Free Republic

The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that it will not allow cheese makers use wooden boards to age their cheese - a ruling that would effectively wipe out artisanal cheeses.The FDA's ruling came to light after several cheese makers in New York were cited - despite state laws that allow the use of wood boards."Reports showed that the porous structure of wood made it susceptible to the colonization of bacteria on the surface and inside the wood," Monica Metz, the branch chief for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's Dairy and Egg Branch, wrote...

I’m getting e-mail about a new bill authored by Rosa DeLauro, HR875, claiming that it will mean an end to small farms and organic food, leading to the corporatization of farming. In doing some research this morning, I found little coverage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) outside of advocacy-group websites. Glenn Beck, however, did a lengthy segment on the issue this weekend:

The hard market is the stuff of legend as far as I'm concerned. To me, it appears to be a cyclical and arbitrary theory promulgated by the insurance company to justify the need for increased premiums to fuel shortfalls caused by free market conditions and certain disasters that adversely affect the insurance industry. But that's just me. First, let me say that there may have been a time that the theory of a hard or soft market may have been justified. I've only been in the business since 1986, but the research on the issue is a little sketchy. From...