Acta agriculturae slovenica, suplement 1(avgust 2004), 93–97. 
12th Int. Symp. “Animal Science Days”, Bled, Slovenia, Sept. 2–4, 2004. 
Commentary 
Komentar 
PRODUCTS OF ORIGIN: NORMS, STANDARDS AND ETHICS *  
Jean BOYAZOGLU a) 
a) Aristotle Univ., Fac. of Agriculture, Dept. of Animal Sciences, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece, Prof., Ph.D. 
Member and Past President of the Scientific Advisory Committee on DOP’s and IGP’s of EC 
ABSTRACTS 
 “Ten years already…It is in 1994 that the European Union countries started transferring to 
Brussels the list of products that they wished to protect as DOP’s and IGP’s. 1300 products were 
proposed in all, of which some 600 have been, to date, registered”. The presentation discusses 
the origins of the DOP and IGP systems and their actual differentiation from mass production 
agricultural products. Tradition, definitions of specificity, usurpation and plagiarism are 
discussed as well as the role of modern biotechnology, environment, ecology, salubrity, 
traceability and genetic variability; the role of GMOs and ethics. The use of logos and the role of 
globalization and marketing mondialisation is described. 
Key words: agriculture / products / origin / standards / ethics / EU 
IZDELKI Z GEOGRAFSKIM POREKLOM: NORME, STANDARDI IN ETIKA 
IZVLEČEK 
“Že 10 let…Leta 1994 so začele države evropske unije v Bruselj pošiljati seznam izdelkov, ki so 
jih želeli zaščititi kot DOP izdelke (izdelki z zaščiteno označba geografskega porekla) in IGP 
(izdelki z zaščiteno geografsko označbo). Skupno je bilo predlaganih 1300 izdelkov, od katerih 
je bilo do sedaj registriranih 600. Prispevek govori o izvoru DOP in IGP sistemov in razlikah 
med njima in izdelki masovne proizvodnje. Poleg tega avtor razpravlja o tradiciji, definiciji 
specifičnosti, uzurpaciji in plagiatorstvo, kot tudi o vlogi moderne biotehnologije, okolja, 
ekologije, zdravstvene koristnosti, sledljivosti in genetske variabilnosti, genetsko spremenjenih 
organizmov in etike. Opisana je uporaba logotipov in vloga globalizacije ter svetovnega trženja. 
Ključne besede: kmetijstvo / proizvodi / poreklo / standardi / etika / EU 
INTRODUCTION 
The considerations and opinions I express, result from my observations during these past 45 
years regarding the systems of designation of origin and of geographical indications. These must 
be considered as factors that increase the value of quality products, a specificity resulting of the 
interaction between territory, autochthonous resources and local production systems, together 
with man’s work. Presently, this approach should be linked to the context of a commercial 
reality, that has widened globally, but still is quite an European approach which has not yet led to 
clarity in the New World. 
First of all must be remembered that generally in the western world, particularly in the 
Mediterranean, the use to link a specific product to a territory with the region’s name of 
production, dates back to the origins of commercial exchanges. Afterwards, this notion of 
                                                 
* Some of the information in this article was originally presented in Caseus International, year 2(2002), issue 3, 
pages 4–7. 
http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/zoo/publikacije/zbornik/suplementi/index.htm
Acta agriculturae slovenica, suplement 1(avgust 2004). 
 
94 
designation of origin has become more confused, above all with the development of the guildes 
in Northern Europe. Their local collective trademarks have quickly been confused with a kind of 
designation of single geographical origin: Bruges’ laces, Brussels’ tapestries, Delftware, etc.; this 
has evidently little to do with the true DOP* and IGP† in agricultural production. 
In Europe, the protection of the designation of origin (DOP and IGP) has become a necessity for 
quality products of rural origin since the changes in socio-economical conditions, the 
disappearance of the guildes’ local influence, the substitution of local collective trademarks with 
commercial trademarks (mainly the global ones), as well as the improvement in transportation 
conditions since the beginning of the XIX century. To sustain this principle, a number of 
international regulations were developed: 
– the Convention of Paris, May 20, 1883; 
– the Agreement of Madrid, April 14, 1891; 
– the Agreement of Lisbon on the international definition of designation of origin and 
provenance, October 31, 1958; 
– the 1992 EU regulations. 
