Terroir of Innovation: the Development of Geographical Indications in Canada – the Case of Cider
As part of the event, there will be a Quebec cider tasting.
Registration is required and limited to 100 participants. Please register by email at cipp1.law [at] mcgill.ca. First come, first served.
Up until recently, Geographical Indications (GIs) were limited to wine and spirits. Now, they extend to a variety of agro-food products such as cider. This expansion, paired with the coming into force of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) in September 2017, marks Canada’s new mission to increase the scope of protections for GIs.
Yet, surprisingly, GI protections under CETA only benefit European producers—no Canadian products were included in the list of protected products. Canada’s failure to put products forward for GI protection in CETA is symptomatic of its deficient agricultural policy and a hesitation to recognize terroir-related food innovations.
Notwithstanding federal shortcomings, other provinces have been quick to act. For example, Québec has designed original legislation to support and regulate the development of new local terroir products such as ice cider and ice wine.
Efforts such as Québec’s are particularly timely, as consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, crave more authentic products, and pay more attention to what they consume. Products must now speak to the socioeconomic context in which they were grown, marketed, and sold, and consumers demand better quality and hold producers and governments accountable to a greater extent than ever before.
Please join us for this half-day multidisciplinary conference, which examines issues and tensions regarding regulation, economics, and culture through the lenses of science, ethics, society, and law. Experts from a variety of disciplines will use cider as a case study, a bone of contention, or, in its French rendition, la pomme de discordre!
A request for 4 hours of accredited continuing legal education for jurists has been made to a recognized provider.
