When you ask mainstream physicians about something they know little about—say, nutritional supplements or acupuncture—more often than not they’ll respond by belittling the approach, telling you to “save your money” or “there’s no scientific evidence to show it works.” Rarely will they say, “You know, I don’t know much about that subject, and I don’t want to prejudice you. I’ll try to learn some more and get back to you, but in the meantime, you should continue your research.”

Mainstream reporters and columnists tend to react similarly when presented with a subject they don’t really understand. The latest such issue to get them buzzing about is the buy-local movement. In just the last few weeks, Forbes and The New York Times have featured aha-type commentaries to this effect: all you do-gooders out there buying local aren’t really helping the environment…in fact, you’re probably leaving a larger carbon imprint by buying local than by buying the global factory stuff.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I never thought about my carbon imprint as a key motivation for buying local. I thought more about such matters as trust and health and nutrition and local community.

Carbon imprints associated with traveling to farmers markets? Sure, that is a potential issue, but in a realistic list of carbon imprint priorities, I have to think there are a few others further up the list—like emissions from automobile commuters and coal-burning power plants around the world, to name just a couple.

The media guys trying to get a chuckle or two about foodies buying local never once mention health, nutrition, trust, and community. I guess when you don’t understand something, the best approach is to just divert the discussion to something you think you do understand.

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Every once in a while the farm regulators do the right thing just by trying to understand what’s really going on. That’s what seems to have happened in the case of Debbie and Red Ferrell, makers of goat cheese out of  Rosanky, TX.

As I described here, the regulators had shut their tiny operation down last month, in an ugly scene at an Austin farmers market, based on concerns the Ferrells weren’t properly pasteurizing their goat’s milk by using an ordinary double boiler.

Well, a couple weeks ago, two inspectors—one from the state’s Manufactured Food Division and one from the Milk and Dairy Division—paid a visit to the Ferrell kitchen and watched Debbie do her pasteurization thing with the double boiler, including having her carry and pour the milk. Then they tested the milk to determine if it was, indeed, properly pasteurized.

A few days later, they called the Ferrells and told them they had passed the test, would receive a new license to make cheese, and were back in business. "We won our battle," says Red, who allows that there were a few things left hanging.

The big issue will come in the next year or so, when the Ferrells and other Texas cheesemakers will need to  comply with new regulations now on the drawing board that will likely require more formal pasteurization techniques–and the purchase of new equipment. But the couple is willing to accept that as something they can plan for. They expect to begin making cheese again once their goats start giving birth sometime in the next couple weeks.