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2 CapitalPress.com July 10, 2015 People & Places Takeover opportunity leads to creamery’s revival Rogue Creamery wins acclaim as it expands its offerings Established 1928 Board of directors Mike Forrester ..........................President Steve Forrester Kathryn Brown Sid Freeman .................. Outside director Mike Omeg .................... Outside director Corporate officer John Perry Chief operating officer By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Managers Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher Joe Beach ..................................... Editor Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager Capital Press CENTRAL POINT, Ore. — David Gremmels and Cary Bryant got more than they intended when trying to buy some cheese from Rogue Creamery. In 2002, they were launch- ing a wine-and-cheese bar and asked the creamery’s owner, Ig Vella, to become a supplier. Vella’s response was sur- prising, remembers Grem- mels: “Fellas, if you want my cheese you’re going to have to make it yourselves.” Then in his early 70s, Vel- la was exhausted from split- ting his time between Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Ore., and Vella Cheese in Sonoma, Calif. It was becom- ing apparent that he needed to focus on one business, so Vel- la decided to sell or close his operation in Oregon. Though the proposal was a significant departure from their original plans, Grem- mels and Bryant leapt at the opportunity and agreed to buy the company that same day. They spent the next year learning the cheese-making craft from Vella and traveling to Europe to compare differ- ent techniques. Meanwhile, the company was on shaky financial foot- ing, so the wine-and-cheese bar was put on hold while they devoted capital and time to but- tressing the creamery. “We had to make a profit. I couldn’t sell things at a loss,” said Gremmels. “We worked hard and we worked day and night.” While new to cheese-mak- ing, they brought modern skills to the creamery, which was founded in 1933. Gremmels had spent his career building the brands of clothing and home furnishing companies before he was re- cruited to a marketing position at the Harry & David fruit bas- ket company, which brought him to Oregon’s Rogue Valley. Bryant, on the other hand, was able to put his training as a microbiologist to use. “Cary brought the strict sci- ence with the recipes, the test- ing and the fine-tuning,” said Capital Press Entire contents copyright © 2015 EO Media Group dba Capital Press An independent newspaper published every Friday. Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is published weekly by EO Media Group, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing offices. Photos by Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press David Gremmels, owner of the Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Ore., took over the company in 2002 with partner Cary Bryant. The company has since won international acclaim and has returned to profitability. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048. To Reach Us Toll free ............................. 800-882-y789 Main line ........................... 503-3y4-4431 Fax ................................... 503-370-4383 Advertising Fax ................ 503-3y4-2y92 Western Innovator Rogue Creamery Owners: David Gremmels and Cary Bryant News Staff Founded: 1933 N. California Tim Hearden .................... 530-y05-3072 Employees: 43 Location: Central Point, Ore. E Idaho John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4347 Products: 30 cheese varieties, shelf-stable blue cheese powder, upcoming ice cream line Idaho Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-8y0-3898 Vertical integration: Company owns cheese-making plant, retail Boise Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-82y4 shop, cold storage and packaging facility, 70-acre dairy farm Gremmels. The change in ownership also brought some new flair to the company’s products. Rogue Creamery’s blue cheeses are still made with the same strain of mold that Tom Vella, Ig’s father, imported from France, where it’s used to make Roquefort from sheep’s milk. Gremmels and Bryant ad- justed the recipe for the Rogue River Blue by wrapping it in Syrah wine grape leaves and soaking it in artisanal brandy. Their innovation brought outstanding results — the va- riety won the title of Best Blue Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in London in 2003. The award put Rogue Creamery on the global map of fine cheese-makers, helping the company to achieve profitabili- ty and 20 percent annual sales growth since Gremmels and Bryant took over. The company attained an- other milestone in 2007, when it crossed food safety hurdles to become the first U.S. creamery to export raw milk cheese to the European Union. Whole Foods, a high-end grocery store chain, is now Rogue Creamery’s largest cus- tomer, carrying its cheeses in more than 400 stores. Over the past 13 years, the creamery has