[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4935-4936]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      RECOGNIZING JASPER HILL FARM

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as in so many rural States, small 
businesses make up the backbone of Vermont's economy and communities. 
Countless Vermont businesses develop and manufacture a wide array of 
products, ranging from our thriving craft beer industry to Vermont-made 
peanut butter, candles, chocolates, and cheeses. I would like to take 
this opportunity to recognize one of Vermont's outstanding small 
businesses, Jasper Hill Farm. A small, rural creamery in the Northeast 
Kingdom, Jasper Hill Farm exemplifies our State's essential balance of 
innovation and tradition. Andy and Mateo Kehler have worked for more 
than 15 years to make the best cheese possible, all while remaining 
true to their Vermont roots.
  Now an award-winning artisan cheese business, Jasper Hill Farm began 
two decades ago when the brothers Kehler pooled their resources to buy 
a small farm in rural Greensboro, VT. They decided to try a new model 
of small-scale, value-added dairy farming that would transform raw milk 
into a more valuable product before leaving the farm. To do so, Mateo 
and Andy built a creamery with space to age cheese next door to the 
barn. After 5 years of hard work, the brothers finally had their first 
marketable cheese.
  What started as a few racks of cheese with a couple of direct 
customers quickly expanded, as did the farm's notoriety. Within 3 
years, Jasper Hill Farm took home ``Best of Show'' at the American 
Cheese Society Conference. Despite their hard-earned success, Andy and 
Mateo continued with their vision of increasing access to value-added 
production for all interested farmers. They took new measures to create 
opportunities for community success, opening their space to other 
cheesemakers. Now, the creamery is home not only to numerous cheese 
caves, but to a modern laboratory where scientists work to create 
cheese starter cultures. Years of research have enabled the creation of 
better cheese, and Jasper Hill Farm has become a magnet for other 
artisan cheesemakers along the way.
  Andy and Mateo have created an outstanding business that is rooted in 
the Vermont values of hard work and perseverance, while emphasizing the 
importance of community. Their efforts to reinvigorate the State's 
dairy industry have contributed to our State's identity and culture, as 
well as our agricultural traditions. I am proud to feature the work of 
Jasper Hill Farm at our annual Taste of Vermont event, and I look 
forward to seeing what their future brings.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a New York Times article 
about Jasper Hill Farm be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Feb. 6, 2017]

             Small Cheese Makers Invest in a Stinky Science

                         (By Larissa Zimberoff)

       Greensboro, VT--There's no sign announcing that you've 
     arrived at Jasper Hill Farm, a creamery in the Northeast 
     Kingdom, as Vermonters call that end of their state, but you 
     can't miss it. The main barn is painted midnight blue with a 
     giant cheese moon and cows floating happily in space. Blasted 
     into the hillside is a concrete bunker with seven cheese 
     caves radiating from a central core.
       There's one other surprising detail: a modern two-room 
     laboratory filled with microbiology equipment and staffed 
     with scientists.
       Why does a small, rural creamery invest in technology for 
     what has long been a low-tech product? Because it doesn't 
     have 500 years to learn what its European counterparts 
     already know: the biological intricacies of how to make the 
     best cheese in a particular place. And because the same 
     diversity of microbial cultures is not available in North 
     America.
       ``Building a lab might seem extravagant or of questionable 
     value, but what we get as a business over two, three, four 
     generations--it's a no-brainer,'' said Mateo Kehler, who owns 
     the farm with his brother, Andy.
       The making of cheese depends on the contribution of myriad 
     microbial actors. Both yeast and bacteria are components of 
     the starter cultures that help turn milk into solids, and 
     those solids into cheeses with distinctive aromas, flavors 
     and textures that are hard to resist. The interplay of these 
     species, while understood in a basic sense, is now receiving 
     renewed scientific scrutiny and appreciation in the United 
     States.
       Unlike their peers in Europe, who benefit from centuries of 
     tradition and from government support for research, American 
     farmstead cheese makers have typically gone it alone. Starter 
     cultures are a particularly vexing ingredient. The only three 
     domestic suppliers, including DuPont and Cargill, are 
     multinational corporations better known for chemicals, which 
     has limited the number of available cultures and caused 
     discomfort in a field that strives for individuality.
       But now several small cheese producers are working with 
     scientists to develop their own starters and use microbiology 
     to create better cheeses.
       Murray's Cheese is working with Rockefeller University to 
     learn more about the microflora in its cheese caves in Long 
     Island City, Queens. Uplands Cheese Company is working with 
     the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin 
     to create a new soft cheese, its first in seven years.
       But perhaps none have taken on cheese science as rigorously 
     as Jasper Hill. Its laboratory, opened in 2013, has become a 
     hub for other cheese makers seeking help and insight.
       When the Kehler brothers began making cheese in 2003, their 
     aim was to invigorate the local dairy industry, which was, 
     and still is, struggling. They started on their path to 
     applied science in 2010, when Rachel Dutton, a Harvard 
     scientist, decided to use cheese as a model to research how 
     small microbial communities interact; she focused on the 
     composition of cheese rinds.
       Her first contact in the cheese business was Mateo Kehler, 
     who taught her to make cheese and then helped her reach out 
     to more than 100 other producers for samples. The response 
     was overwhelming. ``I don't think she realized how excited 
     the artisan cheese industry was going to be,'' Mr. Kehler 
     said.
       In 2014, Dr. Dutton published her findings in the journal 
     Cell. Working with Benjamin Wolfe, a postdoctoral researcher, 
     she reported that the environment (cows, cheese caves, 
     pastures) and methods (washing, salting, managing acidity) 
     were as important to the development of cheese rinds, if not 
     more so, than the ingredients.
       This was a revelation. With this new scientific proof in 
     hand, the Kehlers stopped adding starter cultures to 
     Winnimere, one of their most popular raw-milk cheeses. ``What 
     we were adding wasn't growing, and when we stopped adding 
     that, the cheese ripened more gracefully and deliciously,'' 
     Mateo Kehler said.
       Their pasteurized cheeses, though, still needed starters 
     because pasteurization kills bacteria both good and bad for 
     cheese. So they began making starter cultures from bacteria 
     in their own milk supply.
       Besides ending their reliance on big business, this has 
     allowed the brothers to create a cheese that can come only 
     from a singular place: Greensboro, Vt.
       An on-site laboratory has its perks. In addition to having 
     staff members who deeply understand microbiology, Jasper Hill 
     Farm has become a magnet for researchers near and far. Now 
     working there are an engineering intern from Brittany, 
     France; a local

