Cheese rules softened after October 9, 2022 hard summer for farmers

The honour of France’s noblest cheeses has been threatened by a summer that deprived animals of the local grass they usually graze on.

The record heat that turned pastures into dusty earth has forced farmers to seek relief from the iron rules that govern the traditional Appellation d’origine controlee (AOC) cheeses so they can feed their cows, goats and sheep.

To ensure fidelity to the principle of terroir – production in a specific geographical area – AOC rules stipulate that hay and silage must be grown locally, and that animals must graze outdoors all summer.

The guardian body of the 46 AOC cheeses has approved requests from producers of 11 labels to ease the feed restrictions this year. For example, Saint-Nectaire, in the Massif Central highlands, has been allowed to use its label while cutting its cows’ minimum grasseating days from 150 to 90.

Saint-Nectaire is part of the AuvergneRhone-Alpes region, which has been hardest hit by the drought and heat. Temporary easings of the feed rules have been granted to several famous cheeses from the central and southeastern region, including cantal and salers, reblochon, and bleu du vercors.

‘‘It’s better to have milk from a cow well fed from stocks than from one that is undernourished and skinny for lack of grass,’’ said Gilles Chatelainone, a farmer in the region with 60 cows.

Some producers have preferred, however, to cut or halt their output to avoid sullying their brands.

Alexis Masson, a maker of Fourme de Montbrison, a blue cheese from the Loire, said he was worried about the impact of a request from local farmers to be allowed to give their cows 20% non-local feed. The characteristics of the milk would no longer be the same, he said.

‘‘The fat, the protein, the acidity will vary. I don’t know what the result will be. If I went and made my cheese in Brittany using our usual methods, I wouldn’t have cheese that tasted the same,’’ he said.

Farmers are worried that the rule-easing could damage their reputations.

Nicolas Girod, a producer in the Comte area, near the Swiss border, said: ‘‘It is perhaps not a good moment to make temporary exceptions in response to climate change. It raises questions about our methods and commitment, and could confuse consumers.’’

In the Cantal region in the Massif Central, the producers of Salers, a semi-hard cheese, decided to stop production during summer and make a product temporarily under the AOC label of Cantal fermier, which has less demanding specifications and is cheaper.

In Normandy, the producers of AOC camembert survived the summer thanks to local rules that already let them feed cows with 20% feed from outside the region.

‘‘It’s always annoying to ask for an exemption. You have to be consistent with your specifications,’’ said Benoit Duval, head of camembert’s supervisory body.

The rising temperatures are affecting a range of AOC produce.

In the Basque country, for example, exemptions have been given to its famous espelette pepper. Its AOC rules stipulate that no watering is allowed from mid-July to midSeptember. A lack of rain earlier in the season meant that this year, plants had to be watered in summer.