Where to buy milk that ensures fair price for farmers?

Edwardia

I looked up Milk Link which sells Moo.. well mixed picture really..

owned by farmers good
sells milk to Arla not
sells milk to Robert Wiseman not
sells organic milk via OSMCo good
makes loads of cheeses via several companies good

phillo365

I am confused why did the farmers sign up for a deal that meant they might have to sell below cost ? Are some figures being missed out of the equation.For example if a farmer and family do all the work and live in their own property would this not reduce their costs or is a fixed wage figure being included. I am not trying to be anti farmers just understand what I am sure is a complicated story.
If I stop buying milk will this help farmers or make the situation worse ?

mandragora_2

I've lived in the country a long time, and have many farmer neighbours. I'm thinking hard. Nope. Can't remember any of them out on the picket lines in the miners' strike. Hmmmm. I CAN remember the jigs for joy when milk quoas came in - nice little windfall for many there, all got [STRIKE]ploughed back into the business[/STRIKE] spent on bigger, newer cars and private school fees.

I think farm labourers have a tough deal, and some families live on very low incomes indeed, often below subsistence levels, and sometimes don't claim (for whatever reason) the benefits they could. I don't, on the whole, lose a lot of sleep over farmers, though.

A._Badger

Edwardia wrote: »

I found OMSCo which has 500 dairy farmer members www.organicmilk.co.uk
(sometimes this works for me and sometimes not am guessing Google glitch).

Thank you, Edwardia. I don't always agree with your posts (I have gone through an organic phase and eventually came out the other side) but that research must have cost you a lot of time and effort and it contributed a real benefit to this forum.

Dustykitten

Still thinking about ditching/cutting back from the milkman. Stocked up with Waitrose organic milk today which I have frozen. Going to cancel my milk for a fortnight online like if we were going on holiday and have a think about this some more.

Re Dairycrest/milkandmore if we are stopping delivery then I guess all the products should be avoided for my cathedral city/davidstow/frigii but I only buy these when on offer - yes I know that is probably 'ethically' the wrong time to get them.

I'm going to move more to Waitrose, close to me, DS2 about to start working there and I think probably one of the more ethical.

Did I get this right that organic milk costs the processors/shops the same as non organic but they sell it for more?

Edwardia

The customer services agent I spoke to at Sainsbury's told me that organic and non organic dairy farmer were paid the same price (a price which seems pretty generous compared to some).

However The Man From OSMCo (owned by 500 organic dairy farmers and which sells their milk) named Sainsbury's third in his places to buy from. I would hazard a guess that customer services agents know less about the marketing of organic milk than the guy I spoke with.

Arla dropped the price for organic milk by 2p per litre specifically to bring organic milk prices into line with other milk prices, according to a poster on the farming forum I looked at.

Robert Wiseman was the first milk processor to break ranks with the other dairies after de-regulation and offer the supermarkets cheap milk and it was how they grew the company. The farmers on the forum seem to think RW is baddie numero uno. The majority of these farmers are non organic farmers however and Robert Wiseman Dairies doesn't appear to sell organic milk. It does sell more than 30% of the UK's milk according to its' website.

OSMCo is owned by 500 organic dairy farmers and sells their milk.
Milk Link is a co-operative owned by 1500 + dairy farmers, some of whom are organic. The organic milk is marketed and hauled by OSMCo.

Milk Link's conventional milk goes to various places including Westbury Dairies a joint venture between First Milk (another dairy co-op) Milk Link and Arla. Milk Link supplies Robert Wiseman and Rodda Creamery. Milk Link is the biggest producer of cheese in the UK with 6 creameries making cheese (including Tuxford & Tebbitt) employing 1200 people in Wales and Scotland as well as England.

Dairy Crest buys 75% of it milk direct from over 1300 farmers on contract, but also buys from co-operatives. It buys over 2 billion litres of raw milk per year and has a turnover of 1,603 millions. Dairy Crest has no press statement about milk prices on it's website at all. From press reports and comments on the farming forum Dairy Crest does seem to be a baddie.

Dairy Crest owns milkandmore and organic milk on their website is more expensive than conventional. This doesn't mean much though because supermarkets often sell skimmed milk more cheaply than whole milk. Why do we have to pay more for whole milk with nothing removed ? Basically because when they skim milk the dairies get to sell the cream for cream-making and butter.

It seems to me that organic has to be regarded as processed and marketed in a completely different way to non-organic milk. There's a limit to what can be found out about milk contracts and prices as this becomes a matter of business confidentiality.

im-lost

Ever seen a poor farmer? Says it all really.

Milk pricesis the tip of the iceberg when it comes
to what farmers rake in. Over all, they don't make a
loss, those that think they do are extremely naive

Limana68

I drink Soya milk so dont have this problem!:T

Edwardia

94% of the world's soya is genetically modified so I hope that's organic soya milk...;)

Dustykitten

Looks like this is not going ahead for now:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/9436068/First-Milk-Wiseman-Dairy-Crest-and-Arla-all-put-off-milk-price-cut.html

I am still thinking of switching to Waitrose organic, have one week's worth in the freezer so have cancelled this week's deliveries and will see how I go from there.