HPPR hosts & contributors Mon January 28, 2013 How Mountain
Grass Makes The Cheese Stand Alone Herding cattle up the side of
a mountain might seem like a lot of extra work, but for
thousands of years, people have hauled their cows into the Alps
to graze during the summer months. Why? It's all about great-
tasting cheese. But in Italy, at least, the practice may be
dying out. "Young people don't want to stay in the mountain
because there are poor opportunities for work," so they often
move to the city, says food chemist Giovanna Contarini of the
Centro di Ricerca per le Produzioni Foraggere e Lattiero-
Casearie in Lodi, Italy. If there's no one left in the mountains
to raise the cows and make the cheese, she says, "we risk losing
an important product." Contarini and her colleagues have been
working to save these mountain dairy products. And fans of the
cheeses say there's more than just nostalgia involved. It's not
easy to define the flavor, Contarini says, but aficionados
insist the cheeses do taste better. The