gone from “neg- ligible sales” to a “multi-mil- lion-dollar company,” said Gremmels. It’s also taken steps to be- come vertically integrated with the 2012 purchase of its own organic-certified 70-acre dairy farm, which currently supplies more than half the creamery’s milk with 120 cows. The goal is to double the herd’s size over the next year and become completely self-sufficient. By controlling its source of milk, the creamery gains A cheese display at the Rogue Creamery’s retail shop in Central Point, Ore. certainty about quality and production practices at a time when many dairy farmers in the region have retired from the in- dustry, said Gremmels. The dairy can also serve as a “sustainable model” for oth- er operations with its organic practices and robotic milking system that reduces labor and cow stress, he said. “We hope to inspire other dairy people to come online and join us in producing milk in Southern Or- egon.” Aside from securing Rogue Creamery’s milk supply, the farm provides a new way to communicate with the pub- lic, said Francis Plowman, the company’s “cheese narrator.” “We think that will be a very big tourist attraction,” he said. The operation’s agritour- ism appeal will coincide nicely with the company’s upcoming line of ice cream, which will be made with honey and other “pure and simple ingredients,” Plowman said. Ice cream is part of the company’s venture into fresh — rather than aged — dairy products, such as mozzarella, he said. Because they don’t have to sit in inventory for an extended time before sale, fresh products improve cash flow. Rogue Creamery has also recently found a profitable use for blue cheese that doesn’t meet the company’s “top tier” quality requirements: it’s turned into a shelf-stable powder. The powder has proven popular as a stand-alone con- diment as well as a bulk ingre- dient that’s sold to food man- ufacturers, Plowman said. “It really has the taste profile of our blue cheeses.” Central Washington Dan Wheat ........................ 509-y99-9099 E Washington Matthew Weaver .............. 509-y88-9923 Oregon Eric Mortenson ................ 503-412-884y Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-y789 Graphic artist Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-y789 To Place Classified Ads Ad fax .............................. 503-3y4-2y92 or ...................................... 503-370-4383 Telephone (toll free) .......... 8yy-435-29y5 Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classifieds Subscriptions Mail rates paid in advance Easy Pay U.S. $3.75/month (direct with- drawal from bank or credit card account) 1 year U.S. ...................................$49.49 2 years U.S. .................................$89.89 1 year Canada .................................$275 1 year other countries ......... call for quote 1 year Internet only ............................$49 1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$30 9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25 Visa and Mastercard accepted To get information published Bangladesh-based group founder wins World Food Prize By DAVID PITT Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man who created a non- profit organization credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty was named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize on Wednesday. Fazle Hasan Abed, of Bangladesh, created BRAC, the organization originally known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, as a temporary relief organiza- tion to help the country re- cover from the 1970 typhoon that killed about 500,000 people and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan. Bangladesh was once listed as the second poorest country in the world. BRAC has grown into one of the world’s largest nongovernmental organiza- tions focused on alleviating poverty — estimated to have helped more than 150 million people out of poverty in Afri- ca and Asia and is expanding efforts to 10 additional coun- tries. “Poverty is a multidi- mensional thing. It’s not just lack of income or lack of employment, it’s also lack of opportunity, lack of educa- tion, lack of opportunity for health care and so on,” Abed, 79, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Bangladesh. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the prize on Wednesday at the State Department in Washington. The World Food Prize was created by Nobel laure- ate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines, Iowa. World Food Prize Pres- ident Kenneth Quinn said the ability of Abed, who was knighted in London in Febru- ary 2010, to successfully tran- sition BRAC it into a global relief organization was the key to his win. “What distinguishes him is the incredibly difficult envi- ronment in which he has built now the largest, and some would say, the most effective and far reaching nonprofit organization anywhere in the world with more than 100,000 employees,” Quinn said. “It’s his emphasis on reaching to the very poor those who have Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee via AP This 2012 photo provided by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee shows Sir Fazle Hasan Abed during a visit to the BRAC School in the Karail slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Abed, who creat- ed BRAC, a nonprofit organization credited with helping more than 150 million people out of poverty, was chosen July 1 as this year’s recipient of the World Food Prize. great food insecurity and who face the most difficult path out of poverty.” The initial focus of BRAC, Abed told the AP, was on al- leviating high child and infant mortality rates by provid- ing social services including health care. He also saw the need to empower women and get them to see they could also contribute to the national economy, so he helped teach them to farm efficiently and grow surplus crops to sell. “Sir Fazle’s and his or- ganization’s recognition that engaging women in STEAM fields — science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and math — benefits our local and global communities is a vi- sion that we share at USDA,” Vilsack said. BRAC estimates more than a billion people live at a pov- erty level of less than $1.25 a day but hundreds of millions of others live on less than half that amount and are consid- ered in extreme poverty. The organization also has created a pilot program that helps those in extreme pover- ty work their way out; it’ll be used in eight other countries to see if results can be repli- cated. Participants receive a weekly stipend so they have enough money to eliminate the need to beg or work at menial labor to survive. A savings account and financial literacy training helps teach them to manage money, and a one-time grant provides a productive asset — such as a cow, goats or chickens — as a means to work toward self-sufficiency. “In many countries, poor people are not seen as a solu- tion to the problem but the problem. Poor people can be organized and become the solution to the poverty them- selves,” he said. “All we need to do is provide them opportu- nities and conditions and give them the tools. “The hard work is done by the poor themselves to defeat poverty.” The United Nations De- velopment Program reports Bangladesh has reduced poverty from 56.7 percent in 1991-1992 to 31.5 percent in 2010, the latest year data is available. Abed will be awarded the World Food Prize at a ceremo- ny in October in Des Moines. Calendar Saturday, July 11 94th Annual Idaho Ram & Ewe Sale, 8 a.m., Twin Falls County Fairgrounds, Filer, Idaho. Friday, July 17 Forestry Shortcourse, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. West Bonner Library, Priest River, Idaho, 208-44y- 1y80. This y-session program will help forest owners understand ecology, silviculture, wildlife and other topics. Saturday, July 18 Washington State Sheep Producers Ram & Ewe Sale, 11: 30 a.m.-y p.m. Grant County Fairgrounds, Moses Lake, Wash. Tuesday, Aug. 4 Saturday, Sunday, Aug. 15-16 Spotted Wing Drosophila Workshop, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Eugene Unitarian Universalist Church, Eugene, Ore., 208-850-y504. Topics include understanding SWD biology, behavior and seasonal needs; SWD management tools and practices; monitoring and identification; and fruit sampling demonstrations. Harvest Fest, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Yamhill Valley Heritage Center Museum, McMinnville, Ore., 503-434-0490. Tractor parade, threshing, binding and baling oats using antique farming equipment and horses. Pioneer kids area, agricultural displays, music, food and fun. Mailing address: Capital Press P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048 News: Contact the main office or news staff member closest to you, send the in- formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press. Include a contact telephone number. Letters to the Editor: Send your comments on agriculture-related public issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital Press. Letters should be limited to 300 words. Deadline: Noon Monday. Capital Press ag media www.capitalpress.com www.FarmSeller.com www.AgDirectoryWest.com www.OnlyAg.com www.facebook.com/capitalpress www.facebook.com/farmseller www.facebook.com/onlyAGdotcom twitter.com/capitalpress www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo www.blogriculture.com Index California ................................ 8 Dairy .................................... 13 Idaho ...................................... 9 Livestock ............................. 13 Markets ............................... 15 Opinion .................................. y Oregon ................................ 10 Washington ..........................11 Correction policy Accuracy is important to Capital Press staff and to our readers. If you see a misstatement, omission or factual error in a headline, story or photo caption, please call the Capital Press news department at 503-3y4-4431, or send email to newsroom@capitalpress.com. We want to publish corrections to set the record straight.