Higher prices for expensive European fancy food can actually translate into an advantage for hardworking American cheesemakers and grass-fed meat producers, at least in the Northeast. Because these folks farm with fewer petroleum-based inputs and let their animals eat pasture, the price of sunlight is holding steady, their products are not increasing in price at the same rate.

Sure, it costs more to ship or drive their cheese, steaks and sausage to the farmer's market, but it's not nearly the increase in shipping from the E.U. or fattening feed lot beef on corn. The price increases can narrow the gap between sustainable agriculture prices and industrial prices.

AND, Jasper Hill Constant Bliss or Vermont Shepherd, both artisan cheeses from Vermont, are so much better than Etorki. When I worked at the Dean & DeLuca cheese counter we called that faux fancy -- an industrially produced European cheese for people who want something that sounds fancy, but is mostly uninteresting.