How you can help
Click the link to print off your own milk awareness poster:
Don't Let Dairying Die
The fact is, consumer opinion and buying decisions are very powerful tools in shaping the way retailers behave. Much of the increasing margins being made on milk go direct to the major supermarkets, which respond rapidly to consumer opinion.
Farmers Guardian, like many in the British agricultural industry, believe the drive for retailer profit is placing unbearable pressure on farmers and other rural businesses. By making sure that British dairy farmers have a fair share of the margins in the milk chain, not only will it ensure the long term success of thousands of dairy farms, it will also help keep the rural economy thriving and keep the British countryside a beautiful environment in which to work and play.
Make your feelings known to your local MP allowing the destruction of large sections of British agriculture will have a detrimental effect on the wider rural economy, putting thousands of related jobs at risk (vets, college lecturers, machinery manufacturers and dealers, milk recorders, animal feed suppliers, hay and straw merchants, and many more). Visit www.locata.co.uk/commons to find the name and contact details of your local MP.
Make your feelings known to your local supermarket most have comment boxes where you can outline why you feel British farmers and the dairy industry deserve a fair price.
Always buy British, foreign imports simply do not meet the same strict standards to which British farmers operate. Look at the label to ensure that the product has been produced in this country 55 per cent of butter and cheese is imported, for example, but we could produce that ourselves and reduce food miles with all the associated benefits to the environment. Look for the Little Red Tractor logo.
Choose branded rather than supermarket own label products, as generally these deliver higher returns to farmers.
Supermarkets such as Waitrose and Marks and Spencer top the price league for farm milk meaning they pay their farmer suppliers the highest prices, and as such deserve to be supported and recognised for that fact.
Encourage children to substitute sugary, carbonated drinks with no nutritional value for healthy (flavoured) milk and associated dairy products packed with calcium and other beneficial ingredients.
With thanks to the Milk Devlopment Council and the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers for their help in compiling this data
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