One of the most interesting talks today was led by Mateo Kehler, co-founder/owner of the Cellars at Jasper Hill and maker of some of my favorite cheeses, including Constant Bliss and Bayley Hazen Blue. Mateo is working with the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the University of Vermont to study whether his state should consider developing a platform for “place-based foods.”
Such a program would celebrate the terroir of Vermont and might be similar to a French AOC (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) designation, where products (such as certain cheeses like Roquefort and Comte) must be produced and aged in a consistent and traditional manner with ingredients from specifically classified producers in designated geographical areas.
While Mateo, being a Vermont cheesemaker, is of course interested in designating Vermont cheese as a “place-based food,” he freely admits the work could benefit other industries — including products such as Idaho potatoes, Kentucky bourbon, Virginia ham, California wine and Wisconsin Cheddar.
Such an idea is not as far-fetched on this side of the Atlantic as one might think. For example, just last year, our neighbor to the north established a Quebec-government-regulated label of IGP (indication géographique protégée), for Quebec’s Charlevoix lamb, making it the first food product in North America to be legally protected based on its region of origin.
With 43 farmstead cheesemakers making 150 different types of cheeses in a state with only 600,000 people, Vermont certainly has a unique angle on the cheesemaking industry. The question is, however, do Vermont cheeses taste different than other cheeses made in other parts of the country? I would argue yes. Just as I believe Wisconsin cheeses – especially those produced in the southwest part of the state where our sweet soils and limestone-filtered water grow grass unlike anywhere else on earth, and in time, grass becomes milk which becomes cheese — Vermont has its own climate, own culture and own cheesemaking heritage. Compare a Vermont Cheddar to a Wisconsin Cheddar any day and you’ll notice a distinct flavor profile difference.
Establishing a “place-based foods” designation just might be the one way to preserve what’s left of Vermont’s dairy industry. The state, like many others, has watched its smaller dairy farms disappear and its remaining farms get bigger to survive. Vermont, however, will never support large, confined dairy operations like those in Western states, because of “political, economic and environmental reasons,” Mateo says.
“We have an iconic, pastoral, idealized landscape. When you think of Vermont, you think of patchwork land and fields,” he says.
But getting Vermont farmers (and I would argue –farmers in any part of the country — they’re an independent bunch by nature) to collaborate and work together toward an AOC-type of designation for Vermont cheese will be hard, Mateo admits. “This type of initiative is going to have to be producer-driven, and frankly, I’m not sure if we Yankees have it in us to collaborate on anything.”
Let’s hope they at least give it the ol’ college try, as this is one initiative that could be a good model for other industries around the country.