At the June meeting of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board (WMMB), we heard a report from a market research firm that conducted focus groups in major cities. From the research, we learned that people know we are “cheeseheads” and we have cheese curds and the Packers, but they didn’t know we are the nation’s leader in specialty cheese production. People have no idea about the intensity of the training it takes to become a Master Cheesemaker. They also don’t know Wisconsin cheesemakers continue to win national and global awards for quality.
Specialty cheeses are what we call value-added. They create new markets for farmers and help keep Wisconsin “America’s Dairyland.” We also learned people want to see and hear stories about the dairy farmers who produce the milk and the cheesemakers that turn it into artisan cheese. Our new CEO, Chad Vincent, said people are eating our cheese and loving it, but don’t know it is from Wisconsin. He said WMMB will “up our game” in telling that story.
A perfect example: Recently, my sister got married and a foreign exchange student from Czechoslovakia attended the wedding. She tasted the Sartori BellaVitano, which, in March, won the title of Grand Champion of the U.S. Championship Cheese Contest outscoring more than 2,000 entries from 33 states. The foreign exchange student couldn’t believe how amazing the cheese tasted. That’s the reaction I find from everyone who tastes it. So, next time you talk with friends from out of state, share the story of our cheese.