To want to pay more for my milk?

[hillyhilly]

I don't want to screw British farmers but aside from a farm shop, I genuinely don't know where I should buy it.
I try to buy organic where possible and generally buy from Aldi though I do top up at Morrison's and Sainsburys local stores
I've looked for a facebook page but the one I found is not as active as it should be given the current focus.

Buy British yogurts too if you want to support our dairy industry. Leave the greek, Danone, Yoplait etc on thd shelf and choose Rachel's or Waitrose own brand.

Yeo Valley too, of course.

YANBU OP.

I wish "fairtrade" could apply to British suppliers, too. Not just for milk, but other products.

I'm not sure where I stand. I understand that milk is too cheap, and that we need to pay more than production price for the farmers to be paid appropriately, but I would rather see the supermarkets and milk suppliers reduce their margins & profits to increase the farmers share than the consumer paying more for little to no change at the other end of the chain.

Rachels = now related to Ne stle

I think the worrying thing about it all is milk is something that the uk can produce we shouldn't need to import it.

If I remember it used to be 2 x 4 pints for £3.00 now it is in some supermarkets 3 x 4 pints for £3.00. It's not a case of putting the price up as such, more like putting it back to what it was and making it more realistic for what it is.

The supermarkets started this to get us through their doors, but it is not at their cost.

Looked what happened via the horse meat scandal just so we could get cheap meat.

Narniac - do you really think it is that easy? My GPS farm had been in the family for over 200 yrs. They sold the house too - not compulsory purchased because it was listed - but it would have killed my grandad to see them build on that land. Yep farmers are careful with money - they don't have a 'guaranteed' monthly income like most people - something like foot and mouth could scupper their plans (even with compensation) and they might have to find a lot of money at short notice for a new tractor, milk cooler etc. Their emergency savings fund has to be a lot bigger than to cover a washing machine or an expensive MOT...(which they also need to cover)
They haven't built on 'our' farm yet - I think it was bought for a road but things changed and nothing happened - the planning has now been put forward for housing. I cried. We did some arable - mainly feed - I can see my grandad walking through the fields picking and moving biggish rocks that ploughing had turned up - as his grandad had done and his grandad all pointless cos it is now going to be filled with brick and rubble...not even for affordable family housing which we need - but for 'aspirational' ones.
(And Clarty it is emotive ...small farmers do have strong ties to their land - it seems few people understand that)

Me too op

Really saddens me. The thought of the animal welfare ain't great either

Perhaps Fair Trade milk is the way forward.
I had a little google having read this thread and I thought this was a good article here www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2722977/savenbspour_farmers_with_fair_trade_milk.html

I was a bit surprised though that this seems to come up every 2 years or so. Price is high farms/herds expand, price drops herds/farms contract.
However from my shaky grasp of economics it seems that the farms that are able to survive are the huge industrial level ones not the smaller traditional farms.

I don't want super efficient Eurodairy operations. I do want to ensure that UK remains self sufficient in as many basic foodstuffs as possible -anything else is ridiculously short sighted. And I want to support small dairy farmers.

I am fortunate enough that I can choose to pay more for my milk (I do know that it's not all of us) and I want to make a clear economic choice. However if I pay an additional 25p per litre I expect that all to go to the producer not the processor or the seller.

if you google US superdairy then youll see what is happening to farming.

People want free range chicken and free range eggs, but try finding free range pork, or ethically produced fairtrade dairy and meat products and its a REAL mission.

The demand is out there.
People dont want to stop consuming these things but there is a good potetial market for fairtrade and (more) ethically produced meat and dairy

I would also be happy to pay double what i pay at the moment but only if it was guaranteed to go direct to the farmers themselves

I buy a lot of fruit and veg at Lidl, but I always buy our milk at Waitrose. I assume they are paying a fair price, but I have to take it on faith.

£1 for 4 pints of milk is ridiculously cheap and I would happily pay double. Dairy farmers are facing huge hardship because of this loss leader tactic by the supermarkets.

Me too truffle...

We tried using our only local milkman last year, thinking we'd at least be helping a local dairy. He was crap. Often missed us out and forget when we were meant to be away etc.
After weeks of trying, we gave up. Sad .
I loved going out in the mornings and seeing my glass bottles sitting the (sometimes).
Was only a few pennies more than supermarket milk too, actually and I was happy to pay that to help the industry and not have more plastic to add to the mountain we already have.

Back to square one now...Aldi, or lidl, or Ocado....who knows?
Have tried microfiltered, which does last longer too.
Better in France though, where it is only microfiltered and tastes AMAZING, like milk used to, also brill for people with lactose intolerance, as the lactase enzyme isn't destroyed by pasteurisation. Amazing milk. So easy to digest and as safe as our milk over here. Sadly, law prevents it in UK - microfiltered yes, but additionally pasteurised. So all benefits of retaining enzyme is lost.

