When dairy farmers suffering from Puerto Rico’s 2006 debt crisis offered to barter fresh milk in exchange for industry-mandated lab tests, microbiologist Wanda Otero decided to turn it into cheese.
At the time, Otero owned a small microbiology laboratory in Carrizales, in the rural Hatillo province on the northern coast of the island. She had previously worked as a microbiologist for a large dairy company in the capital of San Juan, but after having children, she relocated to the island’s main dairying region, where she says “there are more cows than people,” to work directly with local farmers.
Her clientele were primarily women: small-scale dairy farmers who relied on her lab for testing bacteria and antibiotic levels to qualify their milk for sale to a processing plant. If they couldn’t afford certification, they couldn’t sell milk, and without sales, there was no income. “The lady farmers owed us a lot of money. They couldn’t afford our services. I couldn’t say ‘no, I can’t help you.’ I had to think of something to do,” says Otero.
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