Natural cheeses — that is, made with raw milk and natural cultures. This was the theme of the twentieth-anniversary edition of Cheese, the biennial event organised by Slow Food Italia and the City of Bra dedicated to the world of milk and dairy production, which took place from 15 to 18 September.

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"The eleventh edition of Cheese was the most successful, not only in terms of numbers, but also for the quality and determination with which we pursued our choices. The decision to reserve the exhibition spaces for raw-milk cheeses was a courageous one, and it paid off," said Slow Food president Carlo Petrini.

In terms of attendance, Cheese 2017 exceeded the threshold of 300,000 admissions, with 50 per cent of participants in ticketed events having travelled from outside Italy.

We asked Petrini why making cheese with raw milk, rather than pasteurised milk, supports biodiversity. "Because raw milk is the only one that guarantees the diversity of cheeses. Pasteurisation homogenises products. Governments that opt for pasteurisation are gripped by a hyper-hygienist phobia that does no justice to biodiversity. And very often this hyper-hygienist phobia causes the greatest harm from a health perspective too. Parmigiano reggiano is 500 years old, and it's holding up well (and it's made with raw milk)."

Above all, there is a political point to highlight about Cheese 2017, according to Petrini: "It is the first edition we have held without the misery of a disaster in the dairy sector. In previous years we were counting up closed dairies and endless price drops for milk at ridiculous levels. Something has changed, and if it has, it is partly thanks to those who accepted the challenge of labelling." Since April of this year, the indication of origin of the raw material has been mandatory for dairy products.

Petrini repeatedly stressed the need to protect the environment and the landscape. The relationship between food and climate change will be at the centre of Slow Food's activities in the coming months; from Cheese 2017 the organisation launches its first communications and fundraising campaign: Menu for Change. The details have not yet been fully explained, but an initial invitation covers the period from 16 October to 5 November: to put local, seasonal food on the table for three weeks.

An increasingly international event

The vast Cheese network — made up of cheesemakers, farmers, affineurs, experts, buyers and enthusiasts — allowed this eleventh edition to surpass the threshold of 50 countries represented.
For the first time, journalists from CNN, the Associated Press and the Spanish news agency Efe attended.

The conference programme attracted large audiences. The États généraux du lait cru saw 60 per cent international participation; Raw in the Usa was the most important debate for American raw-milk producers, who set their next goal as the production of cheeses without added cultures.

How to combine agriculture, tourism and the environment: the case of Piedmont

The president of the Piedmont Region, Sergio Chiamparino, was present at the opening of Cheese 2017. We asked him what approach his region takes to balancing agriculture, tourism and respect for nature.

"It is obviously a very difficult challenge; it is about investing in agricultural production that respects and enhances the environment. I believe that in this way it is possible — with the necessary support, because support is needed, otherwise this cannot be achieved — to create an economy that is at once competitive, respectful, and contributes to improving the environment and to tackling the great challenge of climate change."

"It has long been the case that agriculture cannot move forward without public support. The question is how that support is directed. I believe that investing in respect for the environment, in the valorisation of this interplay between nature and culture — in which both production and tourism can coexist productively — is not the same thing as investing in intensive agriculture. I therefore believe that support must be allocated with this in mind."