DEFINITION OF SPECIFICITY 
As underlined by Jacques Audier – the actual president of the EC scientific Advisory 
Committee for DOP’s and IGP’s – in 1990, the “history of the designation of origin is, in itself, 
without any doubt the cause of the current difficulties”. In ancient times, the geographical 
designation was a sort of certificate of origin in the way in which we intend it nowadays. The old 
Greco-Latin Europe of today is the heir of the tradition of products of origin (DOP), 
strengthened by the actual need to protect the consumer, over and above the evident commercial 
importance. It can immediately be noticed that countries with a more Germanic tradition have 
undergone a different evolution and even more so those with an Anglo-Saxon culture; IGP’s 
being here nearer to the prevailing thinking. This evolution has resulted even more accentuated 
in the New World. Two different aims imposed the system of designation of origin: protect the 
producers that have obtained a product of great fame and protect the consumers against false 
indications, thus fraud. At this point we can observe considerable divergences between countries; 
even within the EU of 25. 
TRADITION, USURPATION AND PLAGIARISM 
The designation of origin for agricultural products has its origins in a much more ancient 
tradition than any kind of commercial trademark! The notion itself of designation of origin is 
meant to be connected to intrinsic quality, as well as to the idea that these products have always 
been associated to specific agro-ecological regions and to well-defined elaboration methods. 
They have thus gained a clear recognition, both universal and regional. Nowadays the temptation 
to plagiarise and usurp in the form of brand names is more and more present, even in the case of 
very traditional products; this is evidently a known temptation since many centuries! For 
example, Roger Dion recounts how a Tournus wine merchant was condemned in 1475 for trying 
to pass 60 barrels of Tournus wine as a Pommard. Thus the illicit appropriation of a designation 
of origin is not a phenomenon born with the twentieth century. Nevertheless, we have to 
underline that the usurpation of names of great fame, for wine, cheese, ham, olives, honey, 
                                                 
* DOP: Denomination of Origin Products 
† IGP: Products of Geographic Indication 
Boyazoglu, J. Products of origin: norms, standards and ethics. 95
truffles, foie gras, oysters, eels, etc. has increased a lot more since the end of the Second World 
War, even between the most honest industrial groups and businessmen of the world! 
There is probably sometimes, a will to misinform the uninformed consumer, and a tendency 
to perpetuate the purchaser’s confusion using words that make an indirect and false reference to 
the true original product. 
Contrary to what marketing professionals and slogan creators can say in favour of commercial 
range products, the protection of the designation of origin of agricultural products is a matter that 
favours both the consumers and the honest professionals. It is a question of a sincere, local and 
constant commercial approach. We must however admit that it introduces a long and difficult 
information process, not easy to succeed in a limited period of time. 
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND QUALITY PRODUCTS: ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY, 
SALUBRITY AND GENETIC VARIABILITY 
Quality must be considered here as an intrinsic characteristic of a product that originates from 
the interaction between environment (pedoclimatic and pluviometric characteristics etc.) and 
human cultural factors only the use of IGP and DOP allows easily for the clear definition and 
recognition of these specific production characteristics. 
Let us take a single example that has been raging in the mass media these past few months; 
the GMO’s.  
For its survival, European agriculture, after having helped set free the western world from its 
nutritional needs, has to aim towards quality and respect of its culinary needs and wishes. 
Considering therefore inter-alia, that in Europe at least 70% of the population mistrusts the 
GMOs’ presence in food, it is to this reality that our modern agriculture has to adjust and to 
know how to adapt to the market’s requests or the moods of politicians and research 
administrators. In part the EU directives already provide for it, obliging the producers to declare 
on the label of products destined to human nutrition the presence of genetically modified 
organisms, but not for the products from animals fed with GMO feedstuffs; what a mercantile 
approach!.  
On the other hand the same product (DOP, IGP, etc.) transferred – production wise – to 
another environmental situation, loses its specificity. In fact there is, as already indicated 
previously, a strict relation between environment and human activities, and this has already 
created the landscape, modeled many of the production systems, defined social behaviours, 
weaved relationships between individuals and defined local culture and traditions. All this forms 
the platforms on which the norms and standards of recognised well defined quality products 
(DOP, IGP) rest. 
The modern production systems are replacing traditions, modifying human reality along with 
its social behaviour. An industrial product (as for example a greenhouse product should be 
considered) replaces old local environmentally adapted varieties, causing at the same time 
modifications in the traditions, usages and plant habits. Quality and standardisation of 
agricultural products caused mass-production, which links to the disappearance of varieties and 
germoplasm fit for the local reality, it diminishes the possibility to utilise these genes in 
subsequent livestock or crop improvement schedules. One of the priorities “to maintain” can be 
the need to restore the seasonality of production inline with nature, respecting production cycles. 
Without wanting to appear conservative and classified as ludites, it can be asserted that it cannot 
be expected to obtain any really good tomatoes in winter when nature has selected tomatoes to 
be produced and consumed in summer time. Evidently to fit the modern economic system, out-
of-season production is now the in-thing, but does it coincide with true quality? 
