After the long night of the pandemic, the world of Italian food is back in motion. Cheese, the largest international event dedicated to raw milk cheeses and the shapes of milk, organized by the city of Bra and Slow Food, will hold its thirteenth edition in September. They've already been fixed dates: from 17 to 20.
«Despite the moment of global difficulty linked to the pandemic, we have chosen to work for the restart of culture, tourism and the city, confirming the thirteenth edition of Cheese – explains the mayor of Bra Gianni Fogliato -. Combining the spirit that has always characterized the event with the necessary health rules, we want to go back to being a welcoming community, a reality to live, a place of relationship and growth. Cheese is a great heritage of the City of Bra: we hope it will be a symbol of trust and rebirth, reinforcing the values that distinguish our territory also through the ideals that every two years cheesemakers and shepherds bring here from all over the world, and contributing to give the necessary oxygen to local activities and the tourism sector".
«Shepherds and cheesemakers – underlines for his part Daniele Buttignol, general director of Slow Food Italy – like the whole agricultural world, they are among the categories that have suffered the most the crisis: in fact, nature has never stopped and the animals continued to produce milk. Unfortunately, many cheesemakers that we host at Cheese have seen an important market outlet vanish with the closure of restaurant businesses and the restrictions imposed on markets and fairs. Meeting again in Bra this year, obviously in full compliance with the safety measures envisaged, therefore takes on an even stronger meaning» he declares.
The Cheese 2021 organizational machine has already started: it's on studying how to adapt Chee's historical formatsif and facilitate opportunities for knowledge, tasting, education in presence and in complete safety. The great classics were kept on the programme: the cheese market and Via degli Affinatori, a point of reference for enthusiasts and buyers, in-depth conferences and playful moments for families and children.
The event has always been at the forefront of the debate around the quality dairy sector, thanks to the participation of shepherds, cheese makers, maturers and refiners who confront each other, on official conference stages and in informal gatherings, with Italian and foreign cooks, shopkeepers, technicians and academics. From the first edition of 1997 to today many battles have been waged, from the defense of raw milk to the no to cheeses made with powdered milk, from the focus on European regulations and policies, to the analysis of the distortions of the milk market (which crushes the little ones and homologates the production).
All this has matured a new awareness among the producers present and the public opinion on the importance of natural production, not only of cheeses, but also of cured meats and breads, wines and beers. Natural is possible, has been the slogan of recent years: you can raise animals on pasture and produce raw milk cheeses without adding selected enzymes.
Not a nostalgic idea, but an innovative and strategic one for the future of food, to give back to nature what belongs to it, using all the technologies that have established themselves in recent years, without however compromising the raw materials and their link with the territory. Today, with the new awareness that the Covid-19 pandemic bequeaths us, it has become a necessity, an imperative: defend biodiversity, starting with those very precious microorganisms that are naturally found in the pastures and stables and are essential to determine the uniqueness and quality of each individual cheese, it is a duty towards those who will come.
It is a real, concrete, effective and feasible form of ecological transition. And cheeses, once again, are perfect testimonials of an avant-garde that has its roots in the solid and millennial relationship between human beings, animals and the environment.
