Don’t mess with milk farmers
- 60 Comments
- Oct 7, 2009
- strange news
Tons of milk being spilled on the streets could be seen outside the European Headquarters in Brussel on October 5, 2009. This was the result of a demonstration milk farmers from various European countries held against falling milk prices. The farmers are mostly from Germany, France and Belgium. During the protest a milk farmer sprayed the police with milk directly from a cows udder.
While farmers are using milk to protest, some other people in UK are using cheese to have fun! For a good start of the day fill your bowl with milk mixed with healthy cereals.
Comments
Greedy, wasteful b@sturds. People are starving. Milk it too expensive.
I’m pretty sure the point is that it isn’t expensive enough….
I'm going to have to agree, if they have a problem with prices they need to attack the system, not beg for larger scraps.
Yet another example of the choice being put to us all, be a party to murder or suffer yourself.
Greedy, wasteful b@sturds. People are starving. Milk it too expensive.
Umm, exactly. But the farmers are paid peanuts. So where’s the money going?
I hope all of these people die in a fire. Farmers who protest = whiny, worthless human beings.
There are people in the world going hungry. Stop trying to fix prices and do your damn jobs – and if you don’t like it, go to university and get a desk job that pays you what you feel you’re worth.
Why are the prices low when people are starving?
It’s not the farmers.. They are getting pennies per litre while the milk companies pocket the profit.
Expensive or cheap…you cant waste milk or any other natural resource even if its renewable.I am from India and i drink CRAP thats right CRAP for milk..there’s so much population in India that i am sure 50% of milk is made by deadly chemicals…so think about it over privileged countries.
If the farmers do not meet a certain amount a month, there is potential for their farm having to close down, pushing the price of milk higher.
Based on what I have seen, when you consider the amount of work, responsibilities and involvement milk production requires from a farmer, the pay isn’t anywhere nearly good enough.
Before showing nothing but respect towards average (Scandinavian) redneck, try finding out if you can manage their work hours for a year.
Typical farmer’s workday consists of two separate 4 hour sprees, one in morning, another one in evening. you will always have a galore of misc works of very varying length. a yearly avarage workday totals something around 10-11 hours perhaps.
The four hour sprees mentioned above take place some 12 hours apart from one another. Try figuring out what this mandatory, unavoidable arrangement does to your free time.
Farmer knows no weekends. By default, Saturday or Sunday doesn’t differ from Monday in any way.
By default, farmer has no reason to expect he’d have a vacation on national/seasonal holiday.
Christmas eve, Easter..all that, same work is_always_ there.
Those daring to bitch about farmers.. how long would YOU last?
And sure, it is very wrong that US/Europe produces and _throws away_ an assload of food while developing countries starve. If out of all people you could blame for this, you end up blaming _farmers_ then you are an utter moron. It is a problem, but it is YOUR problem as much as theirs.
“Farmer” in the text above refers to the owner of average sized Scandinavian milk producing thingy.
Well if milk is too expensive for you. make your own. If farmers aren’t making enough money and milk is expensive. there is something obviously wrong with the system. at least they have the balls to speak up for themselves. so for all you sheep out there don’t criticize until you’ve been in their shoes.
RE: (((I hope all of these people die in a fire. Farmers who protest = whiny, worthless human beings.
There are people in the world going hungry. Stop trying to fix prices and do your damn jobs – and if you don't like it, go to university and get a desk job that pays you what you feel you're worth. )))
Are you for real !! farmers are a primary industry, the super markets who buy there milk don't pay them enough! but charge us the public too much. those people who are going hungry only have there governments to blame. ( they go hungry because the farmers don't farm , farmers don't farm because they don't get enough and its not worth it…. Farmers who protest get things done, unlike the Australian farmers who get nothing done because our country has never gone hungry… don't hate farmers , hate the system..
Boo Hoo, there are starving people. If they would stop having babies when they can’t afford them, they could feed themselves. Good for the farmers. They have an incredibly hard job with little thanks for the work that they do that feeds millions. They have every right to make a good living, and if pouring out millions of gallons of milk helps their cause, then more power to them.
I hope all of these people die in a fire. Farmers who protest = whiny, worthless human beings.
I would like to see you last a month working the hours and conditions that a farmer works. You have no idea what it takes to do what they do everyday all year long.
THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD IS AWASH IN MILK. Starving people aren’t starving because a few farmers are throwing away a useless commodity that we need not produce in the excess its being produced. Its controlled scarcity and the cyclical slavery produced by the global monetary system. Idiots. :-L
Milk is actually not very good for adults to drink. You’re better off with tea or water.
In Germany, farmers don’t even earn enough money to pay the food they need to feed their cows and stuff…Farmes have to pay for land, for equipment and what not, and at the moment they cannot. They have every right to protest, I think.
And it’s true, we produce much more milk than we need. Isn’t it the same with vegetables and such?
But I do think it would be better if the leftover food was given to poor people, anyway. They can’t just stop having lots of children, they need them to pay for their parents when they’re old enough. And it’s not like everyone in third world countries can afford birth control, anyway. Someone who can’t even go and buy clean water won’t go to the next drugstore to buy condoms.. and i can’t imagine that the pill is given away for free, either.
What’s to protest? They’re businessmen overproducing a product people don’t want so much. Is it the government’s job to keep paying for their inefficient and wasteful industry? Nobody is forced to dairy-farm. If you’re producing a product nobody wants, PRODUCE SOMETHING ELSE.
And this is in a word where millions of people go to bed hungry… we have the resources to throw away good food to cattle, then those raising the cattle throw the milk away in the streets. Very sad.
The bigger picture is that people are getting away from cow’s milk. We’re starting to realize it’s not as healthy. Adult humans aren’t designed to drink milk, much less a milk designed by nature to grow a several hundred pound baby cow.
Nothing a free market economy won’t correct – the law of supply and demand. Of course, capitalism, despite being the only functional economic system in the history of the world, self-correcting and fair to buyers and sellers, is out of vogue.
If tomorrow all clerical work were to end, there would still be food. If tomorrow agriculture ended, grass would grow up through every motorway in the world. Farmers do not need us as much as we need them.
If the farmers aren’t making enough money from milk, they should produce something else instead. And if the milk companies are making huge profits we should all by stock in the milk companies and then anyone who wants to can donate the profits to all the starving people so they can buy milk.
Not only is this insipidly wasteful, it’s animal abuse. This only strengthens my opinion that farmers tend to be douchebags.
Milk is too expensive because of federal subsidies that have gone on for decades and decades. Now why are they protesting? For subsidies?
Folks, I grew up working on my Uncle's dairy farm. Yes farmers don't make what they should because of big industry and government regulations. If you want to put down the "whiny" farmers, try this. Go for one month without bread, any milk product, soy product, wheat derivative, anything with corn syrup, and natural compost or topsoil for your yuppie flower bed, then come back here and tell us if you think life is so good!
“Nothing a free market economy won’t correct – the law of supply and demand. Of course, capitalism, despite being the only functional economic system in the history of the world, self-correcting and fair to buyers and sellers, is out of vogue.”
Wow, massive ignorance. Did you actually write “fair to buyers and sellers?”. I don’t disagree with the aspect that capitalism has stayed afloat where other systems have failed, but it sure isn’t keeping everyone afloat, let alone being fair. Lack of regulations upon corporate behavior allow atrocities like patented seeds taking over native crops in 3rd world countries, and certainly is at the root of a protest like this. The big companies that move huge amounts of a product have ample sway in being able to push the buy price down while keeping the sell price high. Capitalism lacks accountability in a greedy world. I’m not saying I know of any better alternative, but I sure wouldn’t be waving a flag. Self-correcting my ass.
And to those people responding to posts by talking about how hard farmers work. No one was saying farmers didn’t work hard that I read… that has nothing to do with finding it thoughtless and gross to see huge amounts of food (though I also agree milk is not a good choice of something to consume) being wasted to make a point. I do think it is lame that someone working so hard would have to struggle for a living, but waste in a time of so many needy people just to illustrate a point…. thats sad.
Then theres: “Boo Hoo, there are starving people. If they would stop having babies when they can’t afford them, they could feed themselves.” …. Ok wow, you are a total jackass. I know you probably can’t see this truth with your head shoved up your own arse, but places where people are starving would be doing a hell of a lot better if you weren’t driving a car and eating at McDonalds. Whether you do or don’t, it carries into each of our dailiy activites. We shout protect our freedom, but what we really mean is don’t mess with our standard of living…. Which is built on the backs of others via very smart and very greedy corporate entities. We are the vehicle that carries them, and those people you mock are the ones that get mowed down.
