Q Street Goat Dairy Plan Shelved

After a heart-to-heart with its neighbors, Arcata’s internationally notable goat cheese producer, Cypress Grove Chevre, has agreed NOT to try to buy land on Q Street near its current operation to construct a goat dairy.

A couple of small protests have broken out in front of the cheese maker’s Arcata Bottom outfit in recent weeks, and there were even four protesters outside the gate today when CGC spokesperson Bob McCall called the Journal to say he was sending over a very interesting news release.

The release says that after a meeting with about 100 neighbors this Monday, the company decided to seek an alternative site — somewhere between McKinleyville and Ferndale — to build “a modern, humane certified, 1,200-1,400 goat dairy using a proven western-European model of maintaining herds within well-ventilated and naturally lit indoor spaces while providing outdoor access for all animals” that will provide 12 living-wage, fully benefited jobs, says the release.

Two quotes in particular in the news release should provoke an approving smile as well as straighten the spine of any upstanding Arcatan (perhaps to be followed by an indignant, but unconvincing, huff):

“I‟m proud of our standing in this community, not only for our cheesemaking, but as excellent neighbors,” said Mary Keehn, founder of Cypress Grove Chevre.

and

“In the end, what spoke loudest to us was the fervor of the opposition rather than the accuracy of information being circulated,” commented Pamela Dressler, General Manager of Cypress Grove Chevre.

This article appears in Robert’s Vow.