Cheese

I read some sections of this book that was all about how lots of foods lie about being authentic versions of things like parmesan cheese and kobe beef and champagne and extra virgin olive oil and coffee and tea and wine and pretty much anything that can be sold at a premium is in a market overrun by imitators. To the point that everyone is doing it so pervasively that the people who make the real item and want to protect the name can't do so because regulatory agencies don't recognize the imitation as wrong doing.

Anyway, the book is very much from a consumer perspective and it tries to offer tips on how to avoid counterfeits and it basically boils down to giving the right people a lot of money.

But to me the more interesting parts of the book are when it shows what the authentic production process looks like. Like it describes how this place in Parma, Italy is like this awesome self-sustaining community that revolves entirely around making great cheese and ham. And they get to enjoy it all the time because they live there and that's their whole deal.

But then, it seems like it's better to live like people live than to chase the specific thing they make.  Like the actual cheese product isn't as important as the process that creates it.

The book is like "oh man, it sure sucks that there's this great thing but we can't get it because the market is flooded with fakes. it is hard to be a consumer"

Why not just also make a great thing? That seems more sustaining than trying to consume all the great things that could exist. I don't know.

Join my kombucha kommune. That's all I'm saying.