[[Page 4936]]

     microbiologist; and Panos C. Lekkas, a food microbiologist 
     who has investigated the best ways to feed, tend and milk a 
     cow for cheese production.
       Dr. Lekkas, who was hired in November to work full time at 
     Jasper Hill, collaborates with Dr. Dutton, now at the 
     University of California, San Diego, and with Dr. Wolfe, who 
     leads a microbiology laboratory at Tufts University.
       In addition to helping improve food safety procedures at 
     the 85-person Jasper Hill Farm, Dr. Lekkas is overseeing the 
     development of a new cheese--a French Camembert style that 
     for now the team is calling Wild Moses.
       Dr. Lekkas was told that it takes eight months to bring a 
     new cheese to market. ``Mateo wants me to do it in three,'' 
     he said. With science comes speed.
       In order to make a soft pasteurized cheese that does not 
     rely on corporate additives, the scientists sampled 300 
     promising strains of yeast and bacteria, all pulled from milk 
     from Jasper Hill's own 250 cows.
       What makes a homegrown starter promising? Sometimes it's 
     the color of the microbes in a petri dish, but smell, too, 
     can be telling. The group sniffed the samples and noted any 
     pleasing aromas: Play-Doh, Concord grapes, tomato juice, 
     clams, Kraft American Singles. Dr. Wolfe's lab ran a full 
     genomic sequencing on the 15 top contenders, which will 
     provide a blueprint for understanding how these strains are 
     related to, or differ from, other cultures in the cheese 
     world.
       Making funky cheese is tricky, even for scientists. ``There 
     are subtle variations in flavor and aroma that you perceive 
     in cheese,'' Dr. Wolfe said. ``We want to understand what 
     drives that variation.'' With Dr. Wolfe's genomic data, the 
     team can track the microbes through the entire cheese-making 
     process.
       In November, the first batch of cheese was produced using 
     five strains from the original 15 parent cultures--two yeast-
     based and three bacterial. New batches are being made every 
     two weeks using different combinations, and every 10 days, 
     each will be tasted to see whether it is on target for the 
     ``deliciousness factor,'' Jasper Hill's zero-to-10 grading 
     system.
       Seven or above is pretty good. Eight is out of this world. 
     Tens are likely to be bestowed only outside the farm: Jasper 
     Hill's Harbison cheese recently took Super Gold at the World 
     Cheese Awards in Spain.
       ``I will be happy with a seven,'' Dr. Lekkas said.

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