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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/19/unthinkable-cheese-based-economy

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Unthinkable? A cheese-based economy Unthinkable? A cheese-based economy
(5 months later)
Cheese has a distinguished history in the English language as an indicator of esteem. While less often heard these days, big cheese remains a familiar expression, originating allegedly from a cheese made from all the milk produced in a day by Republicans in the US town of Cheshire for their hero, Thomas Jefferson. (Alternatively, it may be a corruption of the Hindi chiz or the French chose, both meaning thing). The important point is that as a word it already implies, like gold, an intrinsic value. That may not be why Dairy Crest, the milk products firm which makes brands like Cathedral cheddar, is stuffing the hole in its pension fund by taking a £60m charge over its principal product; but, with the value of gold in freefall, national currencies diluted by quantitative easing and even the digital bitcoin suffering a reverse, there may be the kind of opportunity here that both the British economy and Britain's beleaguered dairy farmers have been crying out for. It certainly meets, or could be modified to meet, many of the criteria for money. Like gold or silver, it already has an intrinsic or commodity value. By adding it to its pension scheme covenant, Dairy Crest is establishing that it has a bank value. The downstream consequences would be beneficial: fewer economists; more farmers; a premium on one of Britain's finest natural products, grass; and the government's capacity to tinker with the value of the new currency would be limited by the natural productive capacities of the Holstein cow.Cheese has a distinguished history in the English language as an indicator of esteem. While less often heard these days, big cheese remains a familiar expression, originating allegedly from a cheese made from all the milk produced in a day by Republicans in the US town of Cheshire for their hero, Thomas Jefferson. (Alternatively, it may be a corruption of the Hindi chiz or the French chose, both meaning thing). The important point is that as a word it already implies, like gold, an intrinsic value. That may not be why Dairy Crest, the milk products firm which makes brands like Cathedral cheddar, is stuffing the hole in its pension fund by taking a £60m charge over its principal product; but, with the value of gold in freefall, national currencies diluted by quantitative easing and even the digital bitcoin suffering a reverse, there may be the kind of opportunity here that both the British economy and Britain's beleaguered dairy farmers have been crying out for. It certainly meets, or could be modified to meet, many of the criteria for money. Like gold or silver, it already has an intrinsic or commodity value. By adding it to its pension scheme covenant, Dairy Crest is establishing that it has a bank value. The downstream consequences would be beneficial: fewer economists; more farmers; a premium on one of Britain's finest natural products, grass; and the government's capacity to tinker with the value of the new currency would be limited by the natural productive capacities of the Holstein cow.
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