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French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

theguardian.com

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Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#31

Post by ben_w »

uppe wrote: post #17
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #2

> “We tried explaining to our 75 cows that they needed to produce less milk but they don’t seem to have understood,” I don't know why, but this is the funniest thing I've read in a while. I can just imagine the monk explaining COVID to these cows, and just getting a "Moo" in return.

Maybe don't impregnate them then. Cows don't magically produce milk, they are mammals and lactate because they had babies. They actually forcibly impregnate them and kill their babies if it's a male (veal) and keeps the loop going until the mother can't produce more babies and thus becomes unprofitable. That's funny to you? Sounds like torture and slavery to me. edit: wow, what a surprise, downvoted to the bottom. I…

> Sounds like torture and slavery to me.

To me as well, and yet you and I are in a small minority.

Also: farming involves actions up to a year in advance of consequences, so change is slow and rare.

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#32

Post by smoe »

richk449 wrote: post #8
iends wrote: post #5

I assume I can’t buy this from the USA because customs rules...?

I’m also curious. Lots of other countries they ship to. With the US has some weird import laws, or they just figure Americans aren’t interested in these products.

As I understand it, the issue is that many European cheeses are made of unpasteurized milk which is illegal in the US. And many small cheese makers are not willing to break practices going hundreds of years back just to get into another market.

Don’t know if this applies to the cheese in this article.

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#33

Post by kzrdude »

masklinn wrote: post #29
slibhb wrote: post #22

Will be interesting to find out if the internet makes prayer work.

If you click through so the site[0], they're sold out, took less than 24h after the call went out. The guardian is 24h old as well, so they'd sold out by the time it was posted on HN. Bummer (well good thing for them). [0] https://divinebox.fr/operation-fromage-abbaye-citeaux/

If I understand correctly they are saying that they sold 2006.9 kg

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#34

Post by vmilner »

kazen44 wrote: post #24
kjrose wrote: post #18

I'm glad they were able to sell it but at the same time like it's raw milk cheese. So importing it into Canada and us is pretty much a non starter. Hopefully they'll be able to keep up the sales past this article.

usually this kind of stuff (fancy cheeses, fancy beer etc) is very popular, but extremely difficult to get if you do not life in the area. As with most monastery related production, most do not sell online or even nationally.

In France, at least, the "Divine Box" company seems to be acting as a distributor for monasteries.

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#35

Post by ericbarrett »

richk449 wrote: post #8
iends wrote: post #5

I assume I can’t buy this from the USA because customs rules...?

I’m also curious. Lots of other countries they ship to. With the US has some weird import laws, or they just figure Americans aren’t interested in these products.

Raw milk products (including cheese) are heavily regulated by the US FDA: https://www.cheesesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/PPT...

I imagine these products can be imported but only with significant paperwork. And if you fail a pathogen test, you've probably lost the shipment and been put on a list for "followup": https://www.fda.gov/media/99340/download

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#36

Post by gameswithgo »

kzrdude wrote: post #33
masklinn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you click through so the site[0], they're sold out, took less than 24h after the call went out. The guardian is 24h old as well, so they'd sold out by the time it was posted on HN. Bummer (well good thing for them). [0] https://divinebox.fr/operation-fromage-abbaye-citeaux/

If I understand correctly they are saying that they sold 2006.9 kg

nice

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#39

Post by TimTheTinker »

COGlory wrote: post #28
uppe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe don't impregnate them then. Cows don't magically produce milk, they are mammals and lactate because they had babies. They actually forcibly impregnate them and kill their babies if it's a male (veal) and keeps the loop going until the mother can't produce more babies and thus becomes unprofitable. That's funny to you? Sounds like torture and slavery to me. edit: wow, what a surprise, downvoted to the bottom. I…

Do you have any personal experience working with dairy cows?

My father worked with dairy cows as a side job during college. He said they were often very friendly (except for Holsteins, they can be mean). They get used to and expect the daily routine - milking in the morning, pasture for the day, milking in the evening, pasture for the night.

When milking time came, they'd all be crowded up near the gate waiting for him to open it so they could walk to the milking building. They didn't need to be coaxed.

He said the saddest thing was the practice of de-horning calves at a certain age. Prior to that, a group of calves would be friendly, unafraid, almost like pets. But afterwards (my dad wasn't personally there for the actual de-horning) they would all crowd together at the opposite end of the yard in fear when he approached. He said it was heartbreaking...

As far as I know, not all farmers practice de-horning.

Edit: I have no idea whether they used pain killers, but given the calves' response my guess is no.

Re: French monks locked down with 2.8 tonnes of cheese pray for buyers

#40

Post by ectopod »

smoe wrote: post #32
richk449 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m also curious. Lots of other countries they ship to. With the US has some weird import laws, or they just figure Americans aren’t interested in these products.

As I understand it, the issue is that many European cheeses are made of unpasteurized milk which is illegal in the US. And many small cheese makers are not willing to break practices going hundreds of years back just to get into another market. Don’t know if this applies to the cheese in this article.

It's not really about fetishising ancient production methods. Cheese made with unpasteurised milk tastes different and, in many people's opinion, better.
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