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
