num_pages: 320
description: In little more than a century industrial practices have altered every aspect of the cheesemaking process from the bodies of the animals that provide the milk to the microbial strains that ferment it. Reinventing the Wheel explores what has been lost as raw-milk single-farm cheeses have given way to the juggernaut of factory production. In the process distinctiveness and healthy rural landscapes have been exchanged for higher yields and monoculture. However Bronwen and Francis Percival find reason for optimism. Around the worldnot just in France but also in the United States England and Australiaenterprising cheesemakers are exploring the techniques of their great-grandparents. At the same time using sophisticated molecular methods scientists are upending conventional wisdom about the role of microbes in every part of the world. Their research reveals the resilience and complexity of the indigenous microbial communities that contribute to the flavor and safety of cheese. One experiment at a time these dynamic scientists cheesemakers and dairy farmers are reinventing the wheel. 
language: English
title: Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese (Volume 65)
publisher: University of California Press