For thousands of years, Britain has had a dairy industry based on cows fed on grass where they are kept for most of the year in fields. This employed many people and provided cheap protein and fats to the entire population.
However, today the modern dairy industry is all about quantity rather than quality. The modern Holstein-Friesians are bred to live a brief life of only three milking years. They are milked three times a day, producing ten times what a calf would require. As a result, Britain now produces the cheapest milk in Europe and much of our butter is imported -as well as 40% of our yoghurt and 40% of our cheddar. A bottle of milk now costs less than a quarter of the price of some bottled water and supermarkets have quintupled their profit margin on milk in the last 15 years. These price pressures are driving Britain’s small dairy farmers out of business. Thousands of jobs have been lost and small-scale dairy farming which has traditionally kept rural Britain ticking over has now become impossible.
So what is the answer? Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association, says that dairy must learn to tell its story better. “You can’t just blame the supermarkets, that is pointless. The choice is with us, the customers: it’s we who have to change the way we buy. So we farmers must help the public to relearn where milk comes from, to value it and the animal and the land and the people that produced it.”
Find out more:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article6977940.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/mar/02/milk-production-factory-farming
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