventurous, I have nothing against trying other cheeses. Some are good, some might event be identical to the label-cheese. I’m open to that. Furthermore, and tangentially related … folk should be open to the idea that some produce don’t travel well. They just don’t. My favorite cheese is embarrassingly bad when I found the official label in the US. The taste is more sauer and the consistency different. It’s just sad.( to eat )

anoncake 5y ago
You ignored > but let's assume that you can make sheep milk in Australia that has the same properties as Greek sheep milk.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  That’s still just a property of the physical product. That’s just half the story. The important thing is keeping the production in the original region. So I want it to have the competitive advantage of the name. As a consumer I want my money to support the producers in the original location, which is easier if I know that the name means it’s produced there. Note that zero of these arguments have anything to do with quality or whether I could even distinguish the product from one made elsewhere. That’s secondary.
- dopidopHN 5y ago
  I thought it was encompass in « more than the sum of its part ». The milk is core, the process is key, the conservation and timing is deceptively important. You might feed the same breed of cow the same altitude grass, at the same season… and still end up with a different product. But I see your point, and I think it’s a reasonable one. It’s possible to duplicate a cheese making process and be successful ( or wine: California comes to mind ) But that might be tricky, and maybe i don’t want to be disappointed so I will go with the Geographical indicators label. It’s a safe bet. A sister response to my earlier comment bring a good point. Sometime you want to patronize a particular region for sentimental reasons.
  - anoncake 5y ago
    Valid point. If the conditions in a given region actually make it impossible to replicate Greek Feta – then you just can't make Feta there. However, it might make sense to allow some leeway to avoid unnecessary shipping. Not very relevant in Macedonia, but if an Australian gets Feta from Greece instead of a local substitute which is close enough for most customers that should be an explicit decision on their part. In any case, you can still look at the "made in..." label to determine the product's origin.
- ginko 5y ago
  As a customer, why would I assume this? It's one thing for an Australian cheese maker to write 'feta' on their product because they think it's similar enough to the Greek cheese and another of it actually being similar. As a customer the only way to find out would be to buy it and try it out. I don't want to have to go through the fine print on the packaging when all I want is some feta cheese for my greek salad. For the record, I usually buy Turkish sheep's milk cheese because I like it better than feta cheese, but I very much prefer that those are clearly labelled differently so I can tell them apart.

alkonaut 5y ago

Because I as a consumer buy more than the sum of the ingredients. I don’t want to buy a product that’s indistinguishable from the product made in the original location. I want to buy the priduct made there. One reason is that I want to support the production there, as it would be a tragedy if (say) Parmesan producers in Italy were out competed by producers in the US (again, regardless of quality or properties of the product).

rhn_mk1 5y ago
What would make that a tragedy? If the production of Parmesan in Italy is an important cultural phenomenon, then it can be preserved using other means, even non-economical ones.
- alkonaut 5y ago
  It seems more genuine to have it remain a business/industry and not a museum. I quite like having genuine Parmesan from the right place. I’m happy to see any amount of ham fisted protectionism to keep it that way too. So to me it’s an easy win.
  - dantheman 5y ago
    So all you have to do is look at where it where it was made on the label -- is that too difficult?
    - alkonaut 5y ago
      > So all you have to do is look at where it where it was made on the label -- is that too difficult? Apparently yes. Otherwise why would anyone insist on this? I’m also not at all against seeing the entire new world having to eat “Parmesan style cheese” just to reinforce my own feeling of old-world superiority (I’m half joking, but you get the point of why this may be a thing)
      - rhn_mk1 5y ago

iso1210 5y ago

Lets assume you can make a trainer in exactly the same way as Adidas do, can you stick Adidas on the side? No, it's a trademark. That's effectively what PGI is, and unlike patents and copyright, trademarks have a direct benefit to the consumer (they know what they are getting. Nobody is stopping people buying a Gutchy handbag, but the selling can't pass it off as Gucci) Same with "100% Florida orange juice" or "Idaho potatoes". I can buy "Southern Style Whiskey" and that's fine, but if I see "Tennessee whiskey" I am assured it's made in Tennessee. That may be important for me, it may not be, but I have the power.

anoncake 5y ago
> Lets assume you can make a trainer in exactly the same way as Adidas do, can you stick Adidas on the side? I absolutely should. What I obviously shouldn't be allowed to do is claim it's actually made by Adidas.