Artisan cheese, Mark Bittman and Michelle Obama

I’ve got a food policy roundup at Cato that tries to answer such questions as:

* Has FDA’s regulatory zeal finally met its match in the foodie zeal of cheese-makers and -fanciers who are beginning to insist on their right to make and enjoy cheeses similar to those in France, even if they pose a nonzero though tiny bacterial risk?

* How annoying is it that Mark Bittman would stop writing a great food column in the NYT in order to start writing an inevitably wrongheaded politics-of-food column?

* Is Wal-Mart secretly smiling after First Lady Michelle Obama publicly twisted its arm to do various things it was probably considering anyway, along with some things it definitely wanted to do, such as opening more stores in poor urban neighborhoods?

Related: Led by past Overlawyered guest-blogger Baylen Linnekin, Keep Food Legal bills itself as “The first and only nationwide membership organization devoted to culinary freedom.” 11 Points has compiled a list of “11 Foods and Drinks Banned in the United States.” And GetReligion.org has more on the “shadowy community of outlaw Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers” portrayed in several recent press reports.

2 Comments

  • Yep Michelle Obama wants everyone to eat healthy all the time and wants to make it the government’s business to enforce her beliefs. Unless, of course, it is a party at the White House.

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/06/white-house-super-bowl-menu/

    Unbelievable.

  • There’s a good chapter about this regulation in Jeffrey Steingarten’s book It Must Have Been Something I Ate, wherein the author discusses smuggling French cheese and opines that the regulation is misdirected and misguided besides.