Cheese & Global Warming
NPR Morning Edition, August 30, 2007
Alps Warm and French Cheesemakers Try to Adapt
In a remote alpine village, French cheesemaker Alex Pelletier sighs.
“Yeah, global warming is really depressing. Everybody’s talking about it,” says Pelletier, who, makes Beaufort cheese. Pelletier’s worry is the unprecedented heat in the French Alps, which is making cows thirstier. Drinking more water, says Pelletier, dilutes the proteins and fats in the cows’ milk. And that costs the cheesemakers, who must use more milk to create the same amount of cheese.
The flora in the Alps is slowing changing, too. Pelletier is seeing plants native to the south of France seeking refuge in his own mountainous backyard. And a change in flora, he says, might someday change the taste of alpine cheese.
