QUEBEC: Cheesed-off small farmers give up

03.jun.09
Montreal Gazette
Susan Semenak

If you come across a wedge of Valbert cheese, grab it.
Fromagerie Lehmann, in the tiny Lac St. Jean town of Hébertville, has stopped
producing this artisanal raw-milk farmhouse cheese, with its earthy aroma and
buttery hazelnut flavour. A few kilograms of the award-winning Valbert are left in
specialty cheese shops. But after that there will be no more.
Ever since last year's listeriosis outbreak, when provincial inspectors seized
tonnes of Quebec cheeses believed to have been cross-contaminated by the listeria
bacterium, Fromagerie Lehmann and other raw-milk cheese producers were visited
constantly by officials on the lookout for the listeria bacterium.
Like 20 or so others, Lehmann finally gave up on raw-milk cheese altogether.
By some estimates, only 10 Quebec raw-milk cheeses remain. The others now are made
with milk that's been heated to kill unwanted bacteria - and, some say, the flavours
of the meadow and the changing seasons.
Yesterday Quebec cheese producers and cheese retailers welcomed the long-awaited
report by provincial ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain on the government's handling
of the crisis.
Although Saint-Germain backed the government's decision to seize and destroy cheese
from more than 300 retailers, she criticized poor communication and recommended
better training for inspectors.
Max Dubois, owner of L'Echoppe des Fromages in St. Lambert, said his store is doing
fine, even though he was forced to destroy more than $20,000 worth of inventory in
August. Dubois estimates he lost another $100,000 in revenue after the crisis, when
many producers simply stopped making cheese. But he received just $13,000 in
government compensation.
"This badly handled false crisis of theirs killed a lot of the pleasure and
creativity that had made Quebec's cheese industry so special. It has made life a
struggle for many small farmers."