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Project directors: Rodics Gergely (Pagan Snow Cap region) and Nat Page, Adept Foundation (Tarvana Mare region).
 Pictures © Barbara Knowles and Rodics Gergely
Milk provides over 90% of cash income for many village families in Transylvania. Their livelihoods are threatened by EU regulations and low milk prices. Many farmers are already selling their cows and young people are leaving the villages. If too many families sell their cows, the entire landscape and ecology of the area is also at risk. There is much we should learn from the sustainable system of traditional farming and forestry which has supported the people and ecology of this area for hundreds of years. The patchwork of hay meadows and pastures which are so characteristic of this area, and which support its rich biodiversity and ecotourism potential, rely on cows farmed on a small scale in the traditional manner. This project aims to preserve this special region – the last great medieval landscape in Europe – by providing practical support for the rural economy. We are working in two regions:
The projects are encouraging and supporting village farmers with cows to establish farmer's associations that can manage milk collection, storage, cooling, microbiological and quality testing; bargain better prices with processing companies; and comply with EU regulations. The advantage is that the equipment is owned by the farmers (the association), not the milk companies. This lets the farmers measure and control the quality of their milk, ensuring that one farmer with a sick cow or another who waters down his milk don’t contaminate the supply and reduce its value for everyone. We have already gained support from an encouraging number of farmers and the mayors of several villages to build milk collection points and seek funding at county level for the equipment. Such projects are also eligible for EU funding and we will employ an expert to help access these funds. In Delne, the first village to open its own collection point, the villagers achieved in 2008 more than double the price before the association was active. The quality of the milk improved significantly. In 2009, low milk prices resurfaced, not only here but across Europe. This issue is not a simple one. We are exploring other methods to increase the value of this high quality milk, for example through developing mature cheeses.
In 2009 we helped to create five new milk collection points (three in the Pagan Snow-Cap region, two in Tarvana Mare), have supplied equipment to allow monitoring and improvement of milk quality in compliance with new hygiene regulations, and organised cheese making and milk hygiene courses for farmers. Our pilot project in Tarvana Mare led to a successful grant application to Innovation Norway to open eight new milk collection points.
Project report 2010
We organised our second two-day cheese making training for local farmers and farmer’s wives. There was a much higher interest than we anticipated, over 40 people attended. They could learn how to make hard cheese, yoghurt and mozzarella. Two cheese trainers came, one of our friends from Transylvania, and one from Ireland. On the first day evening, we also organised our first cheese tasting event, which was openly advertised in local news papers and on the internet. Almost 50 people cane to compare 18 different cheeses from Transylvania, England and Ireland. This was also an opportunity for us to see what kind of cheese would be a good choice to produce in our future food barn.  
  © Barbara Knowles 2010 |
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Why Transylvania? >
Quality milk production
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