Cheese and other dairy products are getting the evil eye these days from many corners. Some voices argue that we need to be eating a more plant-based diet, both for the sake of the planet and for our own sake. I don’t disagree. But I do believe that cheese—a nutritious food that has sustained pastoral cultures around the world for millennia—is compatible with a healthy and low-impact lifestyle. The dairy farmers I know prioritize their animals’ welfare (why wouldn’t they?) and they aren’t ducking environmental concerns. They are seeking solutions.
Pasture-based dairying is one practice that is gaining traction. A handful of U.S. cheesemakers are showing the way, making award-winning cheeses (like Jasper Hill Farm’s Willoughby (pictured above), from grass-fed animals and building financially stable businesses. Could a meaningful volume of American cheese come from grass-fed livestock eventually? I recently spoke to a visionary Wisconsin dairy farmer who has creative ideas for how to make that happen.
Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin, Jacobs & Brichford in Indiana, Meadow Creek Dairy in Virginia, Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, Green Dirt Farm in Missouri and Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia are among the American cheesemakers succeeding with a grass-based model. Their cheeses are the crème de la crème. Other cheesemakers, like Shepherd’s Way Farms in Minnesota, graze their animals as much as their climate allows.
Before I get to the Wisconsin dairy farmer with the good ideas, I’d like to share some of Kat Feete’s response when I asked her about anti-dairy sentiment. Kat’s parents started Meadow Creek Dairy in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and she is assuming much of the management now.
“Our land is absolutely not suitable for growing crops (we're far too steep) but has thrived under management-intensive grazing. For as much food as it creates, grazing needs minimal input. We use very little fuel and about 10 percent of the fertilizer that would be recommended to grow food on our land. The pastures’ deep root structure minimizes agricultural runoff and is a huge carbon sink. It's difficult to estimate just how much carbon we sequester, but a study done on White Oak Farms , which uses similar management techniques, found a net negative for emissions due to the amount of carbon sequestered.
“In the car-happy USA, suburbs displacing farms is a bigger carbon threat. Transport produces about triple the greenhouse gases of agriculture (according to the EPA) . The average New Yorker would have far more impact on their personal carbon footprint by biking to work than by skipping the cheese plate.”
Source: dga-national.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-yuriys
Categories: Wisconsin, Livestock, Dairy Cattle