[Anneke]

Hello Sid. It's great to have you with us!

Wisconsin is certainly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to cheese making and cheese marketing, and seems to be a bit of a "model" in the cheese community. As an artisan cheesemaker, have you found this model to help or hinder your operation?

Lastly, what are your feelings on an American PDO system? Is it realistic? Is there enough history and promise of future history for the American (artisan) cheeses that would be selected?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Sid Cook]

It has been a natural to market.....we have all been working at it for the past 100 years or so......I grew up in a cheese factory, all my uncles talked and lived cheese....there really is a 'Cheese Culture' here.

I have found it helpful in the market....10 years ago I didn't know I was an artisan cheese maker......I was just a small manufacture tucked away in the hills of Wisconsin trying to make a living and stay in business,doing something I loved to do.

The knowledge and know how has been here for generations.....we just never told anyone.

With the PDO system.......you know......this is America and this is the place people came to for a new life and new opportunities...PDO and systems like this can be boring, restrictive, limiting.

Maybe someday, with the PDO...but right now is the most inovative time in American Cheese Making history.....we are living it....and making it. American Originals.

Sid