| Summary: | Securing Credit for Made in Italy Products: The Case of Prosciutto, Cheese and Grappa Jorge Esquirol, Florida International University College of Law Credit is key to business development. Access to credit and low-cost credit may mean the difference between profits and losses, sustainability and bankruptcy. These are the types of comparative advantages that national legal rules can either enable or curtail. Italian law has traditionally been quite restrictive of using non-registered assets—such as business equipment and inventory—as collateral for loans and financing. Certain premier Made in Italy products, however, benefit from special legislation that allows their stocks, warehoused during the aging process, to serve as loan guarantees. Prosciutto, cheeses, and more recently grappa are part of that list. These differential laws direct a subsidy of sorts to these products. This essay will examine the Italian model of secured transactions law and consider its effects in promoting specific products, industries, and creditors. Mozzarella di Bufala: The Legal Construction of an Iconic Cheese Michele Graziadei, Università degli Studi di Torino Mozzarella di bufala has been rightly described as the “White Whale of American cheesemaking.” The attempt to make this cheese in the US has been mostly unsuccessful so far. The dream to produce mozzarella di bufala in the United States “has destroyed businesses from Vermont to Los Angeles.” Yet this fantastic cheese is regularly consumed on the tables of thousands of Italians each day. This essay will show how the production of mozzarella di bufala DOP in Italy is regulated by a thick set of laws and regulations, which contributed to the emerging of mozzarella di bufala as an iconic food, deservedly mentioned as “one of the miracles of Italian cuisine.” These rules result out of the coordinated efforts of a group of producers that managed to overcome some of the constraints associated with the small scale dimensions of their farms and that were thus able to develop a viable ...
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