More protectionism with a foodie spin...

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Prosecco - lovely stuff and, as appears to be the case with almost every sort of food and drink subject to protectionism:

EU Common Market Organisation reforms take effect on August 1, 2009, and the inter-regional Prosecco DOC and the Prosecco DOCG will be folded into the new PDO Protected Designation of Origin appellation system.

That's right, if you're not in North East Italy they're going to go for you if you have the cheek to use the term "Prosecco" - despite the fact that "prosecco" is the name of the grape it's made from and has nothing specific to do with the Veneto. Just as the Cornish Pasty is just a recipe and champagne is just a process, prosecco is just a type of grape.

All this is a bit tough on the Croatians who have been using the grape - 'prosek' - for just as long as the Italians but to make a sweet dessert wine rather than a light fizz:

In a vaulted cellar on the pine-clad island of Hvar, Andro Tomic pops a cork on a bottle of his beloved prosek wine and pours a generous glass.

The amber-coloured dessert wine holds a special place in the hearts of Croats, particularly those along the Dalmatian coast, but it is about to face the full wrath of the Brussels bureaucracy.

The European Union has ruled that prosek is too similar in name to Italy's prosecco and that after July 1, when Croatia realises a decade-old ambition of joining the EU, it can no longer be sold as such. 

So much for protecting traditional local produce! The EU justify is like this:

They say there is a danger that consumers could be "misled" and could inadvertently buy a bottle of Croatian prosek when in fact they were looking for light, fizzy prosecco. 

Of course, it's not about this really at all, the Croats have been making prosek for 500 years alongside that sparkling prosecco without the need for special protections. And, I'm prepared to guess that the number of people who've confused the two is pretty low - somewhere close to zero.

The beneficiaries of these rules aren't artisan producers, they are large industrial concerns - the prosecco equivalent of Ginsters - that can secure higher profits through securing a PDO.

It's just protectionism given a foodie spin.

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Ban restaurants!

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They're killing our children with obesity:

In their report, the authors argue that restaurants are clearly responsible for making children less healthy and that government intervention will be required to improve the health effect of restaurants on children: “Public policies that aim to reduce restaurant consumption — such as increasing the relative costs of these purchases; limiting access through zoning, particularly around schools; limiting portion sizes; and limiting exposure to marketing — deserve serious consideration.”

We're not just talking about McDonalds and KFC here folks but all those wonderful little places that you've discovered that are so child-friendly.

These people need stopping. Not the restaurants but the hideous prohibitionists who want to regulate pleasure out of existence. And the funny thing about this is that the sort of people - Shadow Health Spokesman, Andy Burnham springs to mind here - who want to introduce legal limits on salt and fat content don't realise that they'll kill off artisan ice-cream and will force restaurants out of business. They're looking at the easy target of the wicked "food industry" and missing the self-evident fact that lots of those celebrated foodie wonders are every bit and fat and sugar loaded (it is of course the best butter and prized sea salt but it's still salt and fat).

And people have spotting the problem with Burnham's search for a headline:

"Such an approach could paradoxically undermine public health by, in effect, the banning of products that actually contribute to a healthy diet. Whilst a product such as raisins can contribute to one of five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables, it could be classed as high sugar."

But, of course, the nannying fussbuckets don't care about whether it works or whether their science is accurate. They just want to ban stuff - for the children or worse still:

...to save the NHS money

These people need stopping. There isn't an 'obesity crisis' and children are not being made fat by advertising. These are lies that cover up simple truths - people are fat mostly because they eat too much and exercise too little. But most people aren't obese and most children aren't fat. So let's concentrate on informing, persuading and helping the ones who are fat rather than blaming it on society or corporate greed.

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