Col Gordon

Fellow’s Profile

Col Gordon

Exploring how mountain cheesemaking could aid upland habitat restoration

Fellowship

Themes

Focus

Investigating the cooperative ecologies that allow Alpine cheesemaking to thrive

Countries

Fellowship year

2025

Locality

Scotland

Biography

I'm a freelancer based in the Gàidhealtachd who works in food, farming and land and looks how these all intersect with culture. Across the UK there were once traditions of transhumance dairying, where livestock were taken into the hills through the summer months to graze and be milked. Where I am, this was called the 'shieling system'. These practices have all but died away.

Today in the UK, the two seemingly binary worlds of farming and food production, and rewilding and habitat restoration are often pitched as being in conflict with each other. But I believe a return to seasonal conservation grazing would offer a third option bridging the two.

In the Alps, these practices still continue and have survived and thrived largely because their producers have organised themselves as cooperatives. I'll explore the social, physical, and financial and legal infrastructure within these cooperative ecosystems which enable Alpine cheeses and the landscapes they come from to flourish. Studying how these Alpine regions organise themselves cooperatively will help inform how to go about reinventing a viable shieling system that's able to meet the needs and challenges of today.

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

Disclaimer

All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.

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