Fair Trade in the UK
Name: Dave Selby
Comments: I've been fully organic dairy farming for 3 yrs, there is no real market for our milk i cannot carry on feeding to organic standards and only selling 30% of my milk as organic and the other 70% selling at the lowest conventional price (16.5 ppl). With the best will in the world the figures just don't stack up. The goverment should do alot more to promote organic food as a healthier option for people. and the supermarkets must pay a fare price back to the farmers so that we can run our farms properly, and pay ourselves a fair wage instead of the pittance we get now we're being treated like peasants. For anyone whose interested the peasant wage is £700/month for 80 hr week 365 days/year.
Dear Dave,
Thanks so much for your email. We'd love to see you and other British organic dairy farmers paid a fair price, and are well aware that you generally don't. The British public wouldn't like this either, but doesn't often hear from somebody with first-hand experience. They just see bright and shiny supermarket chilled counters filled with the organic dairy foods they want. And most people just trust and buy.
Personally, I buy my daily pinta either from an organic box scheme or from a decent organic food store, because I can't stand the taint and tarnish I see on organic Mcproducts, wherever they're sold. People talk a lot about Fair Trade foods from overseas, but British organic farmers are often treated dismally by the muscley big supermarkets. For more info on organic dairy foods that pay a fair and decent price to UK farmers, visit www.omsco.co.uk. And meanwhile, let's hope more and more people start spending their money with retailers who pass on a decent amount to the producers.
Best wishes
Ysanne
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