Angus Cameron: Beyond the Jar at Meredith Dairy

Meredith Dairy’s marinated goat cheese has become one of Australia’s most recognisable food products. But behind that famous jar is a far bigger story about farming, family, innovation, sustainability and what it really takes to build an Australian food business with global reach.

In this episode of Straight To The Source, Tawnya Bahr sits down with Angus Cameron, the next generation helping steer Meredith Dairy, to get beyond the cheese and into the realities of running one of Australia’s best-known family-owned dairy businesses.

Meredith Dairy began after Sandy and Julie Cameron turned to sheep and goat dairying in the early 1990s as traditional farming economics became increasingly difficult. Today, the vertically integrated business farms, milks and manufactures its products on its 4,500-acre property in Meredith, Victoria, controlling its supply chain from paddock through to finished product.

Angus talks about growing up inside the business, stepping into a second-generation family operation and the responsibility that comes with taking an established Australian food brand into its next chapter.

And then there is the question most consumers never ask: what happens to the male goats?

Dairy farming inevitably produces animals that cannot enter the milking herd, raising much bigger questions around whole-animal utilisation, waste, animal welfare and how we place value on food. It is one of the less comfortable realities sitting behind dairy production, and one chefs and consumers rarely get to see.

The conversation also digs into sustainability beyond the buzzwords. At Meredith Dairy, grains grown on the farm feed the dairy animals, straw becomes bedding, cheese whey is fed to cattle and manure is returned to the soil, while the business continues to invest in renewable energy, water conservation, recycling and land management.

For chefs, there is another lesson here. Knowing an ingredient means understanding more than flavour and functionality. It means understanding the farming system, the people, the animals, the waste streams and the decisions made long before that ingredient lands in your cool room.

Meredith Dairy products are now sold across Australia and internationally, with Angus working across marketing and export as the family business continues to grow beyond its Victorian farm gate.

This is a conversation about Australian goat cheese, but it is really about something much bigger: how you build a food business that