Reconsidering 'traditional' food: The case of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Abstract

Amongst the hundreds of cases of regional specific products being produced all over Europe, the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese system can be considered one of the most eloquent, mature and successful examples avant la lettre of rural development. About 8,000 dairy farmers, cheese dairies and ripening firms comply with the strict production regulations that guarantee the specificity of this product. Employment in the Parmigiano Reggiano production system is twice as high as in the industrial dairy system and the pressure of the system on the environment is significantly lower. As Parmigiano Reggiano cheese has to compete on the same market as more industrial Grana cheeses, the system is not immune to the cost-price squeeze affecting European agriculture. The accelerated introduction of cost reducing technologies may compromise the typicality of the product, endanger its competitive position on the market and weaken its future collective performance. A convergence of views and a strong cohesion among actors is necessary to reach new agreements about the direction being taken by technological development in order to safeguard the success Parmigiano Regiano cheese has been able to generate in the past.