Posted on Facebook today by Senator Rand Paul. Let’s not forget that although getting Americans out of Afghanistan has to be a priority, there are other issues:
Who doesn’t like a good piece of cheese? Whether its cheddar, Swiss, provolone, or simply American cheese, everybody has their preference. And thanks to USAID, your new favorite might eventually be from Sjenica, Serbia! That’s right! USAID spent part of a $22 million “Sustainable Local Development Project” training the staff at the Regional Center for Agricultural Development (RCAD) in Sjenica, Serbia, to follow the cheese standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and help producers adopt best practices. USAID reports the head of the center as stating, “Our ultimate goal is to be able to guarantee the Sjenica cheese standards and quality to the consumers in the EU, US, and further.”
What tangible skills did USAID help impart? Well, “RCAD’s staff was trained to introduce and implement ISO standards, to properly sample milk and meat products at local farms, to calibrate laboratory equipment, and to advise farmers on improving the safety and quality of their products,” a company that implemented the overall Development Project reported. “The project also trained 30 dairy and livestock farmers and processors on how to improve production practices and meet laboratory standards,” they noted, going on to also say it “engaged a local backstopping expert to assist the laboratory staff during critical phases of the accreditation process. …”
In recent years on the domestic side, the U.S. has been experiencing a massive, historic cheese surplus, one that would eventually hit 1.4 billion pounds — which NPR noted in its report “means that there is enough cheese sitting in cold storage to wrap around the U.S. Capitol.” So American dairy farmers dealing with the realities of this situation might be cheesed off to learn their government worked to strengthen competition and the European cheese market — using their own tax dollars to boot.
