AIBU not to support the British farmers

[WitchofScots]

My Facebook is full of people saying they don't mind paying more for milk because they support the British Farmers.

If milk is more expensive then that's going to deprive children from families on/below the poverty line of a healthy drink, fruit is expensive, organic meat is expensive, ditto vegetables but milk is relatively cheap.

Straight from the cow isn't allowed anymore, although most dairy farmers drink it to no avail (I didn't when pg though). Needs pasteurising...

Not something we've investigated, DH would pursue it if it was likely to be worth it so that suggests to me that it would be unlikely to be.

We have many friends who have left the dairy industry over the past 11-12 years which worries me. Most of those were small businesses with less than 100 cows. I would think that the ability to produce as much of our own food as possible in the UK is a good thing and relevant prices need to be paid to enable the continuation of this. People protest at mega dairies with 'factory' cows who don't go out to fields very often, but the reality of producing milk at such a low price per litre is going to mean this is normal.

OP glad you changed your view. I think it's perfectly fine that you posted here to get info by the way.

Carol, I just read that stat on imported food in 1939 while reading Jambusters the other day! I was surprised. Funny how people seem to talk about importing food as if it's relatively recent.

Straight from the cow is allowed as long as you are not in Scotland...

We currently import 47,000 tonnes of dairy products a month here. So not a new thing to fear in the future.

I would rather pay more. if we are not careful we won't have a farming industry. If we have to import our food then it means more control.

It was a particularly special moment during my spell working in a dairy farm in NZ when a dog savaged some of the farmer's sheep (he diversified a bit). Price he could expect to receive per pound was so low that he couldn't afford to call a vet for the injured ones or he'd have no profit on the flock. We propped one with a puncture wound in it's head against a rock in the pouring rain. The farmer was so upset about the dog and the suffering but it was all he could do.

"Efficiency" also meant cows with docked tails when I was there (mid-1990s). I wasn't expecting that and have just googled to see how common it is globally and it seems the practise is now much less common in NZ at least.

woodhill we import c99% of clothes - also an issue if you really care or maybe you are just making stupid noises.

No not stupid noises thank you. we can do without clothes but people can be controlled with food or lack of it.

Also I am sorry if this has been mentioned before but farmers and farming have shaped our countryside, it doesn't look like that by itself. If we go the way of mega dairies it will have a massive detrimental effect on the whole of the countryside.

It's not illegal to sell raw milk although it's a very niche product. This farm do it very successfully.

Did you read the details of those dairy import charts, carol?

Mainly cheddar and butter from Ireland - who have had a huge marketing push for their products since BSE opened up the market for them - and speciality cheeses, manly from France plus powdered cheese for processed foods.

And if you look at the other data you find that lowered domestic dairy production has meant increased imports to meet consumer demand - UK dairy farmers going out of business, perhaps?

dairy.ahdb.org.uk/market-information/dairy-sales-consumption/gb-retail-prices/#.VcXC1TZRFlY

UK retail prices steadily decreasing whilst UK dairy farmers get squeezed.

Interestingly the processors don't seem to be the problem...
dairy.ahdb.org.uk/market-information/processing-trade/dairy-supply-chain-margins/liquid-milk-margins/#.VcXDhTZRFlY

This is based on the continued high levels of competition in the retail market, pressure from retailers to keep wholesale prices down and the increase in average farmgate prices. So, at the time this was compiled it was, as we all knew, supermarkets that were pushing this.

The farmer was so upset about the dog and the suffering but it was all he could do.

Really? He couldnt have found a farmer friend with a gun to shoot the injured sheep in the head?

My point is we import a lot of dairy now. There is no reason to support British farmers economically, they adapt or die. The experience from New Zealand suggests they will adapt, but if not, the land returns to nature. And we keep getting cheap milk and dairy products. Failing to see why I should pay more for a worse outcome.

You didn't read all of the NZ info either, did you?

And sooner than you think we will all be paying for a worse outcome. Such is the inevitable way of supply and demand!

I still maintain it is important to hold on to our own farms so we can grow our own food and rear our own livestock.

remember when we sold off all our gas then it became more expensive. plus rationing could occur if imports couldn't get through etc. world war 2 food shortages.

OP, I'm embarrassed on your behalf.

Lazy not sure what you mean

woodhill If food security is important, we will need to increase our farming by about 50%, otherwise irrelevant.
What do you mean we sold all our gas? That didn't happen.

I am sceptical as to whether milk is a healthy drink, most of Asia don't drink milk and there are plenty of plants to get calcium from in larger amounts than milk. It is the milk marketing board that seems to have portray that milk is the way to get calcium....when there are plenty of other better ways

Why the British farmer?Why not the English/Scottish farmer? Or the farmer from your county, if you don't live in a conurbation? Or your village?

Why milk? Why not meat, wool, leather, wood, paper, cars, you name it?

It's an interdependent world and what we now sneer at as globalisation used to be called Free Trade and to be regarded as right, and right it was.

pfft I wouldn't be taking nutritional advice or guidance from a third world country! Im not surprised they don't drink much milk over there a)many parts are very poor and probably cant afford to keep cattle b)much of their water is contaminated so the chances of their milk being contaminated is likely quite high.

just because you can get calcium from other things doesn't mean people want to! lots of people enjoy cream, milk, cheese, icecream etc

The diary industry has had its day.Iit is barbaric and unnecessary. We went diary free because of the badger cull, as did many of our friends. Milk isn't a healthy drink, it isn't even digestible for most of the world's population, just by a few mutant white Europeans. Its hold over us is purely cultural, and its time we moved on. I'm sure it won't disappear completely, but society could function healthily and freely on say 5-10% of the milk currently produced.

Would that be the badger cull that achieved very little due to the amount of protesters?!

why should we survive on 5-10% of foreign milk?? Ive said it once and ill say it again........horsemeat scandal....no thank you, British milk all the way.

just because you dairy free guys don't miss it doesn't mean the rest of us wont!

Sorry how do you know your supermarket milk is british?

I watched a documentary on this about 5 years back so it's nothing new. The worst offenders at that time were the co operative which surprised me as they are the ones that bang on about fair trade and market themselves as being the most (for want of a better word) ethical.

I now only buy organic milk as I am concerned about the antibiotic and hormone levels in dairy (and meat). I now pay about ) £1.88 for a jug that would cost £1 for the standard milk equivalent.

I would happily pay even more for milk if it would go to the dairy farmers. I can cut back on my food bill in other places to accommodate this if I had too.

Sorry, we know it is British because of the information in the link YOU posted