France eases cheese rules as drought scorches grazing lands

The pastures that have fed French dairy cows for centuries turned to dust this summer. By August, the drought had scorched 95 percent of mainland France, leaving what should have been lush grazing land yellowed and bare. For cheesemakers whose reputations and livelihoods depend on strict rules about where their animals graze and what they eat, the crisis forced an unprecedented choice: bend the rules or watch production collapse.

Comté, the hard cheese made from raw milk in the Jura mountains, is France's flagship traditional cheese—62,000 tonnes produced last year, more than any other protected cheese in the country. Beaufort and Abondance, both made from Alpine cattle, carry the same weight of national identity. All three hold the label "appellation d'origine protégée," or AOP, a designation that guarantees authenticity by locking producers into rigid requirements about grazing and diet. The government announced on Wednesday that these rules would be temporarily relaxed. Producers could now supplement their animals' diets with fodder and grain brought in from elsewhere—a concession that would have been unthinkable weeks earlier.

The National Institute of Origin and Quality, the government agency that enforces these standards, signaled it would extend similar relief to other protected cheeses: reblochon, cantal, bleu d'Auvergne, and fourme d'Ambert. Officials described the drought as "historic." The scale of the damage became visible in the numbers. On August 10, grass growth on permanent pastures measured one-third below the 1989-2018 average. The fodder situation was "highly degraded" in nearly every region.

In Normandy, Hubert Genty, who makes neufchâtel cheese, watched his cows produce less milk as the grass disappeared. "There really is no grass left to eat," he told TF1 television. "This grass is totally scorched and has no value." His wife, Angélique, who shapes the heart-shaped cheeses by hand in their farm dairy, felt the impact immediately. She usually made 600 to 700 cheeses a day at this time of year. Now she was down to 400 or 450. She said she would struggle to meet her customers' orders.

The damage rippled across the sector. About 70 percent of salers cheese producers, another AOP-protected variety, had to pause production entirely over the summer. Roquefort makers, who depend on sheep grazing, called for their own temporary relief. The crisis extended far beyond cheese. Potato farmers warned of a 23 percent drop in this year's crop after five successive heatwaves and exceptional water scarcity. In the northern Hauts-de-France region, a major potato producer, farmers reported that potatoes were much smaller than usual, alarming the factories that make chips and processed products. Cider makers worried about apple yields. Wine producers began their harvest early, uncertain how much wine would actually be produced.

The agriculture minister, Annie Genevard, was expected to hold crisis talks with local authorities the following week before announcing emergency measures. The drought was not an isolated event. Droughts are becoming more common and more severe across Europe, the fastest-warming continent, driven by human-caused climate change. For rural France, where cheese production anchors both economy and identity, the question was no longer whether the rules could bend—they already had. The question was what came next, and whether temporary relief would be enough.