Paper short abstract:

This paper will identify and analyze the epistemic commitments underpinning current microbiopolitical contests being waged over raw-milk cheeses in the United States, and describe how people whose livelihoods are at stake try to navigate uncertain regulatory terrain.

Paper long abstract:

In early 2014, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official announced that the traditional and widespread use of wooden boards for aging cheese is noncompliant with US hygiene regulations and therefore impermissible. Later that same year, the FDA began buying cheese on the market to test for non-toxigenic E. coli, suddenly enforcing a rule-change that occurred in 2010 but was never announced to the artisanal cheesemaking community. Both moves newly threatened the legal sale in the US of domestic-made and imported raw-milk cheeses. In both cases, the American Cheese Society and other interest groups filed formal inquiries and launched public protest campaigns that have led to some degree of FDA back-pedaling. Nevertheless, regulatory pressure remains and uncertainty about future regulation is affecting what cheeses American producers are making and importers are buying. This paper will identify and analyze the epistemic commitments underpinning current microbiopolitical contests being waged over raw-milk cheeses in the United States, and describe how people whose livelihoods are at stake try to navigate uncertain regulatory terrain.