French cheese is dying. Good riddance

Every Thursday morning at Washington Dulles Airport, a French government Airbus disgorges a metal freight container under diplomatic seal. Bypassing US customs inspection, it is transported directly to the French Embassy compound in Georgetown. At midday, elite French diplomats gather to watch as the precious content is unsealed.

Along with the diplomatic papers, direct from the Quai d’Orsay, cheese is delivered weekly for French officials in the United States capital, a country where unpasteurised cheese is cruelly banned. Embassy staff put in their orders a week in advance and get delivered individual baskets of Comte, Reblochon and the soft, smoky goat’s cheese of Sainte-Maure de Touraine. And duty-free Bordeaux, to wash it down. À table! 

France claims to be exceptional and so does its cheese, a quintessential emblem of national identity. Now though, in the latest blow to the €35 billion French cheese sector, a biological crisis is threatening two protected cheeses.