Apr 06 2007
Modern Law and Traditionalism Clash
I read an article this morning that just broke my heart. The article shows the struggle of Romanian shepherds to continue their craft under the new European Union food safety laws.
As I’ve mentioned before on my blog I was born and raised in Transylvania, Romania. I remember as a kid going to the open market and buying cheese with my grandmother. The shepherds would let us taste the cheese and pick the kind we liked. My grandmother was a chemist working in a dairy plant, and she could tell good cheese by color, smell and taste. She could tell which cheese was cleanly made, and which had, as she called it “udder taste.” At the same time my grandmother knew that the shepherds made the good cheese, not the dairy plant she worked at.
Another part of the science of cheese was of course an acquired taste. My grandmother taught me the difference between Transylvanian cheese and Valachian cheese and later on in life I learned to distinguish Bulgarian cheese as well (during my 4-year living gig in Bulgaria).
In the United States I have a hard time finding what I call “real cheese.” There is a store down the road from me here in Chicago that sells “Romanian Feta” and “Bulgarian Feta” which barely comes within 60% of the taste that I’m accustomed to.
What broke my heart today is the thought that the ancient craft the Romanian shepherds employ to make the delicious cheese I grew up with will disappear. That I may never be able to go to the open market and pick which cheese I want. I might never be able to taste that perfect cheese.
There are 2 issues that are at play here. One is the issue of responsibility and the other is the issue of traditionalism. My grandmother taught me how to recognize bad or “unclean” cheese. She didn’t need a piece of law to protect our stomachs. I’m sure many mothers and grandmothers passed the lessons on to their children. So I am conflicted about laws that are meant to protect the consumer yet take away the consumer’s responsibility to be cautious.
The second issues is that with the European laws of “having running water and cooling units” they are forcing modernization on people who choose to live traditionally. This is not an issue of mass production, or of national modernization, but rather an issue of taxing the small producer who has a very specialized craft.
Also, few of the Romanian shepherds will be able to afford making the required changes by July of this year to be able to legally continue to make and sell their product. This will destroy the small farmer just as effectively as communism destroyed small business.
2 responses so far
Very interesting opinions. But as far as I know there still are plenty of “100% natural” shepherds here selling very dubious cheese ( i.e. copiously mixed with chalk for better look and consistency), so food safety controls actually are needed. I agree though that these controls could be done by inspections in markets and not by forcing shepherds to mechanize their business.
On the other hand I find your remark:
“The second issues is that with the European laws of “having running water and cooling units” they are forcing modernization on people who choose to live traditionally.”
…very wrong. Who says they choose to live this way? There not doing it for the fun; it’s only because of the inept communist development policies that they remained in this backward situation
Great point about “who says they choose to live this way?” It’s not just about living, it’s about a craft. These shepherds have their way of making cheese, and who has the right to tell them there’s a different better way. And we’re not talking here about mass producers as I said. These are shepherds who sell their cheese at the farmers’ market a few times a week. So I shouldn’t have used the word living.
The way I see it, and I understand one needs to taste that great cheese to understand, this cheese-making craft that these shepherds employ is the same as wine-making or brewing. And what we don’t learn in history schools is that wine selling and brew selling was regulated for taxation purposes. It’s the same with the shepherds, their products are now regulated for taxation purposes first, and food safety second.
And yes I agree that it still needs to be regulated, but I still want to buy that great cheese! This is truly not a rational argument I’m making but rather a selfish one ;P