This summer’s drought and high temperatures have made for sparse grazing for French cows, forcing dairy farmers to alter their diets with imported fodder.
And that’s meant that French officials have had to grant emergency exemptions to allow that.
No complaints have been heard from the cows, but it’s caused a crisis for the producers of French cheeses with AOP protection status, since the rules for those cheeses to bear their famous names include rules on what the cows can eat. For example, Beaufort cheese must use only milk of local Tarine or Abondance cows, and their diet of grass and hay must be at least 3/4 from local sources.
Those cheeses have been granted exemptions and adjustments for this year, along with eased rules for France’s biggest-volume AOP cheese, Comté, which accounts for more than 60,000 tons of cheese.
