Cheese: Artisanal Cheese Movement

While identifying well-made cheese in the United States is easier than ever before and examples abound to rival the best of European cheeses, defining exactly what is meant by the term artisanal is fraught with difficulty. Traditional methods of production would seem to apply, but pinpointing age-old traditions linked to specific places is much harder here than elsewhere. Traditions can move with people, as is often the case with immigrant groups. But then is something lost when a specific cheese is no longer tied to a particular breed, the fodder available at a specific locale, or when modern equipment and commercial bacterial starters are introduced? On the other hand, scientific rigor often provides for a more consistent and reliable and sometimes safer product, certainly not something that can be ignored in the commercial marketplace or given regulations governing cheese manufacture.