Am having a dilemma involving the milkman!

[littlebrownmouse]

Ok, we get milk from Dairy Crest delivered by a milkman. Recently, prices went up and milk is now 65p a pint!! In morrisson's it's 45pa pint and I would guess it's a similar price in other supermarkets. The dilemma is this, I don't mind paying 20p a pint more if it's ensuring that the dairy farmers get a fair price for the milk, but if dairy crest treats farmers in the same way that the major supermarkets do, I don't want to be paying an extra 20p a pint that is going towards keeping the sellers of milk to the general public (ie dairy crest) well off while the farmers are no better off than tesco farmers. I've looked at the ethical trading statements etc on dairy crest website and it all sounds nice and friendly, but then it would, wouldn't it?
Can anyone help me?

hmm interesting... will watch this for more info!

on the eco side of things though at least glass bottles are better than plastic ones no?

Isn't the extra 20p to pay for the delivery?

Do Dairy Crest specifically say they pay farmers more than supermarkets?

I am glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this way. We've ditched Tesco in favour of Waitrose for the same reason. I now buy much less and make sure there's no waste - and funnily enough our bills are cheaper!

There must be a fair food-type website you can refer to...not sure where you'd look.

Dairy Crest are a publicly traded stockmarket listed company. Among their business lines they have one that sells milk to supermarkets. I may be wrong but the milk they buy and then sell to supermarkets will surely be no different to that they use to supply their doorstep deliveries. Hence the contracts they have with farmers will surely supply both busineses?

Obviously there's extra for delivery and convenience, but I'm prepared to pay extra if that's the way to buy a fairer pint. I've always thought, and been told, that buying milk from milk man is the best way to do it. I don't need it delivering, I go to the super Market every week but will have it delivered if that is the most ethical way to do it. I the price has gradually crept up over he last couple of years and the gap between milk from supermarket and milk from milk man has got bigger and now is the time to check it's worth doing.

Milk delivery isn't any more ethical than getting it from a supermarket. Though it supports a couple extra local jobs I suppose. It may be greener etc if getting milk and heavy stuff delivered means you don't drive to the supermarket as much.

Unless you go for organic milk from the milkman, which is nastily expensive, it's not going to support smaller farmers any better. We get organic milk in glass bottles from Dairy Crest but have cut down the number of pints just to cover breakfast and top up in the supermarket (I walk to one at least twice a week - there's 2 under 5 min away!)

However I do like the fruit/veg sacks milkandmore do, and the sacks of potatoes are excellent value.