Politics & pork

Last August, I had a Consumed column on Jamón Ibérico — “the caviar of pork products.” Apparently because the meats derived from the specially fed and raised pigs are an “increasingly popular export,” the Spanish government is planning “stricter rules” to prevent “imposter” pigs from being passed off as the real thing. Says the AP:

The agriculture ministry plans reforms so that the title ‘jamon iberico,’ or Iberian ham, will go only to meat from Iberian pigs that graze in open countryside on acorns and herbs like rosemary and thyme — the traditional technique — and not to ham from stabled pigs that are fed grain, as often happens now, El Pais said.

Ham is very serious business in Spain.