Slow Food Australian Raw Milk Cheese

MILK the food has been fundamental to human nutrition and health for millennia. The domestication of cattle, sheep, goats and other mammals has given us a unique partnership. We draw sustenance from it every day. We drink fresh milk and cream. We eat butter and cheese. Milk is at the very heart of human life.

When skilfully made, ripening and maturing at its own pace, and developing flavours and textures of complexity and length, cheese retains the inherent and distinctive qualities of the milk used in its making. Cheese expresses diversity through seasonal and local characteristics, and the art of its maker, like no other food.

The Australian cheese we eat today is pasteurised, sanitised and uniform. Science is being used to limit our choice of cheese. We cannot make and market Australian raw milk cheese. We cannot taste it. We are denied the experience of the unique characteristics of this primary food.

Australians want food that is good, clean and fair. We want safe cheese. We want properly labelled cheese. We want cheese that will not imperil human health, nor imperil our environment. We simply want the right to choose Australian raw milk cheese.

Government regulates the food we eat. It is responsible for public health. We call on government to liberate our cheesemakers, not to harness them. We call on government to encourage diversity, build skills and knowledge, and return opportunity to Australias rural heartland. We call on government to allow Australian dairies to make and market raw milk cheese of quality. Enable us to choose.

We support Slow Food in its defence of Australian raw milk cheese.

We call on Food Standards Australia New Zealand to enable:
* Australian artisan cheesemakers to make and market Australian raw milk cheese of quality
* consumers or co-producers to choose and eat Australian raw milk cheese of quality
* the development and enforcement of safety and labelling laws and regulations that maintain the Australias integrity as a clean food nation

We also acknowledge that Slow Food in Australia will support:
* the development of an Australian raw milk cheese Slow Food praesidium to:
- enable artisan cheesemakers to acquire the skills and processes to produce Australian raw milk cheese of quality that is suitable for human enjoyment and nourishment, and
- encourage public awareness of Australian raw milk cheese, its culture and contribution to rural development and market choice