Historic heat waves are putting French dairy cows that normally graze outdoors in summer under heat-related stress.
Prolonged periods of drought are scorching French pastures, leeching them of their usual lush green vitality and leaving behind parched, lifeless yellow fields.
And French farmers bound by strict cheesemaking regulations are having to buy extra feed to supplement the animals’ diets.
Some of France’s most beloved artisanal cheeses are under threat from the effects of climate change, scientists and cheesemakers warn.
“Before, we used to have a problem with the grass every 15-20 years,” says Laurent Lours, who has been a dairy farmer and cheesemaker for 35 years. “Now, it’s about every other year. And it’s getting worse.”
The result? Dairy cows are producing less milk and birthing fewer or weakened calves. Farmers who produce many of the country’s top-tier cheeses have been forced to cease production. And the distinct flavor of France’s “terroir” cheeses are at risk.
“We’ve had five heat waves so far this year. We’ve never experienced temperatures like this before,” Lours says.
Indeed, the month of July set a new record in France, bagging the title of hottest month since record-keeping began in 1900, and the third driest month on record, according to France’s national weather service.
This summer, more than three-quarters of France’s 80 producers of Salers cheese – a semi-hard, raw cow’s milk cheese – were brought to a standstill following a series of heat waves and accompanying drought.
Salers is one of 47 French cheeses that carries the red and yellow AOP label, Appellation d’origine protégée (“protected designation of origin” in English), a certification guaranteeing that all stages of the final product — from milk production to aging — have taken place within a limited geographic area. Salers is produced mainly in the department of Cantal in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeast France, where cows graze at altitudes of between 2,630 and 4,920 feet (about 800 to 1,500 meters) above sea level on a volcanic massif, carpeted in nutrient-dense wild grasses.
While no two Salers cheeses are alike, the local terroir — a mix of climate, soil, and topography that makes a region unique — produces a flavor profile that can range from walnuts, hazelnuts and grass, to fermented cream, peppery spice and smoked, grilled onion.
It’s also one of the cheeses hardest hit by the impacts of climate change, as its production is subject to strict regulations: Salers must be produced between April 15 and November 15 by grazing cows that are mainly grass-fed. Supplementation to their diet is limited to no more than 25% of dry matter and permitted feed ingredients include hay, wheat, barley, oats and maize from the same region.
This year’s drought forced Lours to drop production of Salers on July 8 and switch to making Cantal, a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese similar in profile but subject to laxer rules. Unlike Salers, Cantal can be produced year-round, while the grass to grain, hay and corn ratio is more generous. The main rule is that cows be able to graze 120 days of the year.
Last month, the government body responsible for overseeing the AOP label, the Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO), announced temporary modifications for a selection of cheesemakers in response to France’s “historic drought” this summer.
Producers of Beaufort, Comté and Abondance are among a handful of cheeses that have already been authorized to increase the share of fodder for cows to make up for the grass shortage, or source supplementary feed from outside their designated AOP zones. And the list of cheeses is expected to grow. Lours, who is also the president of the Comité interprofessionnel des fromages du Cantal and represents local cheesemakers, said their group didn’t bother requesting a temporary exemption to the rules for Salers because anything less than 50% of pasture-grown grass would not “deserve the designation” of the Salers name.
For years, producers of some AOP cheeses have been asking the INAO to permanently relax some of the regulations in response to the effects of human-made climate change, be it by adjusting the grazing period, increasing the amount of hay and supplemental feed that cows can consume, and allowing farmers to source feed from outside their AOP region. The process is long and can take years to finalize.
But does reducing the minimum grazing requirements impact the quality and flavor of the final product? According to a team of French researchers, it could mean the difference between a good cheese, and an insipid one.
In a study conducted at France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement or INRAE) last year, researchers fed four groups of cows different diets for four months to simulate various drought conditions. After varying the ratios of grass to hay and corn, the milk was then collected to make Cantal cheese and analyzed both in labs and by a jury of consumer experts.
The findings were clear: cheese made with mostly grass-based cow milk was richer and higher in healthy omega 3 fatty acids. Moreover, the cheeses were also superior in taste, aroma, smell and texture for consumers.
