MONROE - Does a gruyere by any other name taste as good melted on onion soup?
After May 1, 2013, a local cheese producer will find out.
In response to pressure from its Swiss parent company and the Swiss gruyere industry, Emmi Roth USA decided last Thursday to drop the word "gruyere" by this date from its Grand Cru Gruyere.
Grand Cru is made with milk sourced in about a 50-mile radius around Roth Kase USA's factory in Monroe.
"We are going to remove the name 'gruyere' from cheeses not produced in the Gruyere region of Switzerland," said Steve Millard, CEO of Emmi Roth USA.
Emmi Group CEO Urs Riedener said in a statement the company's decision sends "a powerful message" in support of the Swiss gruyere industry, which is currently stalled in a trademark application of the phrase "le gruyere" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
'What is Wisconsin?'
To many in Switzerland, this is a big deal.
Last week, while Emmi Roth USA's gruyere decision was still under negotiation, the French-language newspaper Le Matin Dimanche sent a reporter to Monroe on a week-long investigation of the Green County dairy industry and Emmi Roth USA's upcoming expansion of its Roth Kase operations to Platteville.
"We wanted to know, 'What is Wisconsin?'" said Anne Gaudard, discussing her story early last week over espresso at Chocolate Temptation. She reports on economics, business and food for the newspaper, which is based in the eastern city of Lausanne and in the middle of gruyere territory.
"I'm not here to make a trial of American cheese," she said, but rather to discover "the other state of cheese" and the significance of Swiss culture in the area. Her story on Green County ran in the newspaper on Sunday with the headline, "A Monroe, la Suisse c'est plus qu'un fromage" ("In Monroe, Swiss is more than a cheese").
Many European Union countries grant legal protection to the names of regional foods, such as gruyere. The United States does not, although the Code of Federal Regulations does specify standards for the production of gruyere. In Switzerland and in France, this naming protection is called an Appellation d'Origine Controlee, or AOC, and translates to "controlled designation of origin."
"Today, a lot of European states accept the AOC system," said Sibylle Umiker, head of media relations at Emmi Group's headquarters in Lucerne. Each AOC-approved food, such as Parmesan, Camembert and Gruyere, has its own organization to oversee quality control.
Gaudard wants to see the word "gruyere" protected worldwide and said she hopes in the future American cheesemakers will adopt the tradition of naming a cheese after its area of origin.
"It's not a question of name. The soil is different, so the taste of the cheese will be different. It's something that is obvious in Europe," she said.
'Can be made anywhere'
So far, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn't see things her way. In a March 23 letter of refusal for the trademark of "le gruyere," the agency concludes "the relevant consuming public views gruyere as a firm, nutty-flavored cheese that can be made anywhere."
Adding "le" ("the") to the name "does not add any source-indicating significance or otherwise affect the term's descriptiveness or genericness."
The Swiss trademark request doesn't fit with U.S. industry conditions, the agency wrote: "The existence of seven U.S. cheese manufacturers of gruyere cheese and the widespread generic internet and dictionary usage ... clearly demonstrates that gruyere has lost its geographical significance and is now viewed as a genus of cheese."
The Consortium for Common Food Names, based in Virginia, praised the agency's rejection this week in a statement, calling it "a common-sense approach to generic names that protects both consumers and producers."
"What we're against are efforts to monopolize," said Shawna Morris, senior director at the nonprofit lobbying organization.
The group's efforts are aimed at curbing governmental control, she added. Voluntary measures, like Emmi Roth USA's decision to give up the name "gruyere" in the U.S., are up to the company.
The generification of region-derived names has helped cheeses proliferate worldwide, Morris added, and doesn't detract from the original. Cheddar "wouldn't be consumed in extremely high quantities" worldwide if it was still only available from the English village of Cheddar.
A 'fatty cheese'
Understanding why food origin and naming-rights are so important in Switzerland takes a lesson in Swiss history.
