[Raiderman]

I think the confusion is over whether or not pizza is a product or a brand. You compared "cars" to "Mercedes" in relation to pizza. I think most of the world would liken pizza to a car, not to a brand of car. Digiorno is a brand of pizza. Mercedes is a brand of car.

[Tek_Freek]

^^ Nailed it.

[ScoopLV]

And this is why most people in America have no idea if the olive oil in their pantry is real or not.

[Raiderman]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

And this is why most people in America have no idea if the olive oil in their pantry is real or not.

Nor do most care. Everyone has their "hot buttons". If yours is whether or not a food should be called one thing or another, I would recommend counting your blessings Life is good!

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by Raiderman

Nor do most care.

I agree completely with this. People don't care. But they should.

I cannot even imagine the brain patterns of people who don't care about this. It would be like not caring about sex. (Those people are out there, too. And I don't understand asexual people at all. I can't even wrap my head around not wanting a sex life of some variety.)

If you made cheese in the village of Cheddar, Somerset, you'd care deeply.

If you made bourbon in Kentucky, and a Chinese company decided to release "Old Round-Eye American Bourbon," you'd care deeply.

If you worked for Rolls Royce, and that same Chinese company rolled this out, you'd care:



For the record, Italians don't really care that we eat crap pizza and call it pizza. Although they are just a titch disappointed that we'd pay good money for an inferior product. It's easy enough to find an Italian expat and ask.

Ask them how they feel about all this "parmesan cheese" and "balsamic vinegar" we sell, and it's an entirely different story. We're counterfeiting their product and driving their good name into the ground. The closer you get to Parma and Modena, the more they hate it.

[skugelstadt]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

A couple pages ago, Merry Gather commented that she enjoyed Settebello, even though it's nothing like any pizza she ever had.

And that's the freakin' point. Settebello is just about the closest you can get to real pizza in this country -- and it's night and day different than the crapola they fob off as pizza in this country. People who eat there for the first time often don't like the product -- because what we call "pizza" is so radically different from the real deal. Settebello isn't the problem -- they're one of a handful of places that actually does it right. Papa John's (and the rest) is the problem. The problem is also American hubris which demands the world conform to our viewpoint, instead of the other way around. This is why other countries send us bogus olive oil -- they know we're too ignorant to know the difference. We're shooting ourselves in the foot over this.

In my hometown, there was a bar that only had a beer and wine license. They got hold of some awful swill that was technically "wine." But it was made to taste like bourbon, tequila, rum and similar. And they would sell "cocktails" using these "liquors." The difference between real Cheddar cheese and the stuff we pass off as cheddar is the same as the difference between that wine-swill-fake-bourbon, and bourbon.

I've been to the village of Cheddar.

This is what it looks like:



It is patently unfair that we lay claim to a product they made for hundreds of years. We could call our cheese "Wisconsin Dells" or similar. Go there an ask them what they think about us slapping the name Cheddar on half the cheese we make. I have already -- they're not happy about it. Because our fake cheddar isn't even close to the flavor of the real thing.

If you get it about bourbon whiskey, I cannot understand why you wouldn't get it about every other regional specialty out there. Their local products should enjoy that same protection that ours do.

We're not going to have a leg to stand on when the Chinese decide they can counterfeit everything they want just because they're capable of doing so....

Because the bourbon name is protected by law to mean one thing. Pizza is now a generic term like olive oil. Olive oil extraction takes several forms that were not all available to the original makers (chemical extraction) yet its still called olive oil. Cheddar is a process that can be, and is, copied. It may not taste the same as the original, but its still called cheddar because that name has also become generic. The village of Cheddar apparently did not adequately protect the name of its cheese. Champagne does protect its name, so it does mean something specific, not just a generic sparkling wine. I'm learning as I go. I never gave olive oil much thought until I read what you posted in the past, now i'm better informed

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by skugelstadt

Because the bourbon name is protected by law to mean one thing. Pizza is now a generic term like olive oil. Olive oil extraction takes several forms that were not all available to the original makers (chemical extraction) yet its still called olive oil. Cheddar is a process that can be, and is, copied. It may not taste the same as the original but its still called cheddar because that name has also become generic. The village of Cheddar apparently did not adequately protect the name of its cheese. Champagne does protect its name, so it does mean something specific, not just a generic sparkling wine.

You're suggesting that areas which made great products prior to the invention of copyright and trademark law are SOL?

Furthermore, even though Champagne tries to protect its name (as does Parma cheese and Modena vinegar), we still counterfeit the stuff. I can buy American-made "champagne" at any supermarket. We're a bunch of hypocrites when it comes to intellectual property. Download a movie and that's "piracy." Ruin an entire region's industry and that's "generic."

And finally, when I speak of counterfeit olive oil, I'm talking about oil that didn't come from olives. Usually, it's vegetable oil with added chlorophyll. This is dumped on us because the counterfeiters know most of us are too ignorant to know the difference.

My solution is education. Others seem to think we should just quit caring about how food is labeled. It really is that cut-and-dry.

[Tek_Freek]

Never mind. Waste of typing.

[skugelstadt]

Even "Las Vegas" is not an exclusive name for only one place

[logline]

Originally Posted by skugelstadt

Even "Las Vegas" is not an exclusive name for only one place

That's obvious, but it would be silly to say that Las Vegas, NM is just as good as Las Vegas, NV and can be marketed and substituted for the same thing.