Letter: Why not let British dairy farmers join Fairtrade?
Tuesday 12th April 2011, 6:00AM BST.
Letter: From supermarkets I can buy Fairtrade goods so that producers from all over the world receive a good price. I can buy meat, chickens and eggs from sustainable good practice British farms, I can buy fish from sustainable oceans.
So why can I not buy milk from sustainable British dairy farms?
Why can’t the supermarkets pay Fairtrade prices for milk so that British dairy farms can stay in business?
At the moment they are dying because this living food is the same price as water in supermarkets.
A factory dairy farm for 1,000 cows is planned near Welshpool next to our school. This will only keep the supermarkets happy and the price per litre so low that more sustainable dairy farms will go out of business.
Imagine 1,000 cattles in sheds.
I will not drink milk produced in this way. If you feel as strongly as I and many others do, please contact your MPs, Welsh AMs, councillors, mayors, supermarkets etc and with enough support we can ban these factory dairies, especially in Wales’s green and pleasant land.
M Marriott
Welshpool
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Simple
Dont drink cows milk, its meant for baby cows.
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Support British farming. British farmers must come first!
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Possibly correct, but how much local/uk business is supported by our farmers??.
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I think you will find there are a vast array of diferent businesses and indusrty that rely on agriculture. Farms are not self sufficient and are a vital part of the rural economy.
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Of course you are correct now name them?
British companies that is , what and how does a local farmer contribute to our rural economy.
I am not interested in lining the pockets of the land agent, auctioneer, what do the farmers contribute to the local economy?.
Employees are Low paid and exploited,farm machinery imported ,own vehicles foreign, use of eu labor to dodge minimum wage especially on the horticulture side.Sorry sam farmer giles is not the all singing dancing vital part of rural community infact I would say small rural local business outside of agriculture contribute far more to our rural economy .
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Is the letter writer really suggesting that British farmers should get third world prices for their milk?
Granted, Fair Trade gives farmers in poorer parts of the world a better price within the context of their local economy than if the cost were simply left to the market, but the prices paid under Fair Trade are far lower than those paid to British farmers – so that wouldn’t really help, would it?
I’m sympathetic to the view that greedy supermarkets don’t pay a fair price within the context of our economy, but to somehow link this to Fair Trade is a non-seqitur. In the end, we all sympathise with farmers selling stuff at a loss, but at the same time we moan when food prices go up – we can’t have it both ways!
Interestingly, today we see that many young people in the UK are iodine-deficient because they don’t drink enough milk (from which we get at least 50% of our iodine intake).
Perhaps this will lead to an upturn in sales and fewer so-called health professionals telling people that they or their kids might be dairy-intolerant when in fact very few people are…
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I think you may have missed the point… I doubt the letter writer was suggesting that UK dairy farmers are paid the same nominal amount as farmers in third world countries, rather a fair rate. As you’ve acknowledged, supermarkets don’t currently pay a fair rate.
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Well said! The government needs to look into fairtrade for British farmers and also the foul practice of ritualistic slaughtered meat that’s entering our food chain just to please the tiny halal Market. It’s wrong and immoral.
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Just for once I find myself in agreement with Iron Flag!
I think that both Halal and Kashrut (Kosher) slaughter are unspeakably cruel and should be banned outright – and I don’t give a toss if it offends someone’s medieval dietary beliefs.
How many people know that meat from animals slaughtered in this manner can be sold without being labeled as such, if for example it has been rejected because part of the religious ritual hasn’t been carried out correctly?
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I’m sure Nostradamus spoke of this day of unlikely agreement! Very true it sickens me how this barbaric practice is swept under the carpet by Government ( left & right ) Waitrose,Asda,Sainsbury and Tesco.
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