Guild ACS Opportunities For 2012

Posted on May 7, 2012August 29, 2014 by President

–Once again the Guild will pay for your FIRST ACS competition entry ($60 per entry — you need to be an ACS member to enter)
—the deadline for on-time competition entries is May 18th, so if you haven’t already submitted your entry forms, do so soon, and then send Mark Whitney your receipt for reimbursement.

–Once again the Guild will help pay for shipping your entries — up to $50 per participating Guild member. Once you have notified the Guild that you will be sending entries, we will attempt to coordinate a best and most cost-effective means of transport.

–This year the Guild will reimburse ONE Guild cheese maker for an ACS Level 1 Professional membership (a $199 value).
—To qualify to be chosen to receive this free membership for 2012 please respond to this email me your name and say “Add Me For A Free Membership” in the body of the email BEFORE Sunday, May 13th and your name will go into a hat. The randomly chosen member will be notified, and once they get receipt for joining the ACS the Guild will reimburse them.

–Once again The Guild wants to send up to FOUR Guild members to the ACS Conference for the full conference experience. The Guild will offer scholarships of at least $900 in expenses toward attending, which will cover the Conference fee of $465 plus some of the travel and lodging expenses.
—To obtain a scholarship email me your name and write “Add Me For A Conference Scholarship” in the body of the email BEFORE Sunday, May 13th and your name will pass on to all non-entered board members who will vote for the four Guild scholarship winners. If fewer than four Guild members apply for the scholarships, the total scholarship money will divided among the attending Guild winners up to but not exceeding their total expenses. The scholarship winners will each be responsible for at least one newsletter article about their conference experience, and for bringing as much of the information they’ve gathered back to future Guild meetings.
–The scholarship winners will be notified on Monday, May 14th so that they can register for the conference BEFORE the early bird deadline of May 23rd.

The results are in:

The Guild subsidized ACS membership goes to: Heather Donahue of Balfour Farm.

The four partial scholarships to attend the ACS Conference were awarded to:
  —Jessie Dowling, Fuzzy Udder Creamery
  —Heather Donahue, Balfour Farm
  —Eric Rector, Monroe Cheese Studio
  —Jamien Shields, Turner Farm Creamery

On behalf of the Guild, congratulations.

News About Raw Milk Oversight at Federal Level

Posted on April 25, 2012August 30, 2014 by Monroe Cheese Studio

In March 2012 the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) released the results of a study titled “Nonpasteurized Dairy Products, Disease Outbreaks, and State Laws—United States, 1993–2006” which is now posted on their web site.

In response to this report, the American Cheese Society issued a “Statement on the Safety of Raw Milk Cheese” which put some of the findings of the CDC study into context, as well as made corrections to some of its statements (such as that it is illegal to sell raw milk cheese in the US). Among the assertions in the ACS statement are: “Raw milk cheese, when produced and sold under current FDA guidelines, can be consumed without unnecessary risk” when that cheese is produced under the following circumstances:

producing cheese in licensed facilities that are routinely inspected on the local, regional, and
federal level
producing cheese under the oversight of licensed dairy handlers
aging cheese for a minimum of 60 days before it is sold

According to the ACS’s latest newsletter: “In light of continued scrutiny, and with the goal of helping cheesemakers adhere to the highest standards of cheesemaking, ACS’s Regulatory & Academic Committee is at work compiling Best Practices for Cheesemakers. This document, as well as a related Best Practices for Retailers document, will serve as a resource for the industry to ensure awareness of current regulations and requirements, and to provide tools that can be implemented to meet those requirements.”

Monroe Cheesemaker Ruffles Some Feathers

Posted on April 19, 2012April 19, 2012 by Monroe Cheese Studio

Last weeks some folks in the Guild asked if I would go to the State House when the Farmer Brown supports marched on April 17th to provide the prospective of a licensed dairy processor.

There was a bunch of media there for the march (much of it was there for the Governor’s signing of new domestic violence laws earlier in the day), and I was interviewed after the media finished talking with the demonstrators. Here are links (WLBZ, and WABI) to the two stories that have been broadcast on TV news so far about the issue.

(I made it clear to reports that I was also President of the Maine Cheese Guild and that I supported the Guild’s Quality Statement, but so far they have preferred to identify me only as the owner of Monroe Cheese Studio.)

Use the comments section to let me know what you think.