Acta agriculturae slovenica, suplement 1(avgust 2004). 
 
96 
Thus transgenic products are nowadays replacing traditional cultivations as if this was a 
panacea; this has introduced dependency from multinationals, modification of human behaviour, 
ecosystem alterations, products standardisation, more energy inputs in production, increased 
human pressure on the territory and even increased use of herbicides (which was not possible 
before because of the presence of plants that did not resist to their use) and probable destruction 
of valid integrated instruments used in biological agriculture. The most “vocal” scientific 
institutions disagree, but why?. Evidently, if the use of transgenics becomes gneralised, there 
would be an easy development of some resistance against fungus, viral and bacterial pathogens 
towards which has been introduced a type of monogenic resistance, predictably surmountable by 
the plants’ pathogens in a few cultivation cycles. Vice-versa, the situation is that DOP and IGP 
products are environmentally integrated and in line with the local culture, favouring the 
preservation of traditional and typical production methods and the maintenance of genetic 
variability. 
ETHICS 
Nobody can contest the necessity of using biotechnological research as a possible instrument 
to satisfy the global world population’s future nutritional needs, but we should clearly 
distinguish this from the pretension that it can originate transgenic products able to substitute, at 
least in the European context, IGP and DOP products, which are de facto quality product 
trademarks. 
The huge interests of the multinationals involved in the production of food for human 
consumption can not be underestimated, neither should we forget the trans-national interests of 
biotechnological companies; nevertheless these interests should not replace those more 
legitimate wishes of the enlightened consumers that more and more expect quality goods 
produced traditionally and involving full traceability. 
Today, many are the scientists that fear that genes inserted in plants conferring them the 
capacity to produce their own plant protection means against pathogens, or the capacity to 
produce pharmaceutical products destined for animal and human consumption, could have as 
consequence that even the soil micro-organisms and the insects could be exposed to these 
chemical products with unpredictable consequences. Others conclude that a gene that confers 
resistance to insects or to hydric stress could be propagated to correlated species by means of 
casual crossings, introducing this over-resistance. There are also those who think that we must 
reduce ecological risks that derive from the introduction of genetically modified plants and 
microorganisms in the environment. Naturally this is contested by all parties interested in GMO 
food use generalisation …as some years ago they were for the free use of hormones in livestock 
farming.  
Environmental preservation and the disputes on modern food salubrity are not the aim of this 
note, neither can we discuss in depth the ethical aspects connected with the development and 
propagation of transgenic products in the markets of tomorrow. Indeed, the historical quarrel on 
the control of genetic resources, a basic aspect of biotechnological development, overwhelms 
unfortunately the precise needs of the consumers that circumscribe the problematics relative to 
IGP and DOP. 
CONCLUSION 
Fundamentally, typical products of plant and animal origin represent a reflection of the local 
agricultural systems’ evolution in history. Most of the times in the Mediterranean region they 
have been influenced by the use of a particular environment, e.g. the microflora of alpine zones, 
Boyazoglu, J. Products of origin: norms, standards and ethics. 97
highlands and hills, rural and agricultural traditions. There are commonly, three main natural 
production components: genetics, territory and human practises. In the case of transformed 
products, there is also technology. Nevertheless, this scheme is too reductive, even simplistic, 
because these products have strongly been forged by the way and rhythms of life along the 
seasons, by religious or family feasts and by traditional cooking. Besides, history demonstrates 
that the products that have reached our time are only those that have been able to evolve and fit 
into technical and socio-economical patterns through the ages. Unfortunately the actual situation 
of these products is at times difficult, if not precarious. They are today under intense pressure 
from advanced technology and modern commercial practises. They are sometimes made to give 
the impression of belonging to an obsolete culture, in opposition to the messages propagated for 
agro-industrial products that are meant to accustom the consumers to dominant influencing 
marketing values and product standardisation, constancy of tastes all along the year and the 
refusal of the typical, variable and strong tastes of traditional products. The industrial / economic 
weight gives the possibility to use at its best scientific progresses, to influence research policies 
and to apply some very effective commercial and marketing methods with a subtle negation of 
tradition. The birth of the biotechnologies and of transgenic products completely inserts itself in 
a strongly industrialised and standardised new taste reality, clearly opposed to production 
methods that foresee the use of local resources, of territorial respect and the sustaining of 
ecological and environmental principles. Typical products benefit of great fame and recognition 
by enlightened consumers that search for authenticity. Their notoriety evidently interests the big  
agro-industrial concerns that have tried to imitate them, to confuse or to modify production 
processes, and this, in a few cases, has been taken to the limits of falsification. The line of 
defence of these traditional quality products could be a last frontier of our quality food habits: 
vigilance is the only alternative.