Save our cheese!

In case you haven't heard, the FDA has ruled that artisan cheesemakers in the US can no longer age cheese on wooden boards (a necessary part of the cheesemaking process for many types of cheese.)  Forbes has a great piece on it:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an executive decree banning the centuries old practice of aging cheese on wooden boards.  One bureaucrat within the FDA, without surveying all of the scientific literature, and without public commentary, has rattled hundreds of small businesses across the United States.  Consumers who eat any kind of aged cheese shoparmigiano-reggianould prepare for a potentially catastrophic disruption in the market for artisan, non-processed cheese.

This will effect local cheesemakers; in some early reports it was talked about how the wonderful, global award winning, local Marieke Gouda was aged on wood boards, for instance. It will cost jobs locally - almost any small producer of cheese will be affected.  And forget finding parmigiano-reggiano at the grocery store - if this is applied to all cheese you won't be able to get pretty much any cheese from Europe (or Canada for that matter).

There is a petition on Whitehouse.gov to review this poorly thought out, job-killing rule. Please sign it and help stop this... inanity.