How a Vermont cheesemaker helps local farms thrive

Mateo Kehler has fond childhood memories of visiting Greensboro's Caspian Lake, which had been a family vacation destination for his father and his grandfather before him. It was "the happy place of our collective family childhood," he says. Inspired by these memories, he and Andy wanted to move to Caspian Lake in 1998 to raise their families there.

But it was a challenging time for the region. The dot-com bubble was swelling, with tech entrepreneurs moving in, buying farms, and displacing longtime residents. The land that Mateo and Andy loved now belonged to those who weren't contributing to that land, and the people and families they knew were seeing generations of purposeful livelihoods wiped out. Land prices were rising, too. "It felt like we were just getting priced out of paradise," says Mateo. "Then a small piece of land opened up in Greensboro, and we jumped at it. We made an absolutely irrational and emotional decision to throw everything we had at the opportunity to own a piece of land here."

At the same time, the brothers, both carpenters, were yearning for a more meaningful life. Mateo saw how the verdant landscape around him, sculpted by farming, was on the verge of being lost.

The brothers decided to create a business. But it wouldn't be merely about profit; it would also be about leading a life with purpose at its core. "Jasper Hill grew out of this notion that a whole life is encompassed by three intrinsic needs: meaningful work in a place that you love with people that you love," says Mateo. "We started with this idea that we need to figure out how to capture more value and retain more value, and take control of price in a way that would give us some agency in the future of our participation in a market system." Cheese, a value-added product from dairy, fit the bill.

Decades later, Jasper Hill Farm is well known for its artisanal cheeses, some made with organic milk. The Kehlers also created a 22,000-square-foot underground cave-aging system, which they use not only for their own cheeses but those from other local creameries like Cabot Creamery, further strengthening community partnerships.

When we spoke in late May, the commodity market price for Class III Milk was $18.55 per hundredweight (11.63 gallons), but the Kehlers were paying the five farms they were currently working with $31 per hundredweight—in other words, nearly double the commodity price.

The brothers can afford to pay a higher price because they sell cheese at a premium. "We're building a pipeline to markets where there's disposable income," says Mateo. Ironically, some of Jasper Hill's best customers are those who displaced the longtime farmers in Greensboro—but now their money plays a part in supporting the community. By producing and selling artisanal cheeses directly to specialty retailers and consumers willing to pay premium prices, Jasper Hill was essentially able to bypass the global commodity market.

To quantify how much of Jasper Hill's revenue is staying within the community, Andy Kehler tracks the creamery's annual expenses by ZIP code. After porting every invoice into an Excel spreadsheet, he overlays the ZIP codes and amounts from each invoice onto a map of Vermont to help him see where Jasper Hill's payments are going, and how much. Last year, 82 cents of every Jasper Hill dollar were spent in Vermont, and three-quarters of that money—62 cents—supported Greensboro farmers and other businesses.

Ultimately, Mateo says, commodity cheese, like commodity milk, is priced too low. Jasper Hill sets a higher price for its carefully crafted cheeses, and instead of pocketing a profit for themselves, redistributes the margin to the community by paying higher prices for milk. "[We] balance the value that we can extract from the market," says Mateo.

The current challenges faced by dairy farmers in Greensboro and across the U.S. have their origins in the 1970s, largely due to the policies and influence of Earl Butz, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Richard Nixon. In 1973, Butz infamously said that farmers should "Get big or get out." This philosophy encouraged agricultural consolidation and industrialization. As a result, the number of farms in the U.S. began steadily declining.

From 1933 until 1973, farm policy had been largely influenced by New Deal agricultural policies enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These policies supported farmers by guaranteeing fair prices and discouraging overproduction. Through the 1950s and 1960s, subsequent administrations, both Democratic and Republican, built upon or maintained many New Deal programs. Truman's Fair Deal followed New Deal principles, Eisenhower supported and expanded programs like Social Security, and Johnson's Great Society extended New Deal concepts.

Butz's policies still reverberate throughout American agriculture. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the U.S. dairy industry continues to experience significant consolidation. The number of dairy operations able to sell milk has decreased by almost 39 percent in just five years, dropping to 24,082 farms. In 2020, over 2,500 U.S. dairy farms, representing approximately 7 percent of all dairy operations in the country, were forced to cease operations.

Without a return to pre-Butz policies like those of the New Deal, the U.S. is unlikely to significantly revive small-scale farming. However, Canada, 87 miles north of Greensboro, may offer an example. Under Canada's supply management system, dairy farmers have secure livelihoods and can pass on their farms to the next generation. And, as Jasper Hill demonstrates, albeit on a localized scale, paying farmers fairly has been extremely successful.

Renee and Chet Baker, of Hillside Homestead dairy farm, pictured above, exemplify the type of farmers that Jasper Hill supports. Thirteen years ago, when the Bakers began farming in Richmond, Vermont, about 55 miles west of Greensboro, they recognized the challenges of surviving on the global commodity market.

Little has changed. "The price of milk was the same as it had been back in the '80s," Renee says. "My father probably got paid more for his milk than we did. The price of everything increased, but the price of milk [remained the same]." Realizing that they needed a more sustainable model, they moved to Greensboro and began working with Jasper Hill Farm in 2021. This partnership became crucial for their farm's viability, as the higher milk prices from Jasper Hill not only improved their profitability but also helped them qualify for loans to establish their own farm.

During the pandemic, Jasper Hill's innovative pivot to mail-order cheese sales increased their customer base, and the Bakers were able to sell more milk than initially anticipated. "COVID actually gave us some innovations. When the markets opened back up, they (Jasper Hill) had the best of both worlds," Renee says. Jasper Hill's premium prices for milk have largely insulated Hillside Homestead from the volatility of the global commodity market. "In the commodity market, you don't know what you're getting until you get your paycheck," says Renee. "The price is different every time." They still face the uncertainties of supply and demand within their partnership with Jasper Hill, but paychecks are basically stable.

Co-published by Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Civil Eats.