{"id":9524,"date":"2013-09-13T10:01:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T14:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=9524"},"modified":"2015-03-25T16:09:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T20:09:06","slug":"monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/","title":{"rendered":"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is American artisan cheese often more expensive than imported cheese? Seems a little counterintuitive, right? Cheeses like Taleggio<\/a>, Brie<\/a>, Delice de Bourgogne<\/a>, and Manchego<\/a> all had to travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while the cheese from just down the road\u2014much of the time\u2014is significantly more expensive.\uffa0It’s a question that I am asked quite a bit as a cheesemonger, and I expect the same goes for my monger friends all around the country. So, in this piece I am going attempt to shed some light on this confusing situation.<\/p>\n

Though there are a handful of reasons that European specialty cheese has us beat on the bottom line, it seems mostly to come down to the simple matter of production scale.\uffa0That Brie de Meaux<\/a> sitting in the case next to the Green Hill<\/a> from Thomasville, Georgia was probably made in a significantly larger facility, with much more high-tech equipment, and therefore much more efficiently and more cost effectively. I spoke with Mateo Kehler of Cellars at Jasper Hill<\/a> on this subject and he offered that it’s almost unfair to compare the price of two such cheeses, considering that one was produced in a factory and one was produced in relatively small quantity on a family farm.\uffa0It’s just not comparing apples to apples.\uffa0What makes this particularly confusing from a consumer standpoint is that these cheeses are sold right next to each other, both under the “specialty” cheese umbrella.\uffa0In a sense, they are both “specialty” cheeses, but they are not both small-batch artisan cheeses.\uffa0To further confuse the matter, many European factory cheese makers\uffa0are very skilled at producing really tasty cheeses on a large scale.\uffa0So it’s not often obvious to the consumer, from a flavor perspective, that they are eating factory cheese.<\/p>\n

Most major European cheese-producing countries also have a much longer track record of cheese production than we do in the US.\uffa0In general, they just have a much more established and functioning cheese infrastructure than America does.\uffa0Transportation alone accounts for a good percentage of the high cost of American artisan cheese.\uffa0We are moving relatively small amounts of cheese over a very large area of land.\uffa0France, for example, has an established centralized cheese hub, and\u2014for the most part\u2014can get a wheel of cheese from one spot in the\uffa0 country to any other spot fairly painlessly and in no more than a day.\uffa0Our small cheesemakers also bear a great many direct costs of operation with almost no government subsidies.\uffa0Mateo pointed out that 80% of US farm subsidies go to 10% of farms (this 10% is made up of the largest US farms).\uffa0European government subsidies are much more evenly distributed to include small, medium, and large scales of production.<\/p>\n

I also spoke to Gail Hobbs-Page of Caromont Farm<\/a> in Virginia on this subject.\uffa0Gail said that the financial burden of being a small cheesemaker in America right now is huge, and only getting bigger as regulations tighten in the industry.\uffa0I think that this is an undeniable fact for almost every small cheesemaker in the country. It’s certainly not an industry one gets into to become rich.\uffa0And I think that as cheesemongers, it is our duty to inform our customers of this, and assure them that when they pay $30 a pound for a piece of hand-crafted, delicious, small-batch American artisan cheese, their money is going to support something agriculturally and culturally important.\uffa0Furthermore, the more we support and promote American cheese, the better infrastructure we build around the industry, and the lower prices become.\uffa0It’s our responsibility as cheese professionals to support our small dairies and cheesemakers now, so that\uffa0one day our cheese culture will be just as rich and ingrained into our daily lives as that of any of the great European cheese producing countries.<\/p>\n

\n

Justin Trosclair has spent nearly a decade in the cheese business. He got his start as a cheese buyer for Whole Foods Market, spent three years making cheese with Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy<\/a>, and is now the General Manager at St. James Cheese Company<\/a> in New Orleans. He\uffa0also won the Cheesemonger Invitational<\/a> in 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does the local stuff often come with a higher price tag?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"coauthors":[621],"class_list":["post-9524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-retailers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMonger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-13T14:01:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-25T20:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Trosclair\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Trosclair\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/\",\"name\":\"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses - culture: the word on cheese\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-13T14:01:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-25T20:09:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/4bd9239ef5435584685383b1724877cc\"},\"description\":\"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":368,\"caption\":\"a cheese board covered in cheese cubes, each with a tiny French flag planted in it\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For Retailers\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/for-retailers\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/\",\"name\":\"culture: the word on cheese\",\"description\":\"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/4bd9239ef5435584685383b1724877cc\",\"name\":\"Justin Trosclair\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/1a3734f208282bf4a98030a1d6f20ed1\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/justin-trosclair-headshot-500x500-96x96.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/justin-trosclair-headshot-500x500-96x96.jpeg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Trosclair\"},\"description\":\"Justin Trosclair, general manager at St. James Cheese Company in New Orleans, has worked as a cheese buyer and a cheesemaker. He won the title of top cheesemonger in the nation at the 2013 Cheesemonger Invitational in New York.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.stjamescheese.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/justin-trosclair\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses - culture: the word on cheese","description":"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses","og_description":"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?","og_url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/","og_site_name":"culture: the word on cheese","article_published_time":"2013-09-13T14:01:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-25T20:09:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Justin Trosclair","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Trosclair","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/","name":"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses - culture: the word on cheese","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg","datePublished":"2013-09-13T14:01:14+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-25T20:09:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/4bd9239ef5435584685383b1724877cc"},"description":"European cheeses travel thousands of miles to make it onto our counters, while American Artisan cheese is from down the road. Why does it often come with a higher price tag?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/cheese-cubes-french-flags-750x368.jpg","width":750,"height":368,"caption":"a cheese board covered in cheese cubes, each with a tiny French flag planted in it"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/monger-tip-explaining-price-american-artisan-cheeses\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For Retailers","item":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/category\/for-retailers\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Monger Tip: Explaining the Price of American Artisan Cheeses"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#website","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/","name":"culture: the word on cheese","description":"Culture, America's magazine for cheese lovers, delivers stories about cheeses, cheesemakers, travel to gorgeous cheese regions, and practical tips on buying, presenting, and cooking with cheese.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/4bd9239ef5435584685383b1724877cc","name":"Justin Trosclair","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/1a3734f208282bf4a98030a1d6f20ed1","url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/justin-trosclair-headshot-500x500-96x96.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/justin-trosclair-headshot-500x500-96x96.jpeg","caption":"Justin Trosclair"},"description":"Justin Trosclair, general manager at St. James Cheese Company in New Orleans, has worked as a cheese buyer and a cheesemaker. He won the title of top cheesemonger in the nation at the 2013 Cheesemonger Invitational in New York.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.stjamescheese.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/author\/justin-trosclair\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9524"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}