Why Cheese and Climate Change

Climate resilience is a measure of how well we're able to weather (no pun intended) the chaos that climate change creates, now and in the future. Unfortunately, the U.S. dairy industry has been going big on one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in our country: the Southwest, where megadairies and the alfalfa fields that feed them dominate, thanks to an outsized share of the Colorado River's water. Alex talks with cheese historian and dairy scientist Paul Kindstedt about how we can reimagine a decentralized, resilient, and more sustainable American dairy industry. Meanwhile, current-day climate threats like storms and hurricanes are making it even harder for independent cheese shops (and other small businesses) to stay open, and there's little to no support for these community hubs once disaster strikes. Alex speaks with Louise Converse, owner of Artisan Cheese Company in Sarasota, Florida, about how a tropical storm and two hurricanes in late 2024 nearly put her out of business—and how the community she created around her shop showed up for her and her team to keep the doors open.  Stay tuned for Milkfed Season 2 later this year, and subscribe to Alex's newsletter at milkfed.news for more in the meantime.  SOURCES:  Changes in the Size and Location of U.S. Dairy Farms, USDA ERS Growth in output per cow drives U.S. milk production gains, USDA ERA Majority of U.S. cows live on big dairies, FarmProgress Change and Sustainability Issues in America’s Dairyland, Focus on Geography Meat of the Matter: Colorado River Overconsumed, NASA

Climate change is here, it's happening, and farmers are on the front lines as extreme heat, drought, floods, wildfires, and storms become everyday events. To protect their animals and their businesses, dairy farmers and cheesemakers have to adapt. Alex shares the stories of a dairy farmer in Puerto Rico who's breeding heat-resistant cows, a goat farmer and cheesemaker in Vermont dealing with microbial unpredictability in her geothermal cheese cave, and a shepherdess in the mountains above Los Angeles whose farm and life changed drastically after a wildfire tore through her land. Alex also digs into the climate risk factors that are making dairy farming more difficult even in cooler climates, like New England and the Swiss Alps, and considers what farmers and food producers can do to adapt their businesses in our current state of climate denial and economic austerity.  Get more cheese and climate content from Alex at Milkfed.news. SOURCES:  Climate Risks to Dairy Farms in the Northeastern United States, USDA Northeast Climate Hub Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information Extreme weather caused by climate change is raising food prices worldwide, study says, CNN Practices to Manage Climate Impacts: Beef and Dairy Cattle: A Guide for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Caribbean, USDA Caribbean Climate Hub Zebu: Information about the Humped Cattle, The International Federation of Indigenous Zebu Cattle of India  History and Development of Zebu Cattle in the United States, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 50, Issue 6, June 1980, Pages 1188–1200. How the U.S. Dictates What Puerto Rico Eats, New York Times Farmers Are Breeding Heat-Resistant Cows, Offrange The Rigid World of French Cheesemaking Meets Unbound Climate Change, New York Times Slick cow pics at Vaqueria El Remanso

Agriculture isn’t the world's largest contributor to climate change, but it's close. It’s also one of the most fraught sectors in terms of public debate about what we should—or shouldn’t—be raising, harvesting, and eating. Alex breaks down the climate change by the numbers to see exactly where emissions from food production and raising livestock come from—and ruminates on how cheese devotees might introduce a little more flexibility to reduce the carbon footprint of their diets. She also considers how two very different carbon mitigation methods have been implemented in the U.S. dairy industry, their pros and cons, and their wider impacts. Featuring interviews with environmental lawyer Ruthie Lazenby and Shelburne Farms pasture manager Sam Dixon.  Get more cheese and climate content from Alex at Milkfed.news. SOURCES:  Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown: an equality-based attribution approach for carbon dioxide emissions in excess of the planetary boundary, Lancet Planetary Health Carbon emissions graphics Comparing greenhouse gas emissions of dairy systems, UW-Madison Rethinking Manure Biogas: Policy Considerations to Promote Equity and Protect the Climate and Environment, Ruthie Lazenby Biochar: An emerging method of CO2 storage, Polytechnique Insights Project Drawdown SHIFT  