Cheese trade in the gruyere-producing canton of Fribourg goes back to 1249, according to a historical narrative by Le Gruyere AOC, the organization that represents the Swiss gruyere industry. Around this time, the sons of Rodolphe de Gruyere set up an export trade agreement in these Alpine foothills for a "fatty cheese." The production of cheese in the area goes back even further. Legend has it a Roman emperor died of indigestion in the year 161 after eating too much cheese made in the Gruyere region.
The fight to protect the name "gruyere" is not new.
"Without any protection," according to Le Gruyere AOC, "Gruyere cheese became the victim of counterfeit products and had but its prime quality to justify itself."
Various resolutions did eventually protect Gruyere cheese, starting in 1891 with the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and in 1992 with the establishment of the Charter of Gruyere. In 1997, gruyere producers banded together in a trade organization called Interprofession de Gruyere.
"Emmi is still a very Swiss company," Umiker said, and honoring this heritage by protecting the names of Swiss cheeses is vital for "a little neutral state in the middle of Europe."
Gruyere vs. Gruyere
Negotiations between Emmi Group and Emmi Roth USA over the word "gruyere" started about a month ago, according to Umiker. As a Swiss company, she said, Emmi has a cultural and financial responsibility to honor Le Gruyere AOC and support the organization's U.S. trademark application by giving up the name "gruyere" on its U.S.-made cheese.
Grand Cru Gruyere and Emmi's Swiss gruyere are "definitely from the same family of cheeses," said Jim Natzke, vice president of supply chain and logistics at the Monroe factory.
But they don't taste the same, he added. The Swiss gruyere is made with raw milk from grass-fed cows. Grand Cru is made with pasteurized milk from both grass- and grain-fed cows at about 80 local farms.
Natzke compares it to baking bread. The recipe is the same, but the milk and equipment are different, and those differences give the cheeses unique flavors.
Dropping "gruyere" from the Grand Cru label won't affect production or how the cheese is produced.
"We're really proud of the product we make here," he said. "Defining a name is just a matter of semantics."
After May 1, 2013, a local cheese producer will find out.
In response to pressure from its Swiss parent company and the Swiss gruyere industry, Emmi Roth USA decided last Thursday to drop the word "gruyere" by this date from its Grand Cru Gruyere.
Grand Cru is made with milk sourced in about a 50-mile radius around Roth Kase USA's factory in Monroe.
"We are going to remove the name 'gruyere' from cheeses not produced in the Gruyere region of Switzerland," said Steve Millard, CEO of Emmi Roth USA.
Emmi Group CEO Urs Riedener said in a statement the company's decision sends "a powerful message" in support of the Swiss gruyere industry, which is currently stalled in a trademark application of the phrase "le gruyere" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
'What is Wisconsin?'
To many in Switzerland, this is a big deal.
Last week, while Emmi Roth USA's gruyere decision was still under negotiation, the French-language newspaper Le Matin Dimanche sent a reporter to Monroe on a week-long investigation of the Green County dairy industry and Emmi Roth USA's upcoming expansion of its Roth Kase operations to Platteville.
"We wanted to know, 'What is Wisconsin?'" said Anne Gaudard, discussing her story early last week over espresso at Chocolate Temptation. She reports on economics, business and food for the newspaper, which is based in the eastern city of Lausanne and in the middle of gruyere territory.
"I'm not here to make a trial of American cheese," she said, but rather to discover "the other state of cheese" and the significance of Swiss culture in the area. Her story on Green County ran in the newspaper on Sunday with the headline, "A Monroe, la Suisse c'est plus qu'un fromage" ("In Monroe, Swiss is more than a cheese").
Many European Union countries grant legal protection to the names of regional foods, such as gruyere. The United States does not, although the Code of Federal Regulations does specify standards for the production of gruyere. In Switzerland and in France, this naming protection is called an Appellation d'Origine Controlee, or AOC, and translates to "controlled designation of origin."
