It's not clear whether the Food Safety Modernization Act that President Obama signed into law will change how microdairies operate. But given the exceptions in the legislation for farms making less than $500,000 a year, I'm hoping to finally be able to experience mozzarella made from raw milk direct from a cow, or better still, from a water buffalo, as is the norm in Italy. Mozzarella is the most tortured of all great cheeses. The product you get in supermarket dairy cases is rubbery and bland, suitable only for nachos, and the good stuff, even when made on the spot in gourmet stores or Italian delis, is immediately plunged into an ice bath, which effectively destroys its flavor and texture. I look forward to seeing newly liberated microdairies bring me the tang and piquancy, the oozing, fibrous pleasure of fresh warm mozzarella the way it was meant to be eaten. That alone would make 2011 a good year for me.
Josh Ozersky is a James Beard Award–winning food writer and the author of The Hamburger: A History. His food video site, Ozersky.TV, is updated daily. He is currently at work on a biography of Colonel Sanders. Taste of America, Ozersky's food column for TIME.com, appears every Wednesday.