Photo courtesy of Lactography
Carlos is a cheese expert and PhD candidate in politics who divides his time between New York and Mexico City. He's also a co-founder of Lactography, an organization that works to preserve Mexican cheesemaking traditions by developing regional trademarks and supplying local cheeses to markets and restaurants in Mexican cities.

This the second part to my two-part exploration of geographical indications in Mexico. The first part is here.

Armed with knowledge about the areas of the law described in my last post, an understanding of the people and cheesemakers of Mexico, and a tenacious spirit, Carlos Yescas is working toward a system that will recognize the traditional cheeses of Mexico and give them the status similar to that of the AOC system in France.

As some of you may know, by day, I am a trademark/copyright lawyer. It’s not every day that I get to go into detail about BOTH cheese and trademark law with the same person, so imagine my delight at speaking with Carlos Yescas, co-owner of Lactography whose name regularly crops up on Culture. Lactography’s team, consisting of experts in accounting, logistics, food production, and safety, among other fields, is largely devoted to promoting artisanal Mexican cheeses in the United States. Outside of the cheese world, he is a trained lawyer (in Ireland) and is currently working toward his doctorate degree at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Despite relatively little external fanfare, last week saw a significant milestone for North American artisanal cheese with the official inauguration of the North American Chapter of the International Guilde de Fromagers.

The Guilde, a non profit organization, was established in 1969 by noted French affineur Pierre Androuet with a view to promoting and connecting the work of cheese professionals around the world while also helping to maintain standards of cheese knowledge.

With American artisanal cheese’s meteoric rise in recent years, it is no surprise that several members of the cheese industry from North America have been inducted into the Guilde. However until last week, they had to be inducted into other Chapters (such as Canada) since North America did not have a Chapter of its own.