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imports

sarah-begley's picture

Exporting Jobs, Importing Cheese

The issues that come up during presidential elections involve food, directly or indirectly, more often than it would seem at first glance. For starters, there’s the obvious stuff: the morality of Bloomberg’s soda tax, the Broccoli Argument against Obamacare, and the question of extending expensive farm subsidies, to name a few. But questions of food are embedded in many other issues as well. You can’t talk about food politics without talking about regulation of businesses small and large, environmentalism, and even states’ rights (think of California’s foie gras ban).

This is domestic Parmesan, and it's not nearly as tasty as Parmigiano-Reggiano.
This Brigid's Abbey cheese, made in my home state of Connecticut, is just as satisfying as any French cheese.
These potato chips only crossed a few state borders to get to my kitchen.
This rice comes all the way from Thailand, but I can't think of any local rice paddies.
Who knew that the Nutella we get here is manufactured not in its native Italy, but by our neighbors to the north?