A cheese-maker in Lyme is organizing the Connecticut Cheese Challenge, hoping to draw attention to efforts by the European Union to limit the use of names like Parmesan, feta and Gorgonzola on cheese made in the U.S.
The EU argues that American-made cheeses are shadows of the original European varieties and cut into sales and identity of European cheeses.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs, is scheduled to host the cheese challenge Tuesday at Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm. Participants will taste two cheeses with the same name and attempt to identify which one is from Connecticut.
Murphy recently urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative to oppose the EU's initiative, which his office called "absurd."