One unexpected part of life at the Abbey des Dombes is how important the fromagerie is to daily life and work here. Every day, most of the cows’ milk is sent early in the morning straight to the fromagerie, where full-time employees and volunteers start the long process of turning it into cheese and yogurt. It gets packaged up, and much of it is sent to the on-site magasin, where Abbey products are sold to visitors and locals six days a week. Some of it stays in the Abbey’s kitchens (we eat it with nearly every meal here), and the rest is sold in chain supermarkets in the area.

It was truly unexpected to see the cheese I’d helped package up being sold at the crowded Super-U in Villars les Dombes, 10 km away from the peace of the fromagerie. As I walked through that supermarket, it made me think about the origins of the other food products I was buying; unsurprisingly, most came from much further than 10 km away. While working at the Abbey has given me the opportunity to support a local farm with the goal of sustainability, it has also opened my eyes to the extraordinary effects of our diet on the environment and the interconnectedness of global food production.