Cheese
May 16th, 2007 by Jim VMy off-farm job has once again sent me on a trip to get more training. I am currently in the D.C. area. Yesterday I discovered that a Whole Foods market is within walking distance from the building where I am during the day. During lunch I have made a couple of visits to this Whole Foods market. I have mostly just wandered through the store looking at what they have to offer. Today I took a close look at the cheeses that they sell. Unfortunately the vast majority of the cheese for sale was from Europe. They sell very little cheese from the United States. I saw some unlabeled cheese that looks to be produced in the United States and some cheese produced by Organic Valley. Makes me wonder what is going on. Don’t we make enough cheese in the United States? Is there a shortage of cheese in the United States? Do we really need to ship cheese from Europe when we have farmers complaining about the low price of milk? It seems that Whole Foods is not very committed to supporting American farmers. There may also be a bias toward European cheeses since a lot of American cheese seems to be of the industrial quality. But I know that there are some American producers that make excellent cheese. We purchase some cheese from a couple of farmers, both of whom have their cows on a 100% forage diet and who make excellent tasting cheese from raw milk. One of the farmers is in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. As far as I am concerned, the cheese produced by these “local†farmers surpasses the European produced cheeses that I have eaten. Tonight I ate some excellent cheese (that I brought from home) that was produced in a smaller cheese factory in Wisconsin.
From this little experience at Whole Foods, I am taking back a couple of lessons for myself. This experience has encouraged me to buy cheese from local farmers and from smaller local cheese factories that do not just turn out the standard “industrial†quality cheese. We have been buying directly from farmers, but this experience only strengthens my resolve. Further, this experience makes me very wary of corporations like Whole Foods that may purport to have certain values, but are ultimately only concerned about making money.
Jim V
P.S. I did buy some tomatoes to eat. They tasted like the standard, store bought, plastic tomatoes.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Up here in northeast Wisconsin we’re told on the news from time to time (esp. the noon ag report) that such and such local dairy won an award for top cheese. I know the western part of Wisconsin also has a vibrant cheese community.
I think what you stepped into out there was Whole Foods selling what people wanted. Out east they probably think top froo-froo cheeses come from Europe and that’s that. No one has yet budged people from that perception.
May 17th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Brian,
Given the good cheeses made in Wisconsin, I expected to see more than just Organic Valley’s cheese at the Whole Foods here in DC. You are probably right about the perception that the top froo-froo cheeses come from Europe. It is definitely a different world out here. I will be soo happy to get out of here and go back to the real world in the country. I am so glad that the Lord has given me the opportunity to raise my children in the country, instead of in a city like this.
Jim V
May 18th, 2007 at 8:05 am
We just had some of the top guys from Whole Foods out to see the farm and have dinner. (Joel wrote a negative artical on Whole Foods and the reaspons cost them a millions of dollars. I thik they where trying to mend bridges.) One of the top reasons that there are not more local foods in Whole foods is because they require 2 million in liability insurance from all there suppliers. Most small farmers cannot afford that type of insurance. I get my cheese from a small farmer in the D.C. area that does a very good job but is having trouble with the buricrats. Last time I heard from him he ad basicly told them to take a hike and that he wasen’t going to work with them any more. I haven’t heard if they have left him alone but I called and ordered cheese from him in the last month or so so I guess he is still up and running.
May 18th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Amen to growing up in the country. After spending several years in metropolitan areas around metropolitan people, my contention is that most want to give the illusion that they care about the little guy (the farmer in this case), but its more of a social symbol than anything. So and so says, “I was down at Whole Foods the other night and got the best zucchini I’ve ever had…where do you shop?” I am glad people shop at those type of markets because I do believe that they further the causes of sustainable practices and healthier food. However, I don’t believe you are really supporting the farmer unless you’re willing to get a little poop on you shoes. Say hello to George W. for me.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 am
Whole Foods is training wheels for buying organic. Some folks aren’t yet comfortable with the thought of real food. They’ve been conditioned by the Big Ag Industry to only desire what comes in shrink-wrap.
One of my colleagues at a farm down the road sells pigs. She says that folks who show up looking to buy ham occasionally get turned off by actually seeing the pigs. Once they see a happy creature living well they can’t participate in the end result. I guess for folks who don’t mind being complicit without actually seeing an animal, the shrink-wrapped products in the grocery store are an ideal purchase. They can close their eyes to the horrors of the CAFO they are supporting easier than they can get rid of the memory of the happy pig who led a full piggy life.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Nathan,
Seems like a really twisted system that requires farmers to get liability insurance. Its also disappointing that Whole Foods wants to push all the liability to the little guy. All the more reason to buy directly from farmers whenever possible.
Steve,
When I lived overseas, Europeans would comment on how Americans were afraid of any dirt and wanted things too antiseptically clean. As a result we end up with dead food that won’t support life. I think you are right that consumers need to “walk in a farmer’s shoes” for at least a short period of time, seeing the hard work that goes into the final product and seeing the normal biological processes that occur.
Ernest,
Too bad that people’s worldview has been so warped that they can’t eat meat after seeing a happy animal. If they only knew where that shrink wrapped product came from! Somehow we think that something coming from a large corporation and being processed in some factory will be “clean”. We’ve been brainwashed, haven’t we.
Jim V