Video: Protesting the government's ban on cheese

The federal government may be willing to welcome immigrants into our country from foreign lands, but this open-door policy apparently doesn't apply to cheese.

Reason.tv reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is actually holding thousands of pounds of mimolette cheese in New Jersey because "regulators say the orange-hued, gouda-like fromage has too many mites on its rind."

Never mind that the mites - tiny, microscopic insects - are supposed to be there as part of a cheese-making process that goes back hundreds of years. The mites help to aerate the rind of mimolette, thus helping to produce the cheese's distinctive attributes. Many other cheeses - including hugely popular varieties such as Stilton and high-end "bandage-wrapped" cheddars - also have rind mites that serve similar purposes. The FDA worries that some people might have allergic reactions to the insects.

It's a serious infringement on our rights to good, smelly cheese.  It's also funny to think how cheese made the old-fashioned natural way is outlawed, yet processed yellow goo squirted from a can gets Uncle Sam's seal of approval...

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