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The
long-running legal fight over the rights to feta cheese was finally
resolved on Tuesday when Europe’s top court ruled that it should be
designated as a traditional Greek product and protected as such
throughout the European Union.
The
decision, which could have implications for other contested food
products, came in the face of strong opposition from the UK, France,
Denmark and Germany, all of which had argued that feta was a generic
name for the salty, crumbly white cheese. (full article)
Thank goodness that's
resolved. Now if we can just figure out who holds the rights to
American cheese, Brazil nuts and Vienna sausages, we can all sleep a
little easier at night.
* Special thanks to the Greek Mangas himself for drawing my attention to this riveting issue.
We
snapped this picture earlier today. We came upon this rather
unexpected sight while driving around town and we raced home to grab
our camera because we didn’t think anyone would believe us if we didn’t
have some evidence.
Now,
you may think that you’re a Greek. You might be Greek-American or
you might even be a first-generation, full-blooded Greek with
citizenship papers and all that. But if this isn’t your
car....Well then, you’re just not Greek enough, my friend!
Bird
flu pierced the borders of the European Union after Greece confirmed
yesterday its first case of the virus on an Aegean island, as Brussels
responded by throwing the island into isolation as a safeguard against
a possible outbreak of the disease.
Agricultural
Development Minister Evangelos Bassiakos confirmed that the bird flu
was found on an islet near Chios, called Oinouses, which lies only a
few kilometers from the coast of Turkey - the first country in Europe
to confirm it had the disease.
Bassiakos
added, however, that further tests are required to determine whether it
is the H5N1 strain that can be lethal to humans.
«The
Veterinary Foundation Center of Athens informed us that one of the nine
samples taken was found to be positive regarding the presence of
antibodies for the H5 bird flu,» the minister said.
[...]
Earlier
in the day, the National Pharmaceutical Organization took anti-viral
medicines off the over-the-counter list as panic buying emptied shelves
of the medicine. Last week, more than 10,000 anti-viral shots were
snapped up in a few days in the Evros region, which is on the border
with Turkey.
At
a Health Ministry meeting late yesterday, it was decided that all
employees working on the turkey farm on Oinouses would be placed under
medical observation for the next week. Authorities stressed that this
did not amount to being placed under quarantine. (full story)
And in Turkey, there has been confirmation that the H5N1 strain is now a very real threat to animals and people alike:
The
virus found on a farm in Kiziksa, some 120 kilometers (80 miles) from
Istanbul, was the deadly H5N1 strain that has decimated flocks in Asia
and killed dozens of people there since 2003. Authorities around the
world fear it could mutate into a deadly form of flu that can be passed
among people, leading to a pandemic which could kill millions. (full story)
The next several months will surely tell the tale, but the WHO isn't pulling any punches:
All
prerequisites for the start of a pandemic have therefore been met save
one: the establishment of efficient and sustained human-to-human
transmission of the virus. The risk that the H5N1 virus will acquire
this ability will persist as long as opportunities for human infections
occur. These opportunities, in turn, will persist as long as the virus
continues to circulate in birds, and this situation could endure for
some years to come.
[...]
The
risk of pandemic influenza is serious. With the H5N1 virus now firmly
entrenched in large parts of Asia, the risk that more human cases will
occur will persist. Each additional human case gives the virus an
opportunity to improve its transmissibility in humans, and thus develop
into a pandemic strain. The recent spread of the virus to poultry and
wild birds in new areas further broadens opportunities for human cases
to occur. While neither the timing nor the severity of the next
pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a pandemic will occur
has increased. (source)
