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Some of you may recall previous debates we've had over the EU's assinine laws claiming rights to all food styles developed with in the current borders of various member states. The Franch claim the word Champagne can only mean bubbly wine from their Champagne region (which ignores that for 500 years or more in English Champagne has been a generic term for carbonated wine), the Greeks claim that only salty cheese made in Greece can be called feta (dispite identical salty cheese being made for centuries if not thousands of years in other places using the identical name), while the Italians attempted to claim sole rights to a varity of generic terms like Salami and parmigiana cheese (both of those names have been generic for centuries and identical products using the generic name are made the world over.
Of course to the European protectionist none of this matters nor does the confusion and down right deception of consumers. All that matters is that they get extra money and that the consumers are prevented from comparision shopping between like items. Now the South Americans have gotten in on the act and are taking the EU's stupid rules to their logical conclusion. Countries such as Peru, Bolivia, and Chile are arguing over who owns the right to patient potatos and who will get to claim historic ownership over this generic crop. The Peruvian government has already claimed it a historical treasure and has called for all farmers in the world who grow potatos to pay a royality to the Peruvian government.
This stupid protectionism has no basis in reality of legal facts but we can expect to see more of it in the future if Europe continues to play protectionist word games in an attempt to prop up their utterly uncompetitive agricultural sector.
Of course to the European protectionist none of this matters nor does the confusion and down right deception of consumers. All that matters is that they get extra money and that the consumers are prevented from comparision shopping between like items. Now the South Americans have gotten in on the act and are taking the EU's stupid rules to their logical conclusion. Countries such as Peru, Bolivia, and Chile are arguing over who owns the right to patient potatos and who will get to claim historic ownership over this generic crop. The Peruvian government has already claimed it a historical treasure and has called for all farmers in the world who grow potatos to pay a royality to the Peruvian government.
This stupid protectionism has no basis in reality of legal facts but we can expect to see more of it in the future if Europe continues to play protectionist word games in an attempt to prop up their utterly uncompetitive agricultural sector.
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