But that's another story and another can of worms.

saveoursouls - I don't understand that, isn't the problem for those that are lactose intolerant, the drinking of the lactose itself. The people drinking it are the ones lacking the lactase enzyme - and so lactose passes through to the lower gut where bacteria then break it down, causing too much intestinal gas to build up etc - or have I misunderstood? Does milk also contain lactase ?

Love this campaign. Totally agree with it and have signed the petitions. My family was involved in dairy farming for generations until very recently and, sadly, lower prices means that farmers are encouraged to take decisions that they otherwise might not do (e.g., more frequent/widespread use of antibiotics to avoid any cows being 'out of action', more frequent feeds to increase yield, indoor-housed cows, etc.). Low prices = unhappy farmers = less time and cash to give cows the 'love' and care they need = less profit to re-invest in farms = fewer ethical farmers who can survive in the dairy business = (IMHO) less healthy milk.

I don't mind paying more at all.

I read about this about a month ago, although i've been aware of it for a good few years, seeing as we live in a rural area. My friend's dad had to give up the dairy aspect of his farm because of the very same problem.

I buy my milk from tesco or sainsbury's organic, and when i go in, i buy Dutchy organic from Waitrose. It's £1.85 for 4 pints really really delicious (cream floating on top, yum!). For us it's worth it.

Same goes for dairy products, cheese, yoghurt etc, always organic.

It's really not that much more expensive, and it doesn't feel right to not put dairy farmers out of business over 50 odd pence.

Yes, would, did, and my Dad still does.
He gets organic milk from the milkman. Hopefully he still can, hopefully they haven't completely shut down the milkman service yet! I'll find out soon enough.

Hi cadno, you're not wrong at all. Maybe I wasn't too clear. It's Friday
Milk before pasteurisation contains some of the lactase enzyme that helps to break down the lactose in that same milk. Some people don't have that enzyme themselves, true, which is why they cannot break down the lactose and it builds up gas in their gut, as you said. Pasteurisation kills enzymes. Micro filtration doesn't. So in micro filtered milk which hadn't been additionally pasteurised (France) the lactase enzyme is still present. Here, micro filtered milk is additionally pasteurised, so the enzyme is killed off. My husband is lactose intolerant- when we're on holiday in France, the micro filtered only milk doesn't affect him at all and he can drink milk as normal. Over here, he can't drink it-stomach cramps galore, because there's no natural enzyme left in it.
I know that mAny will agree that pasteurisation is key and crucial, but it is only 99.99% effective in destroying bacteria (nothing in science is ever 100%) and micro filtration only is also 99.99% effective in removing bacteria through micro filters, rather than heat. It works and it's as safe as pasteurisation. France has had it for years without problems. Just wish we could here as well!

Hi Saveoursouls - thanks that's very interesting I didn't know that about milk.

Nice to know that you can get an alternative to UHT in France now too.

For people advising organic milk, I'm not sure if organic dairy farmers are getting a good price or their higher prices just reflect the fact that organic is dearer anyway?

What should happen is a fair price paid to all dairy farmers with the premium still being their for organic. After all,it's not much more expensive.

When milk is cheaper than bottled water it's getting crazy.

"but then they are more tightfisted than a Lancastrian at a church jumble sale."

Hey, Its Yorkshire folk who are supposedly tighfisted, not Lancastrians. :) :)

I would pay double for a pint of milk.

Broaderband, organic farmers generally are getting a good price - that's been the case for a couple of years now. Yes organic is dearer, but the premium is about where it should be - a few pence more would be nice though.

It took a while to get where we are ... the supermarkets were fighting against paying a decent price, despite the fact that consumers were clearly prepared to pay more. Organic milk was having to be exported abroad, as it was getting a better price on the continent, even taking into account transport costs. The consequent limiting of supply to the uk market eventually persuaded the supermarkets to pay more. So the strategy worked thankfully. But FFS, they should have just paid a decent price to start with.

Hi, I was looking online trying to decide where to take my grandson who's just had his 6th birthday, came across Mumsnet and this discussion. In October last year I watched a film called Earthlings by Joaquin Phoenix and it changed my outlook.

Then I found out about a challenge to go vegan for the month of November which is run by animal aid. So I joined the challenge and had loads of support from others taking part and went vegan from 1st November. Still 100% into it now. There are so many delicious alternatives to dairy products out there that are actually much heatlhier as well as not causing cruelty to animals. Sorry to jump in with my tuppence worth

We use Riverford, so glad that they have been mentioned positively on this thread.