Why the EU is crippling French artisanal cheesemakers

When the doyen of all things cheese in America Max McCalman posts an article on his FaceBook page from Newsweek regarding the very sad state of affairs in the  French artisanal cheese world, you need to take notice.  The article entitled French Cheesemakers Crippled by EU Health Measures by Ana Pouvreau and Mark Porter outline the ongoing David and Golith battle between the milk industry and the artisanal cheese makers of not just France but one would imagine elsewhere in the EU.  Unfortunately, this situation has been longstanding and truly has wide reaching effects on the cheesemakers, the small diary farmers and ultimately the consumer.  

Plain and simple, the big guys who want to dominate markets have no tolerance for the little guys. Their industrial processes, cheap, inferior milk and unforgiving bottom lines force them to use their immense power to shape the products available and the political landscape. There is an axiom about too many taxes kill tax, and the same idea can be applied here. Too many mediocre industrial, pasterized cheeses will ultimately obliterate "cheese". 

It has always puzzled me why these industrial conglomerates drive the milk prices down thus destroying the small milk producers, in order to pump out crap, i.e., pasturized, tasteless, long-life "cheese" to control the market with their size, and also feel the need to squeeze out what is perceived as competion by the artisanal cheesmaker creating lait cru (unpasterised) cheese. These giants with deep pockets use thier influence to bury the little producers in regulations that will ultimately, and effectively, outlaw their products.

If people want to buy industrialized products in supermarkets or grocery stores and let them sit in their refigerators for weeks, let them, it is their choice, sad as it may be.  But some of us who want to spend our hard earned cash on more expensive, and what we perceive as better products, then why should we not have that choice and right?  Democracy and freedom of choice at work; market segmentation and profit margin intact...n'est pas?  But no, this is not the mentality of the big agrobusinesses!  Theirs is to dominate and kill off ALL competition. In France, this "competition" represents a meer 10% of the market. What company would not, and should not, be satisfied with that? 

The president of an organization, Fromages de Terroirs, that supports unpasterized cheese producers in France, Veronique RICHEZ-LEROUGE, has waged this battle here in France for quite some time now. So she is now joined by Max McCalman on the American front to say - save our cheese! If it can happen in the EU it also happening in the US! 

We, as supporters of artisanal producer, the diversity of our regional countryside and our terroir must not let this situation deteriorate further. A way of life is at stake as well as our own health. This is an example of capitalism when it is at it's worst and this course needs to be changed! Please do your part. Stand up and fight! 

Aux armes chers citoyens et citoyennes! Viva la revolution!

 

 

Raw Milk and Affinage...are they sacrosanct?

There are two issues that continuously present themselves in conversations about cheese, which never find resolution.  

Are raw milk cheeses better than pasturised milk ones?

Is affinage (aging) an added value beyond the cheese making?

And while the world's problems won't be solved by answering these two quetions, in the cheese world, they never seem to go away.  You find many different opinions and some fervent advocates on both sides of the fence, each one with their own viewpoint worth considering. This of course points to a point of departure for the discussion about what makes cheese - cheese and what makes up the profession(s) that surround it.

The central question about whether milk in its original form, i.e.; with all its inherent chemical makeup versus milk that has had all that 'good' stuff removed and then a controlled version added back in, makes for a better end product. 

I have my opinions but have had it challenged a few times, particularly with pasterised milk Époisses, which of course only proves to me that there is no finite answer. This was brought home when I read an interview with a well known fromager here in Paris - Martine Dubois, a fromagère in the 17th arrondissement who always has amazing cheeses.  She is an interesting person who advocates for better understanding and dialogue within her industry.  When asked her opinion about the debate about raw milk versus non, she said:

"The question isn't really there. Sorry to bring down a myth, but a raw milk camembert can be bad and a camembert from microfiltered milk can be excellent. Here we are speaking particularly about Camemberts, but all cheeses are affected yet not all make as much noise. It is a war that makes you forget the main objective: the taste of the product. Also, we cheesemongers need to be able to be supplied with a constant quality: raw milk cheeses are more difficult to maintain and the quantities do not always match the demand."

Another point of contention was whether affinage is a real profession and is it separate from being a cheesemonger? These have come under some heavy discussion of late by a lot of cheese people in the US.  As to this question of affinage, which technically meaning refinement or finishing or as the master Max McCalman defines it "the art of aging cheese",  Madame Dubois had another pretty pointed opinion which was echoed by Randolph Hodgson, the owner of Neal's Yard Dairy in the UK. 

The question to her was - What is a fromager-affineur which means one who not only sells cheese but ages cheese. Here in France, I would have said that a fromager is not the same as an affineur.  One sells cheese, but does not necessarily practice the art of affinage. They could be one in the same and those who do both would provide more advantages to the customer.  According to Mme Dubois however this misses the point. She said:

"Another myth ... refining (aging), is the maturation of cheese. Today, almost no fromager (cheesemonger) ages cheese in his cellars. I have three caves, each at different temperatures and humidity levels, which are used sometimes to delay or finish aging, but cheese is much better left in its original cellar to mature where it is at home with the right humidity, the right temperature, the right environment and the suitable expertise. Moreover, and to go even further...we (fromagère) are cheese merchants, we do not make cheese, that credit goes to the producer."

I think a bit of splitting hairs is going on here. According to Mr. McCalman in his article The Art of Affinage in Cheese Connoisseur this month, affinage is the second step in cheesemaking regardless of who practices it. 

"Great affineurs make memories and poor affinage destroys the promise of greatness."  

