The Milk Producer - October 2009 - (Page 50)

THEBACKFORTY By Sharon Laidlaw Pungent gold Italian bank defies economic pressures from recession by using cheese as collateral for loans elieve it or not, an Italian bank is accepting parmesan as collateral for loans. Credito Emiliano’s two climate-controlled warehouses hold about 440,000 cheese wheels, worth about $204 million Cdn. The cheese enables the bank to keep financing cheesemakers in northern Italy despite the recession. Italian bank estimates its Parmesan cheese wheels are worth more than $240 million Cdn. “This mechanism is our lifeblood,” cheese producer Giuseppe Montanari told Bloomberg News. Montanari uses the loans to buy milk. “It’s a great way to finance our expenses at convenient rates, and the bank doesn’t risk much because they can always sell the cheese.” So precious is the cheese that each 80-pound wheel, worth about $464 Cdn, is branded with a serial number so it can be traced if stolen. Last February, thieves tunnelled into one warehouse, making off with 570 pieces before they were apprehended by police. “Thank heavens we caught the robbers before they grated it,” said vault manager William Bizzarri. Could milk be nature’s most nearly perfect and oldest food? ritish researchers believe humans first evolved into milk drinkers 7,500 years ago in the Balkans and as a result populated northern Europe, including Britain. At the time, the north would have been cold, damp and inhospitable, covered in dense forests. Researchers figure many settlers would have died when their crops failed. However, milk would have provided them with a steady and reliable source of nutrition. As a result, the settlers would have continued to migrate and inhabit most of Europe, which would explain why people living on the continent can tolerate lactose, unlike 65 per cent of the world’s population today. The researchers also figure it could be the reason why Europe became such a superpower. Professor Mark Thomas and his University College London research team used computer models to map the genetic change that let early Europeans gradually increase their lactose tolerance after the introduction of cattle farming. “They had cattle which meant they could produce milk,” Thomas said. “It would have made some of them sick and given them diarrhea, and when you’re starving this can be fatal. But by building up their tolerance to milk these people were gaining an advantage. It was the world’s first super food. Without it, the history of Northern Europe would have been put back a thousand years.” 50 | October 2009 | MilkPRODUCER

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - October 2009

The Milk Producer - October 2009
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFOVice-Chair's Message
Dairy Update
Industry Roundup
National Policy
DFC Promotion
Sinking In Stormy Seas
Processor Spotlight
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New 'N' Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - October 2009