Or they could just sell the milk for more? Besides that I see a lot of new tractors in the pack, doesn’t look like life is that bad.
Just a comment for all the people who stand up for the reprehensible behavior on display, how many framers do you ever see on a bike?
They do not have to work in such bad conditions, but it is because on a whole they are some of the greediest people alive, i know this for fact, my farther used to collect their milk to be transported to the dairy for distributive. They dumped the long standing milk marketing board in the UK in favor of a deal that gave them 4p per litre more, they put hundreds of workers out of jobs because they couldn’t wait for the MMB to catch up with the euro regulations that would of taken a year or two. Well they reap what they sow, as their deal backfired and they lost out in the end, them the breaks “time to nut up or shut up”
I grew up on a dairy farm. We are dairy farmers, by the way. “Milk farmer” just sounds stupid.
Demonstrations like this one do not really help milk prices, or at least I have never heard of them doing so. Still, it may help vent some frustration. You’d be frustrated, too if you worked practically 24/7 and still couldn’t pay your bills.
That said, it is clear that several thoughtless message posters on here have no clue how industries of agriculture and food production work. An absence of these industries would quickly adjust your worldview when you find you can no longer walk to the grocery store and buy whatever floats your boat, or anything for that matter.
Farming isn’t like other businesses where an entrepreneur can pick and choose what business will bring them the most success financially. Milk isn’t the only product lacking decent market prices. The initial costs associated with liquidating unneeded assets and buying others would not be offset by a different product. The revenue just isn’t there. Also, many farms are family businesses, handed down for generations.
Some individuals envision a perfect earth where everyone treats all animals like they treat their spoiled dog. Here’s some news for those individuals. If all forms of what could be considered “animal abuse” were to be abolished, people would starve to death, either directly or indirectly. The good news is that many of the things called abuse are not. They just seem like it to people who don’t know anything about the animals in question.
Farmers are sick of making food only for the large companies to buy it cheap and sell it to you to make a huge profit ,everyone has to make money and i say the ones who have the skill to make food should be paid well after all you can not eat money ,food produces are sick of being treated bad here when you have no food to eat ask why farmers stopped making it . From Australia KelB
‘Self-correcting and fair to buyers and sellers’
I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair.
You idiot.
Capitalism is fine to a point. We need to outlaw corporations. If you do it, it should be YOUR ass on the line, not a piece of paper. There’s more to life than a quarterly statement of earnings. Go farmers! Fair prices! Honor Labor!
wow, i can’t believe these comments……..are any of you farmers? do any of you have any idea how difficult it is? these farmers are people just like you and me, they have wives and kids to feed, kids to put through school, mortgages to pay. people here are listing ideas like, “oh they should just find another job?” do you have any idea what the job market is like? when i hear comments like that it proves the ignorance of people. Just for a second, use that puny brain of yours and try to imagine what their life is like, they were born into farming, their parents were farmers, their grandparents were farmers. I can guarantee that if this happened with grain for bread, every one of you would be “omg! how did this happen! can i haz cheezburger!” you undermine the human being because you personally don’t like milk. I hope w/e industry you are in goes under or should I say your parents. Then you will be the one on the street protesting desperately, hoping someone hears your cry.
How many of you are below the poverty line? how many of you don’t know where next weeks grocery are coming from?
someone here said “Farmers who protest = whiny, worthless human beings”
where does the bread on your McDonald come from? The vegetables your mom cooks for you? You are the worthless one, what do you do for society? other than consume its resources and bitch at the ones who make them.
You live such a life where you have no understanding or appreciation of where this stuff comes from. You just go to the store and buy it.
these people are protesting because if things continue the way they are, then they too will be starving like the “starving people” you so quickly use as an example against them. It’s their milk and if they wanna pour it into the streets then that’s their god dammed choice, not yours you stupid.
you people need to quickly understand that society starts with the farmer. he feeds the world, without him, we all starve. If you wanna protest these people? Then go and try to live a self sufficient life. A life where you don’t take for granted the “animal abusing, stupid, whiny, pathetic, worthless” farmer. I don’t think you will get very far………I’ll be the one behind the soup stand. Do you want milk with that?
“I hope all of these people die in a fire. Farmers who protest = whiny, worthless human beings.
There are people in the world going hungry. Stop trying to fix prices and do your damn jobs – and if you don’t like it, go to university and get a desk job that pays you what you feel you’re worth.”
