Snippets from the Italian Scene
Endangered Cheeses!
The other thing Slowfood did a fine job of organizing (at the Salone del Gusto, Oct 2000) was tasting sessions of one sort or another; they weren't free, but were interesting; I went to one dedicated to American microbrewery beer and American cheese, and was both delighted and shocked. Delighted because the beers assembled by Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and the cheeses assembled by Rob Kaufelt, owner of Muray's Cheese Shop in New York, were superb, and shocked because Rob said that the US FDA is seriously considering a ban on all cheeses made from unpasteurized milk. For health reasons, they say, and while it is possible to catch something from unpasteurized milk, by the time a cheese has aged for 2 months all the pathogenic bacteria are dead. And even before then cheese made from unpasteurized milk is safe; if it weren't there'd be a tremendous number of sick Europeans, because many fresh cheeses, for example French Brie or Piemontese Toma, are extremely popular. There aren't.
Who does the cheese only from pasteurized milk law favor? Big American dairies that can afford pasteurizing equipment. And who does it harm, in the US? Consumers, who may find themselves unable to purchase cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano, Roquefort, real Cheddar, and the list goes on. But more importantly, it will harm small American dairy farmers and sheepherders, who have discovered that making high quality artisan cheeses gives them a means to survive. If the FDA approves this law, many will simply go out of business because they cannot afford the equipment, while others will collapse more slowly because the quality of their cheese will decline (pasteurizing makes a dramatic difference in the flavor of the cheese), and people will then buy the cheaper industrial versions. One would expect the US National Dairy Association to be against the provision, but it instead supports it because the larger members that supply industry have more pull.
This is a classic Slowfood issue, about preserving a way of life, and giving consumers the option of buying good quality food. If you're upset by the possibility of loosing the option of buying cheese made from unpasteurized milk, Slowfood is setting up a signature campaign and asks that you send an email to rawmilk@slowfood.com saying “I also eat raw-milk cheese.”
Alas, things aren't rosy in Europe either. There's no move here to ban raw milk, because the tradition is too firmly entrenched. But the Bureaucrats of the EEU health service are well into passing a law that will equate commercial homogenized milk and with the fresh unhomogenized milk used by artisan cheesers, thus allowing the big industrial cheese makers to produce "raw milk" cheeses. As has often happened before, the health people show more concern for industrial bottom lines than they do for the consumers they're supposed to be protecting.
A presto,
Kyle
Phillips
Webweaver, About Italian Cuisine
Thoughts on Italian food
On Italian wine
On
living in Italy
Send a card from the
Italian Cuisine Post Office, or browse the photos!
