[This episode originally aired October 16, 2024] Plant-based cheese is better than ever, but can we expand our expectations of cheese to ease our reliance on Big Dairy?

Cheese is delicious. Even aspiring vegans find cheese hard to quit. But making dairy cheese is not only rough on the planet — the dairy cows’ lives aren’t great either. In this episode, we’re getting the full picture of the impact of dairy cheese, including the United States’ decades-long surplus cycle with the cheese industry and how it’s connected to Pizza Hut’s Summer of Cheese.

We’re chatting with famed vegan chef and cheese icon, Miyoko Schinner about how far plant-based cheese has come and her favorite plant-based cheese bases. We’re learning practical tips to learn to love plant-based cheese, and having our very own cheese taste test.

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Submit to the show.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amea Wadsworth, Diana Holguin, Drew Crabtree, Kenzie Rattray, Melissa Athina, Miriam Jornet
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (01:41) - Our community loves cheese
• (03:28) - Big Dairy, cheese caves, adn America’s decades-long milk obligation
• (07:35) - We’re drinking less milk than we used to, but we’re eating more cheese. Let’s talk about it.
• (10:54) - If one person can teach us to learn plant-based cheese, it’s famed chef, Miyoko Schinner
• (25:37) - How does cheese production impact the planet?
• (33:50) - Is it all or nothing?