Vermont Butter and Cheese

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility

Allison Hooper learned to make cheese in France in the early 1980s. As an American college student there, she began writing letters to organic farmers, asking whether they could use a little help. Never mind that she had no farm experience . . . She'd work hard and learn quickly – that was her offer. A family in Brittany answered her letter, inviting her to join them on their farm and at their table. Allison was soon enjoying not only the satisfaction of working the land, but also a full-fledged education in the European tradition of artisanal cheese making.

A few years later, Bob Reese found himself in a bind. As marketing director of the Vermont Department of Agriculture, he was organizing a special state dinner. The details were all coming together, save one. The French chef needed goat cheese – scarce in Vermont at the time. Bob did know just the person to call, a state dairy lab technician who’d spent some time in France, Allison Hooper. She could make chèvre, couldn’t she?

Indeed she could. Allison's chèvre was the buzz of the banquet. By the time the tables were cleared, she and Bob had started planning a cheesemaking partnership.

Launched in 1984, Vermont Butter & Cheese Company still follows the path Bob and Allison took years ago – crafting artisanal dairy products in the European style through a vital link with local farms. Based in the town of Websterville, the company supports a network of more than 20 family farms, providing milk meeting the highest standards of purity. While Vermont Butter & Cheese Company has earned worldwide recognition, the company is proudest of its contribution to the health of local agriculture. After all, as Allison learned on a family farm in France, quality originates at the source – with the people who work the land and the pride they take in the yield.

Since their beginning on one farm, Allison and Bob have grown the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company 12 to 20 percent annually. With a private stock offering in 1988, they were able to move to a larger facility. They sell through wholesale distributors to "white tablecloth" restaurants, specialty retailers, and "super-natural markets" like Whole Foods.

Allison and Bob use only rBST-free milk and cream. They are also working with farmers to build a sustainable goats' milk industry in Vermont.

They cover 80 percent of the cost of family health insurance for their workers and always try to do the right thing by their employees, including paying a living wage.

"The challenge is to stay independent in a dairy industry filled with acquisitions," says Allison. "And it is a challenge to maintain the commitment to using a local source of milk and cream that is rBST-free. We are having to deal with large companies as competitors who can produce our products and source their raw materials at a much lower cost."

To remain competitive they are investing in product development of more artisanal cheeses that they hope will trade at the very high end of the market. “We are the first in the U.S. to bring this technology from France,” Allison says.