Yvette Cowe

We met with Yvette Cowe, founder of the East Hamilton Cheese Company, to talk about cheese, food affordability, and about better understanding our food system.

How would you sum up the purpose of your business? 

It’s to provide the community with affordable and locally made food, and to serve the community. Customers say, “It’s so cool that you sell cheeses that are all from Ontario.”  I love being able to show people all of these good foods that come right from our backyard, and that they might not see in grocery stores or in fancy ads.  I also really enjoy it when people see their total and are surprised by how inexpensive it is.

We work in matters of food insecurity, too. We donate to the community fridge and Food for Kids fundraisers.  We’re feeding people without worrying about making the most money. 

How else can food be made more affordable?

If we treated food like the necessity that it is, and not a commodity, that would be amazing. What if shareholders actually pushed back on high grocery prices?

The enshittification that Cory Doctorow talks about is in the food system, too.  When things get automated to save costs, those savings aren’t necessarily passed onto the consumer.  Nobody should be a billionaire from selling food, because it’s something everybody needs multiple times a day.

It’s not easy to change habits, and not every consumer can, but for those who can afford to rethink their habits, why not rethink getting everything in one place, when that means shopping at a large corporation with obligations to shareholders?

Also, animals and plants have cycles.  Food needs to be made more affordable through many different ways, but one way to reduce costs is to eat more seasonally.  That would also bring other benefits. Refrigeration is a matter of food safety, but emissions from vehicles are an issue.  If we could avoid shipping food such enormous distances, that would be great.  What if, instead of complaining about the trucks on the road, we appreciated that people are bringing us our food, AND we produced and bought more locally produced food so it travels less and we have fewer trucks on the road?

We can also find ways to support one another. We’ve had pop-ups, like for brownies and baked goods.  We’ve had bartering relationships for cleaning.  We’ve worked with local bakers, even through word of mouth, to find suppliers that are super-local. 

When you consider your groups of stakeholders (cheese makers, CPG producers, eaters, etc.), what will be different for them if you achieve your goals?

The most obvious thing is that farmers and cheese makers would see increased sales.  Consumers would benefit, too, because instead of buying from 3-5 massive companies, there would be more choice.

It’s not that our food system is an entire failure, but everything that’s good is expensive and hard-fought for, like the certification required to call yourself organic.  I wish we didn’t make it so hard for people to do the things that matter to them.

There are also food producers who are working hard to make the food system stronger, like the many farmers who held out against sprawl for years.  Anybody who can do that hard work is to be admired.

Imagine it’s 2035, the changes you want have taken place, and you’re hungry.  What are you eating, and what’s different about the way it was made, shipped, purchased, prepared, or eaten?  

I grew up in farm country, and people would trade: you’ve got pork, I’ve got apples.  So, maybe I paid with money for my meal, or maybe I bartered.  The food has been shipped and sold according to season.  Maybe it came from a farmers’ market that’s actually a farmers’ market, where consumers know that they’re getting food actually grown on local farms.  I’d like to do away with misrepresentation.  If your farmers’ market has coffee, that coffee may have been farmed, but nowhere close.  Call it what it is.  

Or maybe my food came from the main street, where people don’t have to be so car-dependent.  The main street harkens back to the old fashioned main street, but it also looks ahead a little bit, and people can find what they actually need, as well as thing that are fun.  People don’t need a $4 croissant, but they do need a loaf of bread.  The main street is accessible to everyone: drivers, cyclists, people who want to walk, people who can’t walk far, people with strollers.  And have a mix of things that people need and that are fun.  On Ottawa Street, we literally have a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker!  It doesn’t have to be massive or Instagrammable.  It just has to be serviceable and affordable.

People ask me all the time what my favourite cheese is, but it depends on the day.  I’d go with something super funky like blue cheese. It is stinky, creamy, and looks like something you should not be able to eat, but you can and it’s amazing.  It works with bread, fruit, burgers, steaks, salad, pasta. I’ve made mac and cheese with blue cheese sprinkled on top. 

If someone wanted to get involved in making great food more accessible, or wanted to understand more about the challenges you’re facing, how might they do so?

Just talk to people making, shipping, selling, or regulating your food.  Talk with the farmers who are at the farmers’ market.  Talk to a politician, go to the town halls.  Talk to the small businesses who are working with suppliers.  You’ll have a more nuanced understanding, because everyone has their own views based on where they are in the process.  I’ll definitely have something different to say than a farmer or producer or truck driver.