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U.S. NEWSWednesday 8 March 2017

Nation’s best cheesemakers out to prove it in Wisconsin

Dan Stearns, left, and Steve Stettler cut a wheel of swiss cheese at U.S. Championship Cheese Cheese Contest in 2016. It cheese and Hispanic melt-
Contest Tuesday, March 7, 2017 in Green Bay, Wis. The contest organizer, Wisconsin Cheese Mak- was the first time an Ameri- ing cheeses. New classes
ers Association, says the number of cheeses, yogurts and butters competing at this year’s event can cheese won the title this year include flavored
is at an all-time high. They say it’s because cheesemakers are seeing what a win does for sales. since 1988. butter and snack cheese.
Judging was set for Tuesday and Wednesday, with winners announced Thursday. The exposure is why FireFly According to the Wiscon-
Farms in Accident, Mary- sin Cheese Makers Associ-
(AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger) land, decided to enter two ation, categories that saw
cheeses this year into the the greatest increase in en-
CARRIE ANTLFINGER nates each year with the 22 percent, to a record contest for the first time. tries include string cheese,
The farm, which distributes which had 113 percent
Associated Press world cheese-off. Judging 2,303, as cheesemakers its goat cheeses mostly growth; soft ripened chees-
in the Mid-Atlantic area, es, with a 66 percent spike;
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The na- is Tuesday and Wednes- recognize the marketing has won more than 100 and Edam and Gouda, up
awards in other contests 52 percent.
tional cheese spotlight this day at Lambeau Field in value of winning big com- since 2002, according to DAIRY STATE DOMINATION:
the company’s director of Wisconsin had the most en-
week turns to Wisconsin — Green Bay, with winners petitions. Case in point: sales and marketing, An- tries of any state, but New
drea Cedro. York, Vermont, California
where else? — as judges announced Thursday. Emmi Roth USA says sales Entering competitions in- and Idaho also were in the
troduces their cheeses to top 5. Thirty-three states are
get ready to sniff, taste and Here are some things to have increased 20 per- new retailers, buyers and represented altogether.
customers, gets them valu- OTHER COMPETITIONS: The
touch thousands of sam- know about the contest: cent for their Grand Cru able feedback from judg- Wisconsin Cheese Makers
es and often an increase Association event this week
ples in the U.S. Champion- THIS SNACKDOWN IS Surchoix, made in Monroe, in sales, she said. This year’s is the largest technical
competition includes 25 evaluation of cheese, but-
ship Cheese Contest. BRUTAL:Entries for the na- Wisconsin, since they won first-time companies. ter and yogurt in the U.S. It
SOMETHING FOR EVERY- started in 1981. The Ameri-
The national contest alter- tional competition are up the World Championship ONE: The competition has can Cheese Society also
48 judges nibbling their holds a national competi-
way through 101 catego- tion, but theirs is every year
ries. They include ones and moves to different re-
you’d expect — mild gions of the country. Last
cheddar, colby, mozzarel- year, they had 1,843 en-
la — and a few you might tries.
not, like smear-ripened soft WHO LOVES CHEESE? WE
cheese (cheese smeared DO: People bought near-
with bacterial cultures ly $18 billion in cheese
during ripening), flavored from U.S. retailers in 2015,
up nearly 3 percent from
Fishers sue to get rid of Obama’s New England monument 2014 and 27 percent from
2012, according to the In-
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — ument in September using ter canyons and moun- federal court. ternational Dairy Foods As-
A coalition of commercial executive authority under tains. The groups say the cre- sociation.
fishing groups has filed a the Antiquities Act. The The creation of the monu- ation of the monument The average amount of
lawsuit to challenge the monument is called the ment closed the area to was a “unilateral” action cheese made from cow
creation of a national Northeast Canyons and most commercial fishing by Obama that is bring- milk consumed per person
monument off the coast of Seamounts Marine Na- and has been opposed by ing economic distress to in the U.S. increased near-
New England. tional Monument, and it is fishing groups for months. fishermen and their fami- ly 3 percent in 2015 over
Then-President Barack made up of nearly 5,000 Some of the groups filed lies. They want its creation 2014, to 35.33 pounds per
Obama created the mon- square miles of underwa- their lawsuit on Tuesday in ruled unlawful.q capita — a new high.q