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SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
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Small guys thinking big
From the fields through to the finished product, there are a variety of ways cheesemakers can alter their processes to counteract their environmental impact. TANWEN DAWNHISCOX speaks to some of the UK’s most cutting-edge operations.
Tim Jones, Lincolnshire Poacher
IT MAY SHOCK readers of this publication to find out that not everybody loves cheese. In fact, looking at recent news stories about protestors descending on Central London retailers, you could say that some actively dislike it.
The activists who emptied bottles of milk on shop floors and over counters said they were taking “necessary action” – highlighting the environmental damage that production of dairy and other animal-based food causes.
The dairy industry as a whole certainly has things to be accountable for. Making cheese uses a lot of water and energy, and methane gas produced by cows is thought to be one of the main culprits for the rise in global temperatures.
While plenty of producers are now addressing these issues, there has been a good deal of environmentally sound trailblazing from smaller cheesemakers that they could learn from.
The Betts family, who produce Winterdale Shaw in Kent, have been making ‘carbon neutral’ cheddar for over a decade, and their operation has been low-impact for far longer.
“When we built our cheese dairy back in 2004,” says Robin Betts, “it was all built to be as energy efficient as possible.”
“I think we slipped into it by mistake in some ways, in the fact that we wanted to do everything in the traditional way.”
The cloth-wrap used on cheese is biodegradable and plastic-free, plus, as any producer will know, the fresher the milk when the cheese is made, the more of its delicate butter fats are preserved and the better it will taste. So, at Winterdale, the milking process is done straight into the transport tanks to the dairy, then gravity fed into the cheese vats.
The cheese is then matured in a cave built under the dairy, which naturally maintains a temperature of 12°C year-round.
It didn’t take much more for the operation to become fully carbon neutral, as Betts realised when he reviewed the cheesemaking process in 2011.
“The only way that we were using energy, in any significant way, was that additional eight degrees raising of temperature,” he explains, so they installed a ground source heat pump to heat up the water and put 10kw of solar panels on the roof. From then on, the cheese was officially carbon negative.
By 2019, Betts had installed an additional 10kw of solar generation equipment, a small commercial wind turbine, 40kw of battery storage and a fleet of electric vehicles.
“So our whole transport, living, and the cheese is all carbon neutral,” he says.
Our whole transport, living, and the cheese is all carbon neutral.
Robin Betts, Winterdale Shaw
Production at Keen’s
Producers need to let the public know that they are listening, and they are taking action.
Catherine Temple, Mrs Temple’s Cheese
Further north, Lincolnshire Poacher’s operation also runs entirely on sustainable energy, and has done since 2011, when the Government set out attractive incentives for farmers (Feed-In-Tariffs), and they installed a medium-sized wind turbine and solar panels.
These generate so much energy, in fact, that they sell some back to the grid – which, given the energy price rises many are experiencing at the moment, can only be a good thing.
“Electricity going up will cost us a little bit but relatively little because we’re not buying that much electricity in and we’re getting more now for our exported energy,” says owner Tim Jones. “When we bought the machine, we were getting 3p a unit for the electricity we sold, now we’re getting 12p.”
To heat the milk in the cheesemaking process and all the water on the farm, they also have two biomass wood chip boilers. Additional heating for the cottages, their office and packing room comes from a ground source heat pump installed in the late 2000s.
“They’re all doing their bit to mitigate our carbon usage,” says Jones, which is ultimately why they chose to invest almost £1million in renewables. “We talked a lot about what we could do, and being a farmer, you do have opportunities because you’ve got space and you can borrow money relatively easily.”
While Government incentives are harder to come by now, Jones says there is still scope for other producers to do the right thing.
“Most cheesemakers have the opportunity to put in solar panels or a wind turbine or something else, there are lots of projects that can be done. We all use lots of energy so certainly to counterbalance the arguments, the opportunities are there.”
Not all cheesemakers are farmers, but for those who are, tackling one of the main sources of controversy surrounding dairy farming and cheese production is to use by-products associated with methane gas production to generate energy, and this is what Mrs Temples cheese and Keen’s Cheddar farms do.
The Temples have had an anaerobic digester for 14 years, to process manure and whey from the cheese factory and waste products from their Norfolk farm. The methane produced is used to run an engine that generates enough electricity to run the farm.
On the family’s Somerset farm, George Keen says the waste heat from their digester, installed four years ago keeps the cows’ drinking water at temperature and heats their houses, as well as the dairy and cheesemaking facilities.
