:D Finally, from today, Tesco supermarkets have upped the price of milk which could save dairy farmers in this country from going bust. I think Tescos and the farmers that have been negotiating with them need a large pat on the back (not a cow pat) for taking this descision and lets hope this undervalued commodity finally is a marketable asset to dairy farmers future.

For years large supermarkets have stocked milk at very low prices giving the farmer no look in to the profits these large chains make.

Indeed. Also Tesco are going to give a "local" option. They said 3p more per pint garantees you local milk. Well worth it to support both the local economy and the global environment!

Hopefully other supermarkets will follow suit. With the current rate of farm closures in this country, mainly due to supermarkets squeezing farmers through tight and unfair pricing, we will end up importing just about everything... not so good for food security as well as tackling climate change!

We import 40% of our food as it is, to be self-sufficient would either require 25 million people to leave the UK or even more intensive and industrialised and intensified agriculture.

The best way to ensure food security is to maintain good relations and economic interdependence with our neighbours meaning no wars or trade disputes so it doesn't become an issue.

Importing food and other produce which we can produce very well here in the UK is not on though. Milk should simply not have to be imported - if anything, our milk is very good and we should look to export it (not that this will happen as our neighbouring countries also produce good milk)! Whilst we import a lot of food I'm sure we also export quite a bit (though no where near as much) too.

But in respect of tackling our carbon emmissions we surely should be buying more local produce, going down to the county level even. Certainly not buying apples, for example, which were grown in New Zealand... :rolleyes: Considering that we have the great orchard county of Herefordshire next door...

Milk prices used to be regulated by the Milk Marketing Board from the early 1930s (when agriculture was in recession) to 1996 when it was privitised and became Dairy Crest. I remember it was said that this was a good thing as producers would be able to get higher returns in a free market. I thought at the time that that was pie in the sky and so it as turned out. Whilst Tesco's new policy helps it is just a few crumbs off the rich man's plate. Let's bring back something like the Milk Marketing Board to guarantee a viable price for our dairy farmers.

Exactly! I don't understand how that can be cost effective. The NZ apples may be cheaper per unit, but cheap enough to pay to transport them all that way!? Surely not. I read recently of a delivery of onions from Spain to Wales. The driver was then driving to Holland to fill up with more onions... and taking them to Spain!!? :blink: It's not right.

I agree with every word you say.

Anyone got any good recommendations for local veggie box schemes?

I used to use a local supplier but unfortunately the vegetables although organic went off very quickly and they were very expensive. I would reccomend people used their local farm shop or greengrocer and yes they do still exist in some places or even grow your own veg if you can. Then you can make compost and do away with your green bin !

I get a weekly delivery from boxfresh, £15 gets a huge amount of fruit and veg, the two of us often struggle to eat it all.

It isn't all local, some is imported (Shropshire bananas and mangoes aren't up to much) but the foreign stuff is usually organic/fairtrade.

Well, give it 50 more years of climate change... B)

Just had a look at their website - it's tempting.

They often add some unusual stuff that I wouldn't normally buy too so it's good for trying new things. I've recently had fresh beetroot, Jerusalem artichokes, butternut squash and kohlrabi.

well done tescos!! at last!! i would definatley pay extra 3p cos its nothing compared to cost of a food shop!
my dad used to be a dairy farmer but has now made barns from the parlour etc as there was no money in it. we worked out that as he only got about19p a litre and if you went over quota and therefore had to buy in or lease, which cost about 19-20p a litre, what was the point?
many dairy farmers are diversifying like my father who now produces chickens and has just opened his boarding kennels in order to stay in business.
i think the kennels are great for him though as he is daft with all the dogs :P

what annoys me with importing/exporting is that we have to trade with other countries but they use excuses-such as the cheeky french for not having ours!!
we should really take a leaf out of the frenchs book as they do look after their own and stuff the rest of you.
england is always too appologetic and sits on the fence

Milk from the farms in my family goes to Asda, I think, but I always buy mine in Tesco, Im glad to hear that they're continuing to support the local farmers - the Milk in Cardiff's uber "biggest in the world" Tesco is always Welsh milk anyway.

I don't think we actually import much milk do we? To be honest I think if BSE had flared up in France or elsewhere our media and politicians would have banned the products from that country on health grounds. It wasn't particularly pleasant to realise that the cows we'd been eating had been fed on sheep brains and mashed up tyres or whatever it was.

At least as we are in the EU we were able to pressure the European countries into reversing the ban after the BSE scare had died down. British beef is STILL banned in other countries such as the USA and Australia.

The reason that we don't export so much foodstuff to France isn't particularly the French government but the French consumer who likes to buy more local produce.

i wasnt really meaning the exportation of milk, i meant food products in general and i am afraid you are wrong joneys55. the french and germans actually had WORSE cases of bse than us but they called it a different name and got away with it just putting the blame on us. and they used to feed their cows stuff with poo in which we were supposed to ban their beef because of but we never did beacuse our government are always too worried about upsetting people-unless it is their own people being over taxed etc etc.
the problem with these issues is the general public actually dont hear most of the agricultural issues like these as the only place that publish the real facts is the farmers magazines. and also the french were being taken to court over banning our beef as they legally cant now do it but actually still do.
and what i meant about taking a leaf from the frenchs book was really that in general, meaning their general public , they buy their own. the poeple as a whole look after their own which as a nation here i dont think we do
;)

I know they also had BSE and weren't always very open about it but they have had far fewer human deaths from vCJD (15 in France compared to 157 in the UK) which can't really be covered up.

This would either mean that the incidence of infected meat being eaten was much less in France or that there isn't actually a link between vCJD BSE as generally supposed.

In many ways they do like to eat local and support local producers but sometimes I think this leads to being a bit insular when it comes to food, it's good to support local farmers but it's also good to try different foodstuffs from around the world, it makes life more interesting. A bit of balance is required methinks.

Good news on the produce export front:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6572619.stm

More years like this will do our farmers and producers wonders. :)

I am currently doing some filming regarding the plight of some farmers in Shropshire and the 'big picture' looks very bleak, business wise for them I hope its not too late !!

jonesy55- This would either mean that the incidence of infected meat being eaten was much less in France or that there isn't actually a link between vCJD BSE as generally supposed.
i actually dont totally believe that this is the cause of vcjd as i watched a programme on it a while ago which was very interesting.
a man was trying to find other actual causes as to what the link was. he thought it could have been initially to do with a way the vets and farmers used to protect cows from some kind of disease whereby they put the liquid right along the cows back so he thought this might have increased the chances of infecting the spinal cord but he ruled this out . he tried a number of other causes but in the end he went to somewhere like romania(not actually sure the country he went to but it was one of these type countries) and he found the levels there were very high but they were all refined to an area close to a local factory . he couldnt find a reason for this but then discovered there was a river flowing through where the people used to pick cones from the trees(polluted by the factory) and they used this for making drinks like a tea.
where they did this near to the factory they had very high levels so he concluded that is was from the pollution of the factory.
i found his evidence very convinsing to be honest(although it is a while ago now) and the government did prdict huge levels of cjd but this has not occured.

well Andy good luck with that. i dont think enough of the general public realise how bad farming is nowadays. they think farmers are just moaning but it is in a real state. foot and mouth didnt help a few years ago and around then we had quite a bit to do with the rural stress network as my uncle committed suicide and had to suffer having all our cows and buffalos killed as our naughty neighbours animals caught it even though we didnt actually get it. :( :( farmers actually have the largest rate of suicides of any industry.