You heard it here first! As of June 1, the pig farmers of Italy are going on strike. That puts Parma ham, prosciutto, and Piacenza pork neck salami, as well as other Italian pork products, under threat. The Italian farmers say their earnings have been cut in half, with falling pork prices and rising feed costs. They decided to strike when financial assistance talks with the government fell through earlier this month. Part of the strike calls for farmers to not recognize Protected Designation of Origin certificates, which then can't be sold under EU rules.
If you're a big fan of Italian pork products, you might want to think about stocking up. If the garbage strike in Naples is any indication, this could last for a while.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-30-2008 @ 12:33PM
wonko said...
Since most of those hame products mentioned are aged, we likely won't see the effects for months. Or years for a really good prosciutto...:)
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5-30-2008 @ 9:03PM
kowalski said...
Pig Farmers have Unions????
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5-30-2008 @ 10:45PM
Suzana said...
Mamma mia!!! This can't be a good thing!!! sigh...we'll just have to give up that moldy ham sliced ever-so-thinly and wrapped so seductively around a piece of melon. Or~~~substitute Iberian ham for the Italian, hmm???
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5-31-2008 @ 12:13PM
TBG said...
Falling pork prices?!
In what world are ANY prices falling?
TBG
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5-31-2008 @ 2:52PM
Stephanie said...
What Is The Pig Italian Or Something , First I could See Why ITALIANS would eat such a scavenger dipicable thing they werent tought this was not healthy they eat it with no problem ,and then there not Gods Chosen Peples Jews, They were told to stay away dont eat that kind of food , for it had infestents ,worms its a scavenger like the Lobstr it will make u sick cause Its unclean its not healthy YuK! EVen Me Bieng Italiano Jewish(Isrealite)and Spanierd KNow thiis 2 b True.....StephanieHdzTX25.
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6-03-2008 @ 6:54AM
Alessandro said...
Prosciutto is delicious and NOT unhealthy.
As pointed by wonko, we won't see the effects of this strike for months since the italian "cold cuts" are all cured and aged. Salamis are aged for several weeks (an avarage of 9), while prosciutto di Parma is aged at least for 12 months.
There might be problems for fresh pork meat.
I'm a producer of organic pork "salumi" and fresh meat. We are not affected by this strike since we're a small indipendent family business. Eat organic, btw!
Problem is that pig farmers get paid a little for their hams to be cured for prosciutto, while the Prosciutto di Parma consorcium sells it at high prices, especially in countries like the US and Japan.
This is bad globalization.
Alessandro
PS: the problems with trash in Naples are not caused by a strike. The problem is that there's no more place to put the garbace in that region and the local mafia is opposing the building of new dumpsters. It's a little bit more complicated.
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6-03-2008 @ 3:41PM
StirFriedNoodles said...
i don't think this strike will last long. naples strike is a different story. naples, alone, is a different story, on its own.
we were in italy last december when there was a driver's strike in the country (we're americans living in germany who travels quite a bit to italy.in fact, we were just there a couple of days ago). anyway, there wasn't any kind of deliveries, at all - meat, clothes, veggies, toys, bread, etc. the strike only lasted for a week. i'm sure they'll come up with an agreement on this fast. knowing how much italians love their parma ham, pancetta, mortadella, proscuitto, etc.
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