"Today, a lot of European states accept the AOC system," said Sibylle Umiker, head of media relations at Emmi Group's headquarters in Lucerne. Each AOC-approved food, such as Parmesan, Camembert and Gruyere, has its own organization to oversee quality control.
Gaudard wants to see the word "gruyere" protected worldwide and said she hopes in the future American cheesemakers will adopt the tradition of naming a cheese after its area of origin.
"It's not a question of name. The soil is different, so the taste of the cheese will be different. It's something that is obvious in Europe," she said.
'Can be made anywhere'
So far, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn't see things her way. In a March 23 letter of refusal for the trademark of "le gruyere," the agency concludes "the relevant consuming public views gruyere as a firm, nutty-flavored cheese that can be made anywhere."
Adding "le" ("the") to the name "does not add any source-indicating significance or otherwise affect the term's descriptiveness or genericness."
The Swiss trademark request doesn't fit with U.S. industry conditions, the agency wrote: "The existence of seven U.S. cheese manufacturers of gruyere cheese and the widespread generic internet and dictionary usage ... clearly demonstrates that gruyere has lost its geographical significance and is now viewed as a genus of cheese."
The Consortium for Common Food Names, based in Virginia, praised the agency's rejection this week in a statement, calling it "a common-sense approach to generic names that protects both consumers and producers."
"What we're against are efforts to monopolize," said Shawna Morris, senior director at the nonprofit lobbying organization.
The group's efforts are aimed at curbing governmental control, she added. Voluntary measures, like Emmi Roth USA's decision to give up the name "gruyere" in the U.S., are up to the company.
The generification of region-derived names has helped cheeses proliferate worldwide, Morris added, and doesn't detract from the original. Cheddar "wouldn't be consumed in extremely high quantities" worldwide if it was still only available from the English village of Cheddar.
A 'fatty cheese'
Understanding why food origin and naming-rights are so important in Switzerland takes a lesson in Swiss history.
Cheese trade in the gruyere-producing canton of Fribourg goes back to 1249, according to a historical narrative by Le Gruyere AOC, the organization that represents the Swiss gruyere industry. Around this time, the sons of Rodolphe de Gruyere set up an export trade agreement in these Alpine foothills for a "fatty cheese." The production of cheese in the area goes back even further. Legend has it a Roman emperor died of indigestion in the year 161 after eating too much cheese made in the Gruyere region.
The fight to protect the name "gruyere" is not new.
"Without any protection," according to Le Gruyere AOC, "Gruyere cheese became the victim of counterfeit products and had but its prime quality to justify itself."
Various resolutions did eventually protect Gruyere cheese, starting in 1891 with the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and in 1992 with the establishment of the Charter of Gruyere. In 1997, gruyere producers banded together in a trade organization called Interprofession de Gruyere.
"Emmi is still a very Swiss company," Umiker said, and honoring this heritage by protecting the names of Swiss cheeses is vital for "a little neutral state in the middle of Europe."
Gruyere vs. Gruyere
Negotiations between Emmi Group and Emmi Roth USA over the word "gruyere" started about a month ago, according to Umiker. As a Swiss company, she said, Emmi has a cultural and financial responsibility to honor Le Gruyere AOC and support the organization's U.S. trademark application by giving up the name "gruyere" on its U.S.-made cheese.
Grand Cru Gruyere and Emmi's Swiss gruyere are "definitely from the same family of cheeses," said Jim Natzke, vice president of supply chain and logistics at the Monroe factory.
But they don't taste the same, he added. The Swiss gruyere is made with raw milk from grass-fed cows. Grand Cru is made with pasteurized milk from both grass- and grain-fed cows at about 80 local farms.
Natzke compares it to baking bread. The recipe is the same, but the milk and equipment are different, and those differences give the cheeses unique flavors.
Dropping "gruyere" from the Grand Cru label won't affect production or how the cheese is produced.
"We're really proud of the product we make here," he said. "Defining a name is just a matter of semantics."