A cheese not only needs to be maintained properly, but it must have started with superior milk, cheesemaking techniques and hygiene. Affinage is the process of monitoring the development of a cheese and none of those steps without the other can make a superior product. In otherwords, affinage can not make a great cheese out of a poorly made one. But assuming all that is in place, proper affinage practiced by an artist in the trade will allow; coax; nuture what was set in motion during the cheesemaking process onto the road of achieving the cheese's full potential.

So in my opinion, regardless of whether the milk was raw or pasturised, if the milk was of high quality and the cheesemaker practices his craft with the upmost attention, a cheese has the potential of being taken to its highest level of expression by a cheesemonger, fromagère or affineur who practice at least in some part, the art of affinage.

Why Raw Milk?

A quote at Graindorge in Normandy

Raw Milk Cheeses - safe or not?

The recent article in the NY Times entitled 'Raw Milk Cheesemakers Fret Over Possible New Rules' raises this ongoing battle between raw versus pasteurized milk products. once again. Raw milk cheeses have been around since the beginnings of time so what are the real reasons they are in danger of being outlawed? Enough with all the hyperbole, big industry influences and misleading claims, it is high time some real science and impartial research be done on raw milk cheeses!

Modern societies create their own environments and constraints, which in turn create their own need for specialized regulation for large populations. A one-size fits all rule, such as the 60 day aging rule in the US (fallacious from the start) is patently not appropriate. Pasturization not only does not eliminate the problem. In fact, pasturized cheeses have a pretty bad track record in this arena, both in the US and in France. The needs of an industrial cheese producer or any edible product for that matter, versus a small farm producer are different. What is not different is hygiene, both from the milk source, during the making, while being transported, stored and ultimately handled. At each point, there is the potential risk of contamination. and each present their own specific issues and varying levels of potential. Therefore, each point of weakness must be measured for its possibility to contaminate; considered fairly. 

One must also take into account the effects of the current anti-germ culture, such as the one in the US, where it seems all germs are bad and must be eradicated.  Is this practice of sanitizing everything, not in fact exacerbating the problem by distorting nature’s ability to balance good versus bad? One must accept that risk is inherent in life. To that end, each of us is responsible for determining how much exposure we are prepared to take, as well as what role our governments should take to mitigate risks for its people. But where is the balance between risk and profit? Where is rational, nonbiased research and debate about this issue? Now more than ever, we have the capability to do the science and debate the debate. It is time, in my opinion to do so.

Note Bene:  There is a recent video entitled `Cheese and Microbes` over on the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheeses site worth taking a look at on the subject at hand.

Ah, America! Raw Milk - The Fight Heats Up

In his recent article, Who Took My Raw Milk Cheese?, David Gumpert discussed the politics and reasons behind the FDA raids on respected cheese makers in several states.  As a journalist, he is the author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights (Chelsea Green, 2009) and his blog documents the on-going battle over raw milk. 

From where I sit here in France, this is a pretty sorry story for the naissant US artisanal cheese business. France as the mother of all raw milk cheeses has it's problems too!  As recently as two years ago, big agro tried to get the EU to ban raw milk Camembert using the listeria argument. Historically however, in France these listeriosis alerts have been traced back to contamination at the source of production and in almost all cases, were from cheeses produced in industrial factories using pasturised milk.   

But here, all raw milk cheeses must comply with the health standards of European regulations concerning micro-organisms and hygiene.  According to statistics, the health risks associated with consumption of raw milk products are very limited if you compare the small number of listeriosis alerts that have occurred when compared with an annual production that exceeds more than 170,000 tonnes in France according to the researchers at the INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France) otherwise known as the National Institute for Agricultural Research) in Clermont-Ferrand-Theix.

In an article by Pete Kennedy from the Farmer To Consumer Legal Defense Fund, FDA's Ace in the Hole, in the last thirty-eight years, there have been no reports of illness caused by the consumption of raw milk that was attributed to Listeria monocytogenes (L-mono).  One must ask why then is the FDA all of a sudden targeting small farm producers?  Reminds me of the UK in the 1970's, and the E-coli 0157 scare.  James Aldridge's wonderful artisanal cheese Tornegus was targeted by the then public health minister Tessa Jowell because of a suspected illness and his triving business was promplty destroyed.

As in the case of James Aldridge, the American farmers are being required to destroy their cheese, thus their livelihood.  The most disturbing bit here is that the FDA is only using a test to discover the presence listeria bacteria (which by the way is on your hands at this very moment) and not the one that drills down to find the specific form and quantity. I read that in the case of the Morningland Diary, 100 swabs at the dairy found no indication of presence the bacteria; however, the FDA is not publishing their results. It is like being condemned of a crime without actual proof.

  

If you are interested in the subject of biopolitics, I highly recommend you read the research paper by Heather Paxton at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - POST-PASTEURIAN CULTURES: The Microbiopolitics of Raw-Milk Cheese in the United States, published in CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 23, 2008.  And further reading on the raw milk issue, you might try the Research report : Food Fears and Raw-milk Cheese by Harry G. West for the Food Studies Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 2008.

But by all means, please judge for yourself. I have been eating raw milk cheeses here in France every day for 20 years and am still alive and kicking!  Buy your cheese, raw milk or otherwise, from a quality fromagerie who source the best quality cheeses from the best producers; keep the properly and enjoy them safely.

An update : For those of you who what to keep posted on the latest developements on this story.  Two articles in the International Herald Tribune, November 19 & 20 2010...A matter of taste versus safety and As Cheesemaking Blooms, So Can Listeria both by William Neuman and there is an interesting video on the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese.

Update 30 November 2010 : Senate Passes Overhaul of Food Safety Regulations