At the most recent Presentation Party Night at the Bathaus in Brooklyn, I was able to share in 10 minutes some of the key musings on artisan cheese in relation to American identity.  It was a charged 10 minutes, to be sure, as words such as “artisan” and “industrial” or completely loaded with multiple interpretations and uses, often linked to different sets of value systems.  In covering the grounds of “artisan” cheese, it is important to create a well rounded definition that combines history, science, socioeconomic class, cultural influences, government regulation (or lack thereof), agricultural practices, and a collective acceptance of food as art, preservation, and celebration.

The slides below briefly attempt to express this complexity.  Each slide serves as a meditation that can be reflected upon or researched in more depth.  Within the constructs of dairy controversy and conversation, we will find deeper answers to the above sub headers of society.