“When cows feed on pastured grass the cheeses are softer, yellower and more aromatic, while when they eat little or no grass the cheeses are whiter, firmer and have less pronounced tastes,” INRAE says in a statement.
While the industry is very concerned about the possible effects of modified rules on its products, Christian Janier, a fourth-generation cheesemonger in Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, thinks the end result is likely to be subtle and imperceptible for the average consumer.
“The quality may inevitably drop a little given that we know that feed plays a major role in the final product,” he says. “But in the end, it won’t be enough for a regular consumer to notice.”
Along with affecting the quality of cheeses, climate change also poses a threat to the livelihoods of French dairy farmers and a rich cheesemaking tradition in France.
Cows suffering from heat exhaustion are producing 10% less milk and losing about a month’s worth of outdoor grazing due to frequent and prolonged episodes of drought, says Lours.
The drop in milk production has led to a steady decline in supply: production of Salers cheese has dropped from an average of 1,500 tons a year in the early 2010s to around 1,000 tons today, he adds.
On top of that, the grass shortage forces farmers to dip into the hay supply they’ve stockpiled for use in winter. Lours says he’s already spent close to €30,000 ($35,000) on additional feed this summer.
“Some producers are losing motivation as it’s getting more and more complicated. We’re losing market share, and it’s hard to stay in business, so it’s difficult.” Lours said.
Stéphanie Gardes is another producer who has had to abandon the production of Salers mid-summer for the less profitable Cantal because of drought. It’s a blow, after having lost €20,000 ($23,300) last year in revenue due to similar conditions. Compared to Salers, Cantal nets cheesemakers around €3 euros less per kilo for the same amount of work, she points out.
This season, production stopped earlier than usual. This is set to become her worst financial year since becoming a cheesemaker nine years ago.
“Two years in a row is tough. And right now, we don’t know when it’s going to end. We can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. “It’s demoralizing.”
Salers and Cantal are hardly the only cheeses to be impacted by the effects of repetitive heat waves and drought. Producers of a host of other AOP cheeses like Roquefort, a blue cheese made with raw sheep’s milk from Aveyron in the south, and Abondance, a semi-hard cheese produced in Haute-Savoie in the southeast, also report difficulty fulfilling the AOP grazing requirements.
Every summer, Emilie Jacquot, her husband and two children escort their 50 dairy cows up into the mountains to 4,920 feet (about 1,500 meters) near Annecy, where they relocate their entire organic Abondance cheesemaking operation and set up camp in the family’s mountain chalet for three months.
This year marked the first time they didn’t have to light a fire in their wood-burning stove in the chalet to keep warm, she says.
During the rest of the year, in the valley below, Jacquot says climate change has also contributed to wild temperature swings, which can range from 23 degrees Fahrenheit to 77 degrees (minus 5 Celsius to 25 Celsius) in a single day.
“We see global warming throughout the whole year,” Jacquot says. “In the summer we have heat waves, but in winter we can have huge temperature fluctuations over the course of the day. That’s what’s hard to deal with.”
Not unlike wine, some seasons yield better cheeses than others, with factors that extend beyond heat and drought, says the cheesemonger Janier.
Climate change also drives more intense rainfall, and when cows graze on rain-soaked grass, they produce “moist milk,” a term to describe milk that is lower in protein. Cheeses made with moist milk mature faster and can develop unpleasantly pungent odors and flavors like ammonia.
“Once cheese has reached its peak, it’s like wine, the quality starts to go downhill. Just like human beings,” he quips.
Janier jokes that he was born in a cheese vat and that milk runs through his veins. He is also one of only seven cheesemongers in the country who are certified Meilleurs Ouvriers de France or MOF, a national-level distinction that recognizes the country’s best crafts people and artisans through a rigorous competition.
Janier laments what he describes as the “standardization” of French cheeses over the years, driven in large part by industrial mass-production.
“We have fewer cheeses that are terrible, but also fewer cheeses that are truly excellent,” he says.
But while climate change continues to put pressure on the industry, the AOP label remains the surefire way to identify a high quality cheese, Janier adds.
“As soon as a cheese has a AOP stamp, you know that it’s passed a host of tests for texture, aroma and flavor.”
Dining and Cooking