raw milk

Cheese 2019 is on the way!

Cheese 2019 is on the way!

We already told you to mark the date on your calendars: the twelfth edition of Cheese will be held from September 20-23. Now you can add another date, June 26, when we’ll launch the first part of the program, which promises to be rich indeed.

Organized by Slow Food and the City of Bra, Cheese is the world’s biggest international event dedicated to raw-milk cheeses and other dairy products, held in the Piedmontese town that’s also home to Slow Food’s international headquarters.

Cheese and Biodiversity – On the War Against Bacteria

Cheese and Biodiversity – On the War Against Bacteria

Buket Soyyilmaz

“It’s safe to say we’ve gone overboard on the war against bacteria,” says Michael Pollan in the “Earth” episode of the Netflix documentary series Cooked. Pollan visits Sister Noella Marcellino, a nun and cheese producer from Connecticut who until recently made cheese with traditional French methods, using wooden barrels rather than stainless steel vessels. Because of a potential outbreak of Listeria—an infectious bacteria—health inspectors forced Sister Noella to stop using wooden barrels. Following her switch to stainless steel containers, the levels of poisonous E. coli in the cheese spiked. In the episode, Pollan finally finds out that it was the bacteria produced by the wood itself that kept her original cheese E. coli-free.

Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day

Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day

Cheesemaking is a truly ancient pastime, predating recorded history. And for the vast majority of that time, all cheese was made using raw milk. With the invention of pasteurization during food’s “industrial revolution” and the subsequent commodification of food as a mass-produced good, raw milk consumption went into steep decline, not least in the United States, where pasteurization has been a recommended practice at the federal level since 1924. Nonetheless, there are raw milk cheese producers up and down the country who carry on traditional cheesemaking practices.

Cheese Is Made From Milk—Raw Milk!

Cheese Is Made From Milk—Raw Milk!

Cheese, the international Slow Food event dedicated to quality artisanal cheeses, is returning to Bra this year from September 15 to 18, with one important innovation: Only raw-milk cheeses will be sold at the market, which features producers from around the world.

Why are we doing this? Because 20 years after the event’s first edition and the petition organized in defense of raw milk, it is more important than ever to assert the importance of milk that is alive and to inform consumers about the issues.

Piero Sardo, the president of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity and Cheese’s scientific advisor, explains the reasoning behind this choice.