--- title: "Climate Change Is Ruining Cheese, Scientists and Farmers Warn" description: "Climate change is making everything about modern life worse — including the quality of the dairy that makes our cheese." date: "2025-06-14" modified: "2025-06-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/climate-change-cheese-cows" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "cheese" - "climate change" - "cows" - "dairy" --- # Climate Change Is Ruining Cheese, Scientists and Farmers Warn ![Climate change is making everything about modern life worse — including the quality of the dairy that makes our cheese.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Climate change is making everything worse — including apparently threatening the dairy that makes our precious cheese. In [interviews with *Science News*](), veterinary researchers and dairy farmers alike warned that changes to the climate that affect cows are impacting not only affects the nutritional value of the cheeses produced from their milk, but also the color, texture, and even taste. Researchers from the Université Clermont Auvergne, which is located in the mountainous Central France region that produces a delicious firm cheese known as Cantal, explained in a [new paper for the *Journal of Dairy Science*]() that grass shortages caused by climate change can greatly affect how cows' milk, and the subsequent cheese created from it, tastes. At regular intervals throughout a five-month testing period in 2021, the scientists sampled milk from two groups of cows, each containing 20 cows from two different breeds that were either allowed to graze on grass like normal or only graze part-time while being fed a supplemental diet that featured corn and other concentrated foods. As the researchers found, the corn-fed cohort consistently produced the same amount of milk and less methane than their grass-fed counterparts — but the taste of the resulting milk products was less savory and rich than the grass-fed bovines. Moreover, the milk from the grass-fed cows contained more omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for the heart, and lactic acids, which act as probiotics. "Farmers are looking for feed with better yields than grass or that are more resilient to droughts," explained Matthieu Bouchon, the [fittingly-named]() lead author of the study. Still, those same farmers want to know how supplementing their cows' feed will change the nutritional value and taste, Bouchon said — and one farmer who spoke to *Science News* affirmed anecdotally, this effect is bearing out in other parts of the world, too. "We were having lots of problems with milk protein and fat content due to the heat," Gustavo Abijaodi, a dairy farmer in Brazil, told the website. "If we can stabilize heat effects, the cattle will respond with better and more nutritious milk." The heat also seems to be getting to the way cows eat and behave as well. "Cows produce heat to digest food — so if they are already feeling hot, they’ll eat less to lower their temperature," noted Marina Danes, a dairy scientist at Brazil's Federal University of Lavras. "This process spirals into immunosuppression, leaving the animal vulnerable to disease." Whether it's the food quality or the heat affecting the cows, the effects are palpable — or, in this case, edible. "If climate change progresses the way it’s going, we’ll feel it in our cheese," remarked Bouchon, the French researcher. **More on cattle science:** [*Brazilian "Supercows" Reportedly Close to Achieving World Domination*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()