Melting point: Extreme heat threatens Italys Parmesan heartland

MONTECAVOLO/MEDESANO, ITALY – Fifty years ago, farmers in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region used to open the windows in their ​barns at night during the summer to keep their cattle cool.Today, as heatwaves send temperatures soaring to record highs, ‌those windows stay open round the clock to protect the cows, and ultimately their milk, the foundation of the area’s centuries-old Parmigiano Reggiano cheese industry.“Extreme heat impacts milk’s quality and quantity,” said Nicola Bertinelli, president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, who also runs the dairy farm that his family founded in 1895 on ​the outskirts of Parma.With temperatures topping 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), cows spend more time lying ​down, eat less and produce up to 10% less milk, one of the Parmigiano’s only three ingredients alongside ⁠salt and rennet.Production of authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is only allowed in five provinces, mostly in the Emilia-Romagna region, and cows must be ​fed exclusively with grass and hay grown there.“If it doesn’t rain, grass doesn’t grow, hay cannot be produced and it’s impossible to obtain ​the milk needed to make the cheese,” Bertinelli, 54, told Reuters.He and others have also installed fans and water-mist systems, but those extra cooling measures have sent their energy costs soaring.Rising bills are also hitting managers of the warehouses where cheese wheels are stored during the aging process for at least 12 ​months, sometimes three years or even longer.More than 500,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, together worth more than $342 million (€300 million), are stored in the two warehouses operated ​by Credito Emiliano unit Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate (MGT) in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena.“During this year’s peak heatwaves, our daily energy consumption rose ‌by about ⁠30%,” MGT director Giancarlo Ravanetti said.“To make our facilities as energy-efficient as possible, we ha...