Benefitting both farms, waste products put through the digester yield good compost and liquid manures to be fed back onto the soils, cutting out the use of chemicals. Bearing in mind that a huge amount of the world’s fossil fuel use is from fertiliser production, this is a significant step.
The list of good practices goes on: regenerative farming, minimal tillage, riverbank management, rainwater collection. All of these counteract its impact and yet, stereotypes still haunt the dairy industry. For Keen, this is partly because what is required of food producers now is different to what it was 50 years ago.
“When I was a young man, we were really producing as much food, as efficiently as we could on the land we had,” he says. “Now the emphasis has changed and we’re looking at soil science, wildlife, carbon capture, and a balance of the whole process.
“Life is a lot more complicated. You have to think about a lot more when you’re planning ahead, and I think it’s important that we use the knowledge that’s available now.
“We want to leave the world, our farm and cheddar cheesemaking in the best shape we can for the future.”
The reputational issues affecting the industry, he adds, are perhaps partly caused by the fact that producers are too gentle in spreading the word about what they’re doing.
“Marketing is a field that we’re not good at,” Keen says. “We’ve always relied on the product selling itself, but we do have to sell ourselves and what we’re doing on the farm.”
Lincolnshire Poacher’s Tim Jones agrees. “We’ve never made a big story out of it,” he says. “We just get on with it. Perhaps we and others are guilty of not making enough of it.”
Other producers have been more vocal. Like her father-in-law has done for several decades, Catherine Temple spends a proportion of her working life telling people – school children, young farmers, fellow producers and members of the public – how they run their farm in a circular fashion, and how others can take inspiration from what they do.
The Temples’ advocacy has been recognised by the local agricultural association, and earned them a prize for leading innovation in farming this year from the Aylesham Agricultural Association.
“We have a constant stream of visitors and invitations to speak and people wanting to ask questions,” she says. “I was giving a talk at an event on Saturday and people were genuinely thrilled to hear what is being done.
“People know so little about how their food is made that really all food producers need to be offering is some sort of education that is not greenwashing.
“Food producers need to address their communication skills. They need to let the public know that they are listening, and they are taking action.”
Policymakers need to involve themselves, too she adds, as “at the moment it’s been very much farmers against the Government, against the rewilders”.
No one wants to cry over spilled milk, but unless more in the industry make changes, we might find that we carry on doing exactly that.
winterdale.co.uk lincolnshirepoachercheese.com keenscheddar.co.uk mrstemplescheese.co.uk
Cheesemakers of Wales
The World Cheese Awards takes place in a different corner of Europe each year. It brings together hundreds of dairy industry influencers, whether they are judges, buyers, makers, affineurs, retailers, chefs, or food writers. This year the event supported by the Welsh Government takes place at the International Conference Centre Wales, Newport. The World Cheese Market takes place on 2nd November, alongside the world’s most important cheese awards, the World Cheese Awards, at the International Convention Centre Wales, Newport. You are warmly invited to discover: • Welsh Food & Drink showcase and sampling • Over 30 trade stands, including cheesemakers, affineurs and cheese accessories • Young Cheesemonger of the Year, organised by the Academy of Cheese • Watch the Super Jury decide the World Champion Cheese 2022 • Unparalleled dairy industry networking
#CaruCymruCaruBlas #LoveWalesLoveTaste
Brookes Wye Valley Dairy
www.brookesdairy.com
Castell Gwyn Cheese
www.castellgwyn.com
Caws Cenarth Cheese
www.cawscenarth.co.uk
Caws Penhelyg
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Caws Rhyd y Delyn Caws Teifi Cheese
www.teificheese.co.uk
Cosyn Cymru
www.cosyn.cymru
Dairy Partners (Cymru Wales) Ltd.
www.dairypartners.co.uk
Defaid Dolwerdd
en-gb.facebook.com/Holtham
Ewenique Dairy
www.instagram.com/ eweniquespirits/ Holden Farm Dairy
www.holdenfarmdairy.co.uk
Mona Dairy
www.monadairy.com
Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses
www.pantmawrcheeses.co.uk
Sanclêr Organic
www.sanclerorganic.co.uk
Snowdonia Cheese Company
South Caernarfon Creameries
www.sccwales.co.uk
The Abergavenny Fine Food Co.
www.abergavenny.uk.com
The Blaenafon Cheddar Co.
www.chunkofcheese.co.uk
Trefaldwyn Cheese
www.trefaldwyn-cheese.com
Organised by Principal Global Partners
www.gff.co.uk/wca
