Fighting for food has historical dimensions and many wars have been won and lost for gaining access to food. If colonial powers held on to their vassal countries for centuries it is because of their resources including food. Vasco de Gama's voyage in search of navigable route to East is for establishing hassle free trade with countries like India. But fighting for geographical patents in the name of some of the reputed traditional foods is some thing of a recent origin. It is not clear what advantage the winner will derive from these fights!
"Last year Abboud's organization announced plans to sue Israel to stop it from marketing Arab dishes like hummus as Israeli. The organizers of the event compared their case to Scotch whisky, champagne from the Champagne region of France, and Greek efforts to have feta cheese officially declared Greek. A European Union court ruling awarded Greece the right to patent feta cheese in 2002 and Lebanon hopes to be awarded similar rights to hummus and tabbouleh".
In India there are efforts to get patents for many regional products and the patent office seems to be leaning towards granting such patents, though it is not known against whom such protection is sought! One hears of Tirupati Laddu, Nagpore Oranges, Udipi Hotels and many others which are due to be given protection under geographic patents. It is not realized that patenting food products which are part of history is reprehensible as the whole world should enjoy them with out any economic restrictions. After all food can be a cultural ambassador creating plenty of good will for the country where it has originated.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment