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approached local dairy farmers with a novel proposition – she didn't want to pay them whatever they could get from their local creamery. She wanted to pay them enough to live on. "I'm not going to be milking anything at 4 a.m. 365 days a year, so if I want reliable dairy farmers, then I need to pay them a wage so that they can sustain their way of life. It's not a philanthropy. It's not a nonprofit that we're running here," she said. There were farmers who refused to listen to any more of Rynn's crazy talk. They said things like, "This is not how this is done. This is not how the dairy industry works," according to Rynn. Her response, then and now, is that Caputo Brothers is trying to shift the paradigm around dairy pricing, to turn back the tide of hundreds of dairy cow dispersals happening around them over the last few years. Each of those represents a farmer who's called it quits because he just can't afford to feed his herd on what he's getting from his milk sales. As of October, 2019, there were 30,000 fewer cows in Pennsylvania than there had been a year before, and what's happening in Pennsylvania is also happening in dairy-producing states around the country. "Now we have farmers who say, 'How do we get involved? How do we become a part of what you're doing?' because they see that it's not a real good outlook here," Rynn said. "If their kids want to stay on the farm, there's not really a clear path forward for them." Part of her answer to farmers who want to sell to Caputo Brothers Creamery is that they need to start by obtaining their Animal Welfare Approved certification. That certification from A Greener World provides a marketing bump that helps Caputo Brothers Creamery command the price of its cheese from retailers as well as guaranteeing that the farmers cows are treated humanely. Milk sold to Caputo Brothers Creamery also has to be cleaner than the milk that the farmers sell to their local creamery. The certification from A Greener World involves a modest increase in the farmers' costs, as does the requirement for cleaner milk, but those higher costs are factored into the higher price that the Caputos pays to its farmers. "It's not me taking advantage of you. It's not you taking advantage of the government or the land that you're on," Rynn said. "It's: 'Let's actually do this in a way that just has a lot of good coming out of it.'" Help from the State Caputo Brothers Creamery is getting some help from a $426,000 grant from the state of Pennsylvania through its Pennsylvania Dairy Investment Program to expand the creamery's aging cave and to remodel its restaurant into a visitors center and tasting room that will educate visitors about Caputo Brothers cheeses and the role of the dairy industry in Pennsylvania's agriculture economy. The grant is a boost that's intended to help the Caputos replicate their business model around the region. The program was established in 2018 with $5 million in grants available for researching new technologies, products and best practices; marketing to new domestic and international markets and exploring new business opportunities to diversify farming operations and revenue streams; transitioning to organic production methods; and incorporating or expanding value-added dairy production, like the cheeses that come from Caputo Brothers Creamery. Another $5 million in funding was added to the grant program for 2019, and Caputo Brothers Creamery was one of 29 projects funded in 20 Pennsylvania counties to try and stabilize Pennsylvania's dairy industry. A Vision for the Future The Caputos have a vision in which a cluster of four or five farms could be served by a micro-creamery, like the one that they're operating in Spring Grove, which would shorten the supply chain from farm to creamery. The creameries could specialize in particular cheeses and support each other, as the Italian cheesemakers from whom the Caputos learned their craft in Calabria. "There's a reason that's been so successful," Rynn said. She points out that in her region of the country, many of the dairy farmers belong to an Anabaptist religious tradition that includes the Amish and Mennonites. These farmers frequently have large families, and they want their children to continue to practice an agrarian tradition that fits into their world view. Rynn believes that her vision of micro-creameries supporting – and supported by – a handful of dairy farms around them could provide an opportunity for a next generation of children who grew up on dairy farms to stay in the industry while they also stay relevant to the economy around them. "They could continue to make an impact back to their families, but do it in a way that may be different from what they'd even thought of," Rynn said. "That's really what we're trying to do." "We've been shouting from the rooftops that this is important; this is our time, if we're not going to be putting fingers in the dam but are going to find ways around the dam," she added. "It's our responsibility as a community to figure this out, so that's what we're trying to do." The Cheese Guide 7

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