Honey Our Cheeses, please

If the world had to go without honey -- I mean, as in a hypothetical pollster asking a for-instance question -- most people would likely shrug, "Oh, that's too bad." Ask the same of the disappearances of their cheeses, however, and we'd see an avalanche of verbal horrors that might have frightened Wes Craven into an earlier grave.

People love their cheeses. Particularly, it seems, the well-off ... people and cheese types, I mean. The more exotic and tangy or deep and musky, the more the better. But what of the honeys? There are literally hundreds of kinds of the sticky sweet variations from nearly every part of the planet, ranging from pure white to nearly pitch black.

Yet, we merely grunt at the loss of a little of the gold.

And the reason: Because honey is, generically and globally speaking, the product of simplicity and of the poor. While cheeses, on the other hand ... well ... they so nicely seem to represent a diversity of the slices of the good lives of those who savor and favor the gourmet niceties of the world.

Which gets us back to the point of no panic for the loss of honeys (and the bees). It seems we think we can live with sugar or corn syrup. But without the cheeses of the fortunate?

What would happen, after all, if the nectar of the greens went away and we could no longer enjoy the molding of the ... hey ... wait a minute ... the nectar of the greens? Isn't that what makes the honeys?

Well, yes, of course, it is. But it is also true for the cheeses. Think about it. In reality, honeys and cheeses are made out of the same basic ingredients, the juices of various plants and flowers. What results in the differences in their substance are the efforts of the beasts and the process that make them into our goodies.

Cow lactations (though other mammals too) transformed chemically with the help of heat and humans, in the company of a panoply of temperate molds, turns milk into the smoldering cauldrons of what eventually dries and hardens into cheese. But for honeys, the magic is in the digestive steadiness of the bees and their nearly OCD infatuation with storing their sugary yumminess in a sterile and outrageously clean environment -- a capacity that makes them useful to save lives, heal wounds and pretty much last forever.

Which means if we pair them as belonging together, wouldn't we get closer to what could or should be happening? If we got the rich and the poor consumers of each to come together, might not we create an environment of consumption that favors both and brings more resources to bear for both?

In many countries that are struggling with economic and natural disasters, bees are saving forested areas and provide income to individuals who desperately need assistance. And cheesemaking is rescuing small farms and local harvestings.

But why should they do that? Suffer or thrive apart?

In a hypothetical question, after all, I ask you: Who the hell wouldn't love more and affordable pairings of the finest of honeys and cheeses from 'round the planet?

Honey my cheese, please.