Snippets from the Italian Scene
Reducing the Basil Tax
Returning to things more food related, the Italian Government recently (Summer 1999) reduced the Value Added Tax on a number of aromatic herbs including basil, rosemary and sage, but not parsley, from 20% to 4%. The press release said that Italians spend an average of 8.5 billion lire per year (about 5 million dollars) on basil, so consumers will enjoy some savings, assuming they don't just buy more basil instead -- I would, because few herbs are more refreshing in summer. The same press release says that the Regione Liguria is also trying to register the recipe for pesto sauce to prevent European food producers from taking excessive liberties with it. This might strike one as overkill, but it's not -- though most Italians will be familiar enough with authentic pesto sauce to be able to tell if a commercial product is authentic or not, people living in other parts of Europe may not. With the registration of the recipe Liguria should be able to keep the most blatant alterations from being marketed as the real thing, much the way the city of Livorno was able to force a commercial producer to relable its unauthentic Cacciucco alla Livornese as a much more prosaic "fish stew".
A presto,
Kyle Phillips
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