Milk crisis must not result in mega dairies
A farmer taking his cow to the supermarket to buy his milk back and give it to local people! That’s how mad the food industry has become.
This milk crisis has been caused by:
1. A glut of milk in Europe due to lack of sales to Russia following sanctions
2. Farmers increasing herd size to try and get economies of scale and so reduce cost
3. Supermarkets not listening to their customers who say they are happy to pay a fair price
Cows on grass a thing of the past?
No wonder farmers are so angry especially when coupled with:
1. The UK needs to import 20% of our total milk consumption
2. Milk is cheaper than water in some shops
3. On average one dairy farmer is going out of business every day
It is madness to me that farmers have to buy up all the milk on supermarket shelves to raise awareness of their plight, and why the government have not stepped in to help. After all it is government that set sanctions on Russia and distorted the ‘market’ in the first place.
This is the problem with the global food industry where governments relying on a free market economy that commoditises food and drink. The ‘market’ is supposed to provide competition to make each business more efficient and customer focused. Unfortunately the customer is nearly always a supermarket that is more focused on price and shelf life instead of flavour and animal welfare.
Your local Raw Milk farmer?
In China they are building a dairy for 100,000 cows (see previous blog here). Some people think we could follow their example and with our EEC open market put the dairies in Poland where many intensive pig ‘factories’ are already set up.
When we know the facts most people say NO. And why we must move to a better, local, food and drink supply chain. Where we all take an active interest on what and how the produce is grown and, if we switch away from the supermarket to local farm shops, producers and markets, often end up with better and cheaper food.
So please make the change and use our local food map to find your local suppliers and help build a better, more sustainable, local, food industry.