France Is Asking People to Eat More Cheese

There's a very easy way to support food markets around the world: Eat more cheese.

Terre de Lait, an organization for the dairy industry, is asking people to eat more cheese in solidarity for French cheesemakers who have been seeing fewer and fewer people buying traditional French cheeses in the wake of coronavirus, according to a statement from the organization.

The organization's "fromagissons" campaign, a combination of "fromage" (cheese) and "agissons" (let's act), according to Matador Network, is encouraging people to start buying traditional cheeses in support of French cheesemongers, who have seen sales fall as much as 60 percent since the crisis began.

According to the statement by Terre de Lait, most consumers prefer to have simple household dairy products like milk, butter, and cream, but typically forego specialty items like traditional cheeses in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. It's easy to see that many people are choosing kitchen staples over more expensive products in order to save money and skip on luxuries during uncertain times.

"The challenge: Encourage the consumption of traditional cheeses shunned by consumers since confinement, and avoid stocks in dairies as much as possible," it says on the Terre de Lait's statement, which encourages all people to "work together so that France remains that of 1,000 cheeses."

French magazine Agri Culture stated that only 500 tons of an anticipated 2,000 tons of cheese were sold in April, according to Matador Network.

Terre de Lait is highlighting cheese from regions such as Saint-Nectaire, Camembert, Cantal, and Reblochon in particular, though the country is known for having over 1,200 varieties of cheese according to the Terre de Lait website. While many restaurants may not be ordering as much cheese as they used to, there's no reason why people can't enjoy them at home.

And it's not just people in France who can help out. If you have access to traditional French cheeses where you live, you can also eat more cheese in solidarity.

Eat cheese for a good cause? Well, we suppose it's the least we can do.