Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1476966
C H E E S E+ 202 2 culturecheesemag.com 51 farmers transition to growing crops for our product line," she says. DFT is currently compiling a package that will include transitional income, a business coaching toolkit, and hands-on training to assist farmers interested in shifting from cows to crops. And some are already making the shift without support—in 2017, long-time New York dairy Elmhurst 1925 transitioned from cow to retail nut milks. "We want dairy farmers to see plant-milk cheese as an opportunity," Schinner says, "not a threat." Yet there's a limit to what farmers can grow stateside. Miyoko's cheeses are made with cashews and coconuts, while others are made with almonds and soy. The origins of these crops— and what would happen to them if vegan cheese demand were to skyrocket—is a common talking point for dairy cheesemakers. "Trucking billions of bees from New York to California to pollinate water-guzzling almonds during a drought, deforestation of rainforests for expanded soybean demand, the child labor horrors without which the cashew trade would collapse, these are not my ideas of ethics and sustainability," says Yoav Perry. "If you really want the vegan product for its supposed environmental benefits, the soil must be organic, but what are organic fertilizers? Cow manure, fish bone meal, worm castings, animal products. It's a spectacular irony, the crops that make ethical vegan animal alternatives are carnivores, while milking animals are strictly vegan." Schinner sources her cashews from a sustainable farm in Vietnam, and a third-party life-cycle analysis reported that her products release 98 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than cheese. "It seems counterintuitive," she says, "but transportation is actually a very small part of a food's GHG footprint." Babaki also sources his A WAY WITH WORDS Did you know your foods were subject to national and global definitions? The FDA controls the Title 21 section of the Code of Federal Regulations, while the Food and Agriculture Organization regulates the Codex Alimentarius, a collection of internationally recognized food standards. FDA Code of Federal Regulations (national) FAO Codex Alimentarius (global) The normal lacteal secretion, practically free of colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy hooved mammals. The normal mammary secretion of milking animals obtained from one or more milkings without either addition to it or extraction from it, intended for consumption as liquid milk or for further processing…Only a food complying with [this] definition may be named "milk"...However, [this] provision shall not apply to the name of a product the exact nature of which is clear from traditional usage or when the name is clearly used to describe a characteristic quality of the non-milk product. In respect of a product which is not milk…no label, commercial document, publicity material or any form of point of sale presentation shall be used which claims, implies or suggests that the product is milk. Cheese is the ripened or unripened soft, semi-hard, hard, or extra-hard product, which may be coated, and in which the whey protein/ casein ratio does not exceed that of milk, obtained by: (a) coagulating wholly or partly the protein of milk, skimmed milk, partly skimmed milk, cream, whey cream or buttermilk, or any combination of these materials, through the action of rennet or other suitable coagulating agents, and by partially draining the whey resulting from the coagulation…and/or (b) processing techniques involving coagulation of the protein of milk and/ or products obtained from milk which give an end-product with similar physical, chemical and organoleptic characteristics as the product defined under (a). The fresh or matured product obtained by draining after coagulation of milk, cream, skimmed, or partly skimmed milk. MILK CHEESE