The USDA goes after a small sheep farm

Linda and Larry Faillace spent years at the University of Nottingham in England, where Linda became an expert in Mad Cow Disease (BSE). Upon return to the U.S., they imported sheep from Europe, with USDA approval, and began a cheese making business in Vermont, with their three children active participants in the enterprise. But a few years later, the USDA came after them, claiming that their sheep might carry BSE, and told them to surrender their sheep. Because they had science on their side––no sheep had ever had BSE––the Faillaces fought back...with grim and dramatic consequences. Linda's book, Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm , tells the story...well, most of it. The real reason for the USDA's attack on their farm was revealed a decade later, as she recounts in today's podcast. Still, Linda Faillace remains an optimist, and she and her husband have continued to make cheese and teach cheese making and culinary arts. She has a lot to say about the growing power of the ever-growing local food movement.

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