Wisconsin-based Meister Cheese Company has launched Kindred Creamery cheese.
The initial range consists of 13 varieties, including cheddar in milk, medium, sharp and hickory smoked variants; smoked gouda; plus eight different takes on Monterey Jack: in addition to the original Monterey Jack, there is Colby Jack, pepper Jack, ghost pepper Colby Jack, spicy sriracha Jack, sweet fire mango Jack, wild ginseng and garlic Jack, plus forage mushroom and spring onion Jack.
The Kindred Creamery brand believes in the importance of personal integrity, fairness, equity and responsibility to the community, Meister said, and believes that how animals are treated not only builds their contentment but leads to higher quality milk and the best possible cheese.
As a result, it has created the Cows First programme. Participating dairy farmers are regularly audited to ensure compliance with unique standards, which includes unfettered access to the outdoors, not being treated with artificial growth hormones, no tail docking and no animal by-products in feed. For their efforts, the farmers are paid a higher price for their milk.
According to the company: “At Meister Cheese, we are proud to partner with dairy farmers who combine the best traditions of iconic farming with the best methods of modern technology. We call it ‘Cows First’. Our dairy farmers treat their cows like family, while adopting modern technology and knowledge of animal nutrition and science.
“Treating animals right is the right thing to do. Cows treated well produce the highest quality milk. That’s why every dairy farmer who ships milk for our Kindred Creamery cheese employs our one-of-a-kind Cows First protocols.
“Doing the right thing means not only making a high quality cheese from milk where cows are treated right, it also means making sure our dairy farmers are treated as equals. That’s why we pay premium prices to farms that follow our Cows First protocols and have the same enthusiasm as we do for sustainable agriculture. Sure it costs us, but it’s a small price to pay to make cheese the way it’s meant to be. After all, we’re in this together.
“Farming the way it used to be. Food the way it’s meant to be.”
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