How would you react if West Bengal designates Rasgulla as the official dessert, Jammu and Kashmir adopts Tulip as the official flower, Bihar elevates Litti-Chokha as the official breakfast, Himachal Pradesh dignifies Apples as the official fruit – all by passing a bill in their respective legislative assemblies? You may think these lawmakers have nothing serious to do and they are indulging in frivolities. But that’s not it!
The US state of Florida has passed a bill on March 4 to make Strawberry Shortcake the official dessert. The bill was passed by 109-4 votes and it has been sent to Governor Ron DeSantis for his consent. Now, Florida lawmakers are hoping that Governor DeSantis turns out to be a fan of Strawberry cake so that the bill gets his nod quickly. Meanwhile, lovers of strawberry cake all over the world are keeping their fingers crossed. For the records, Key Lime Pie which is often topped with strawberry chunks is the official Pie of Florida. The Key in ‘Key Lime Pie’ denotes the Florida Keys, a string of tropical islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, stretching about 120 miles off Florida’s southern tip. The Florida Keys are hot tourist destinations for their spectacular natural endowments, enabling fishing, boating, scuba diving, and snorkeling.
While Key Lime Pie has such strong backing for its claim to the status of the official pie of Florida, there is no conflict of interest in Strawberry Shortcake growing in importance and becoming the official dessert. Republican Representative Jim Mooney who represents the Florida Keys has backed the Strawberry Shortcake bill. “This is actually a serious bill. Farming’s very important to our state. As a former grocer, I can tell you strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. They’re delicious and they’re great on key lime pies,” Mooney says. He adds, “This bill is not going to change anybody’s opinion of how delicious key lime pies are.”
At the core of designating Strawberry Shortcake is Florida’s $1-billion strawberry industry.
Republican Representative Lawrence McClure who sponsored the bill represents Plant City that is the hub of Florida’s farming industry. It has about 10,000 acres of strawberry farms that account for 75% of the winter strawberry crop produced in the entire nation.
“This bill’s just very simply about pushing back on Mexico, pushing back on other folks that are trying to take over our domestic production — engaging in price dropping and other tactics to put us out of business — and to just celebrate Florida agriculture. … When you go and buy your groceries, look at the label and buy Florida,” McClure says.
To all cake lovers, the strawberry cake is enormously familiar. When it’s hard to choose a flavour for a cake, strawberry can save the day for anyone and for any occasion. From kids to girlfriends, a strawberry cake is the best and perhaps the most economical present to pamper them with.
So, why not our lawmakers are getting to the level of Rasgullas, Tulips, Litti-Chokha, Apples, and so on?
Recently, the Maharashtra government allowed locally-produced wines to be sold from the supermarkets, apart from the wine shops that are available at the moment. However, the decision was met by resentments and politicking.
Maharashtra accounts for nearly 70% of grapes produced in India and it has a decent number of wineries where grapes are processed into wine — a product higher in the value chain.
The strawberry cake that you eat doesn’t have real strawberries in them. When strawberry is baked with the dough, it loses flavor and color, meaning you have virtually lost everything that the strawberry is. All bakeries use artificial strawberry flavors to give their cakes a strawberry name. However, strawberry cake in which strawberry puree is mixed both in the flour and the cream can have both flavor and color. But making a strawberry cake in that manner is old-fashioned and you need to have an old-fashioned wife at home to bake that delicacy for you. And, in India wives can be anything but old-fashioned. But you can find such wives in Florida and they still bake and love old-fashioned strawberry cake.
Jokes apart, converting lonely islands into hot tourist destinations or making humble strawberries into a $1-billion industry needs meticulous planning and sustained work. It’s something that you will enjoy if you know how to do it.
What if the Maharashtra government had passed a resolution in the Legislative Assembly to proclaim locally-produced wines as the official beverage of the state? What’s wrong if the government served the wine in official meetings alongside the bottled water? Wine may contain 5% to 15% alcohol and a few sips wouldn’t make someone drunk.
It’s an important question because, in terms of agriculture and islands, Maharashtra compares well with Florida. If it lags behind the US state, it’s because the people do not demand real issues to be taken up. They get carried away by lawmakers unveiling a statue of Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, or ShivajiMaharaj.
The fact is every generation has a Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, and ShivajiMaharaj waiting to be discovered and recognized by the people in their lifetime. For example, Vilas Shinde, a young man from an ordinary farmer’s family in Maharashtra’s Nashik with a Gold Medal in Agriculture built India’s largest Farmers Produce Company (FMC) called Sahyadri Farms in 10 years flat. The Rs 600-core FMC that he presides over today is an example of the extraordinary grit and determination of a young visionary. His entrepreneurial zeal has ensured that Maharashtra’s grape farmers don’t feel let down even if no support comes from anywhere.
A report in a wine industry magazine says that India and Australia have firmed up a deal to import Australian wines into India. This is one of the fallouts of Quad cooperation under which member countries are reducing their dependence on China to counter China’s aggressive posturing and disruption of supply chain network due to Covid-19. There are many companies in Australia from mining to wines that supply over 90% of their output to China. Such is China’s appetite!
In India, people can drink Indian-made foreign liquor and Australian-made wines, but they can’t drink wine produced in Nashik and bought from a superstore. Hypocrisy or plain stupidity – take your pick.
Meanwhile, please, crowdfund my flight to Florida, I wanna have some old-fashioned strawberry shortcake! (IPA Service)