Alex covers the last 500-odd years of cheese and climate: how settler colonialism and capitalism shaped today’s cheese industry and our contemporary climate crisis, how industrialization changed the scale of food production, the rise of alternative food movements like organics and the American artisan cheese renaissance, and recent economic and political developments in the US that are affecting efforts to protect cheesemaking traditions and slow the climate crisis. All this history sets the stage for the second half of this series, where we’ll talk about climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience for cheese production and the world at large. Get more cheese and climate content from Alex at Milkfed.news.SOURCES: 2022 Census of Agriculture Highlights: Black Producers, USDAA Brief History of Milk Hygiene and Its Impact on Infant Mortality from 1875 to 1925 and Implications for Today: A Review. Journal of Food Protection, Volume 81, Issue 10, 2018.The father of climate change, The GuardianPoor Proles AlmanacThe Oxford Companion to Cheese, ed. Catherine DonnellyOrganic Production - Documentation, USDARising Consumer Demand Reshapes Landscape for U.S. Organic Farmers, USDANew Study Highlights Changes in U.S. Artisan and Specialty Cheese, American Cheese Society

How did we get to a point in human history where food production could become one of the main drivers of an existential crisis for our planet? Scholars theorize that humanity’s “discovery” of fermented dairy products thousands of years ago played a key role in our survival as a species. Alexandra looks at the essential role cheese played in human history; how climate change has affected agriculture, dairying, and cheesemaking since the Neolithic period; and how the emergence of European settler colonialism and capitalism set the stage for the climate crisis. Featuring dairy scientist and historian Paul Kindstedt.Get more cheese and climate content from Alex at Milkfed.news.SOURCES: Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and Its Place in Western Civilization by Paul KindstedtThe Medieval Optimum, The College of Wooster Tree Ring LabMedieval Warm Period, BritannicaLittle Ice Age, BritannicaLittle Ice Age, Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change: Volume 1, The Earth system: physical and chemical dimensions of global environmental change. 2002.Adapting to the Little Ice Age in pastoral regions: An interdisciplinary approach to climate history in north-west Europe. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitive and Interdisciplinary History. 2023, Vol. 56, No. 2.Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish?, Smithsonian MagazineThe Vikings abandoned Greenland due in part to sea-level rise, study finds. PennState

This is the story of how I arrived in a complicated position: A cheese lover and cheese professional who’s questioning how the industry I love contributes to and is impacted by the climate crisis. You'll learn who I am, how this podcast came to be, and the roots of my own climate anxiety—plus what you can expect over the next 5 episodes.LINKS:My websiteMy book, Stuff Every Cheese Lover Should KnowMilkfed: Notes on Cheese, Culture, and Climate newsletterEssay: What my family lost in the Eaton FireThe Uninhabitable Earth, New York Magazine

I'm Alexandra Jones, food writer, recovering cheesemonger and creator of the new limited series Milkfed: A Podcast About Cheese, Culture, and Climate. Two years ago, I began researching the relationship between cheese and climate change. I wanted to better understand how the industry I've worked in for more than 15 years fits into the climate crisis, how the people who make move, buy and sell cheese are being affected, and what they're doing to reduce their climate impact. Over six episodes, we'll learn how Earth's climate and human activities like food production have shaped each other for millennia. We'll look at how capitalism and colonialism helped transform cheese into fuel for our current crisis. We'll dig into the data to understand how food systems fit into the bigger picture of greenhouse gas emissions; learn about ways to incorporate climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience into cheese production; and hear from farmers, makers, historians, scientists and other experts along the way. If you make, buy, sell or eat cheese, I hope you'll join me. New episodes of Milkfed drop every other Tuesday starting January 13. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.