WHAT’S NAHR? WHY CHEESE? WHY grass?

Grasses and Pastures: Imagining a Regenerative Economy of Cheese

Cena di Interspecie was part of NAHR’s ALT Residency. Responding to the 2019 theme of “Grasses and Pastures:
Imagining a Regenerative Economy of Cheese,” the residency focused on the socio-cultural and economic processes of manufacturing cheese (Taleggio, Strachitunt) in the Valley, and on the complex interrelationships with the environment.

Specifically, the ALT residency explored the “Taleggio cheese chain” and notions of a circular economy. The cheese chain starts in the high pastures, where the grass first processed by the animal stock. It then is followed by a cycle of local production and consumption, intertwined with the larger scale global economy that put Taleggio cheeses on the world map.

NAHR requested proposals that responded to this notion of a cyclical/seasonal economy or were in conversation with specific elements of the cheese chain: the biodiversity of the soil, grasses and bacteria; lifecycle elements such as transhumance (the movement of the cattle from their winter location to the summer high pastures); cheese making and curing facilities; the form and shape of the cheese; all of the animals involved in the cycle, including the cattle, the people, and the other fauna who build the ecosystem of the Valley.

Some of research questions posited by NAHR included:

• What does it mean to operate in cycles? 

• What regeneration is in today’s disposable consumer society? 

• What can we ethically regenerate? 

• How are models or cycles of regeneration utilized in your respective disciplines/perspectives and what might it offer to others?

• How will you address or speak to a particular question, and how will your work engage with finding an answer or posing new and unique lines of inquiry?

For more information, check out NAHR’s website and Instagram.