Recently read a great book, American Terroir, by Rowan Jacobsen; I subsequently interviewed him, which will be coming up soon, so stay tuned.
One of the things he covered was American artisanal cheese, a truly marvelous tale. Because that was fresh on my mind, it was with utter dismay and budding anger I read this piece from Real Farmacy – in essence, the FDA is dealing a death blow to the nascent American artisanal cheese industry, and it’s truly bullshit. The arguments for their heavy handed action have been disproved literally for centuries upon centuries, in many countries around the world. I mean seriously, what’s next, wine makers can’t use wooden barrels for the same horseshit reason? If you can’t tell, this really burns me up…
We cannot and should not stand by and let our government once again act ‘with our best interest and safety in mind’ when what they’re doing is stupid, needless, and destructive. As noted in the article, this kind of enforcement has generally been left up to the states, as it should be – the Feds moving like this will cripple a huge percentage of the industry that relies on wood for aging. There’s simply no way our makers can compete if they’re denied the process that makers all over the world use and have literally for millennia.
Call, email, or write the FDA and your government representatives, local, state, and federal, and tell them to rein in their pit bull tactics!
UrbanMonique 