By Whitney Hale

(April 11, 2016) — When is Parmigiano Reggiano cheese not Parmesan cheese? When it’s not made in a small area in northern Italy. Explore this question and other issues related to regional brands and regional identities in the food industry with Agricultural Economics Professor David Freshwater 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Alumni Gallery of the William T. Young Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In support of the “Year of Europe”, University of Kentucky Libraries is presenting Freshwater's lecture “Food in Europe: Regional Brands and Regional Identities” examining Europeans take on the origin of their food and how U.S, companies, such as Kraft, are disrespecting Europe’s proposed legislations set to protect the reputation of their regional and authentic food through marketing tactics.

The lecture will be followed by a food tasting of European cheeses and meats compared with U.S. counterparts. Attendees will have the opportunity to see if they can identify the “real” food.

At UK's College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Freshwater's core research skill is applied policy analysis. As part of his work, he is engaged with policy makers, either directly by working with government agencies or by working with organizations that in turn deal with government agencies. Freshwater's current projects are in agricultural and rural finance markets in transition and in analyzing industry-to-occupation and industry-to-industry dependencies and linkages.

A complete listing of Year of Europe campus activities in the College of Arts and Sciences can be found at: https://europe.as.uky.edu.