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Oh - That kobe. The beef kobe.
photo credit: wikipedia
Nope we’re not talking Lakers Star Kobe Bryant, but “kobe” beef. Recently I read a column by food writer Larry Olmsted, “Food’s Biggest Scam: The Great Kobe Beef Lie.” He details the wool that food producers and restauranteurs have pulled over American consumers’ eyes for years. The fact is that kobe beef is illegal to import into America and has been since 2010.
Hmmm. Ok, ok. By day, I’m a marketer, so I know what it means to say this is all “marketing.” I think I said “Sometimes, you just fake it till you make it” at least twice today. But now I’m wearing my consumer hat.
This just got me thinking. Be warned, I don’t mean for it to, but this might sound soapbox-y.
I know that I’m a foodie, and that I research food for fun. (No making fun, you’re reading this post.) I know that there are some simple truths. Champagne is sparkling white wine from Champagne, France. Just like cava is sparkling white wine from the Penedès in Spain (quite delicious – I might add.) It’s the same process and produces a quite similar product – but I know something with those terms. Same goes for gloriously, high-quality products like parmigiano reggiano cheese, serrano ham and San Marzano tomatoes.
All of these terms mean something to me. Immediately I know where the products are from. I know the quality standards they must meet in their home lands.
But there is one huge, glaring difference. Compared to the US, the countries I reference – Japan, France, Spain, Italy – they all have taken great lengths to protect their food heritage. Something that the US has never taken pride in.
As a Southerner, I take extreme pride in our food heritage. Memphis Barbeque means something to me. It means pulled pork, dry-rubbed ribs and a sweet, spicy sauce that is ketchup and molasses based. I would be devastated if some restaurant in China served something that doesn’t resemble that and called it Memphis barbeque (especially if it was that gross Carolina sauce or Texas brisket.) :)
Why do we as Americans take other countries’ food heritage so lightly? The US is the only country that hasn’t signed the Treaty of Madrid in 1891 to protect geographically designated food production. Why? It’s all in a name and marketing (cringe).
Because of this I can sell domestic beef from Japanese-linage cows as “kobe” tricking American consumers into overspending thinking that they’re getting a special, imported beef. Makes us really rich, but at what cost?
I write this post not to lecture, but to ask the simple question. Do Americans really (really) care about quality or is it all just marketing? I know that I do, and I know that there is a community out there like us. We’re the localvores, the clean eaters, the farmers market-goers. But do you think that we’ll ever get to the point as a nation that we care about the quality of American foods like say France or Japan?
Read the Forbes columns – part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. Tell me what you think.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
