Upstate New York has become a hot bed for young farmers, organic dairy and delicious products. Tune in to this weeks episode of Cutting the Curd with Anne Saxelby and Sophie Slesinger as they sit down with Dean Sparks of NYFoods. NYFoods offers consumers quality organic dairy products with the goal of saving as many New York family farms as possible. They partner with both milk cooperatives and small family farms to offer the best in milk, eggs, cheese and butter. Learn about butterfat content, milk trains, distribution systems, logistics and the challenges facing small farms and processing facilities trying to get their product to your plate. Whether you're a dairy geek or an aspiring farmer you can learn something new to help you along your path on this episode! This program was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.

"We've had a lot of conventional farmers come to us and ask how they can become organic, which is a blessing."

"Upstate New York is such a bastion for amazing food right now. It's not new to us, but it's new to a lot of people."

"Our vision in 2012 is to get our logistics viable enough to get into bigger markers."

"Re imagining distribution systems shouldn't be so hard. My farm is 150 miles from here!"

--Dean Sparks of NYFoods on Cutting the Curd

State #5: This week on Cutting the Curd Anne continues her State of Cheese series with New York State. Dean Sparks from Empire Organics joins Anne on air to talk about how to keep the quality of dairy high and the wages fair for everyone from the farmer to the distributor. Speaking on everything from simple eggs to value added dairy products, Dean stresses the importance of making sure everyone's markup is fair, so the farmers make a reasonable wage and the consumer pays a reasonable price. This episode was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.