The Importance of Artisan Cheesemakers in the UK

Properly resourced Cheesemakers benefit both the consumer and farmers.

Where cheesemaking excellence is pursued the resulting increase in value can be shared across a whole region. This increase in value can be measured directly: i.e. achieving higher milk prices: or indirectly through harder-to-quantify values such as increased cultural value or awareness of a region’s unique farming practices, people, history or traditions etc.

Where there is more diversity in the size and scale and working practices of cheesemakers, and where there is greater opportunity to develop technical competence of cheesemakers, there will be an uplift in the value of milk, provided all those cheesemakers are able to access that milk.

Current, restrictive milk contracts in the UK are not conducive to a healthy dairy industry and will limit the development of the regional economy where dairy farming is dominant.

Contracts demanding exclusivity are undermining the opportunities that collaborating with artisan cheesemakers could bring: to farmers; the communities those farms exist within; tourism; regional food supply chains; the wider economy and consumers.

Where funding is directed towards the pursuit of technical excellence in cheesemaking within a specific community with shared aims and objectives, the benefits are far greater than when funding is directly handed to farmers or processors ie in the case of capital grants.

There are wider ecological and cultural benefits to be gained by supporting and encouraging cheesemaking as an activity, particularly in remote rural commun-ities and where there is a desire to see more high value tourism.

Collaboration with academia can both highlight and add value to the work that cheesemakers are doing. Similarly academia has much to gain by engaging with cheesemakers particularly where the challenges are complex and require diversity or breadth of understanding.