You are the worst kind of person for society. You obviously care little and understand little about the plight of others. Go to university? if all the poorly paid farmers went to university in search of better jobs, i bet you would be the first one to start bitching about the food shortage, I bet you work a comfortable sit on your job.
Begin childish responses here:
This makes me wonder how bad they are really hurting for pay. Look at the guys dumping trucks of milk. If they were so far underpaid I would bet they would not be able to afford to dump all that milk. They could be selling that milk! I did get a good laugh out of the guy spraying the police with the milk from the cows utter though. Ha ha…wonder how long he practiced shooting milk like that?
To whoever said that farmers should go to University and get a degree… I don’t know how it works in Europe or the rest of the world, but at least in California and many of the western states in the USA, farmers do have college degrees. Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, UC Davis, UC Merced, and many other TOP schools in California the top degree sought is Agriculture. Being a farmer requires the knowledge of at least biology, chemistry, environment,and business. I know my degree is only covering chemistry and that is hard to earn so I can’t imagine that an agricultural degree is all that easy.
Also part of the problem with today’s economy is that too many people have decided that vocational work or blue collar jobs are below them so now we’re a society of paper pushers. Good on those laborers that build and produce things other than thoughts!
Honestly I think the milk farmer with the udder has the advantage when hes fighting cops with WICKER shields.
Wow, no one in the whole comments section even bothered to look into the story. Everyone just thought "I am smart enough to comment productively on a topic I have little to no understanding of." I guess that is typical of the times.
First, the reason for the protest was because milk prices are regulated, not by supply and demand, but by the European Milk Board. The reason for this is simple. Milk must be produced daily and therefore supply and demand would fluctuate far to quickly and far to wide (prices would be volatile). Since prices were set at 75% of production costs, the farmers actually lost money for each gallon produced. After months of being ignored, the farmers staged an attention gathering protest. Make sense?
BTW. Farmers cannot just get another job because to leave the business would mean leaving their loans for farm equipment unpaid and surely would result in bankruptcy. Also, one must consider that most people, even the commenters on this page, would hate how high milk would be priced if the farmers did change jobs resulting in milk shortages across your respective countries.
Also, for all who commented on the starvation of the less fortunate. No one on the planet starves because we lack food of any type. The United States alone produces enough to feed the whole planet every year by double or more. Furthermore, everyone who posted here is at the minimum spending more money than they need to spend for personal survival on at least one thing, the internet (assume $20 USD per connection). If all 1.5 billion internet users donated their internet fee per month to feed the children or a similar charity and the cost to feed a child is $0.25 USD per day as advertised, then that charity could feed 60 billion children. Ten times the number of people on the planet.
Grate
No one eats on $.25 a day… not even if you grow your own food.
The problem is that the dairy industry, like the food industry in general, is completely regulated by cooperate lobbied regulations which favor centralized mass production of end products like bottled milk, cheese, ice cream and so forth. Dairy farmers CANNOT by law sell direct to you, the consumer, but instead may ONLY sell their milk to creameries. This is not a free market, but a closed market, milk prices are controlled by corporate monopolies, monster-like, conscienceless legal entities with greater power and rights than true individuals.
There are plenty of people who wish to buy milk at a fair price, diretly from the farm, and plenty of dairy farmers who would gladly down size their herds if they could sell their milk to local consumers who wished to buy. This used to be the rule. In my area of California their used to be 37 small dairies of 30 or less cows, they marketed their milk locally to people that would buy. Those dairies employed people, and the farmers spent the money they made in their area buying hay and feed from other local farmers, there was prosperity in that life style. Now there is not one local dairy in my area. The old barns still stand as monuments to a by gone time of a simpler life. We used to be able to get really good milk, that had thick cream on the top. It was tastier and healthier than this over cooked, concentrically broken homogenized, denatured, flat white stuff that people are given today. The problem is cooperate structuring of the milk market has eliminated free market transaction.
Cooperate lobed laws forbid that you or I can go to a dairy and buy a gallon of fresh, vibrant, warm milk, out of a cow I can see is healthy and well cared for, straight from a farmer I know and trust. When I was a kid the milk man delivered milk to the door, it was fresh from that morning and raw, you could pasteurize it yourself if you wanted. How did this happen? The simple answer is: greed. Corporate agribiz figured out to rob the farmer of the money for his toil, through an advertising propaganda program intentionally designed to instill fear of non processed milk milk products. The problem arose as a by product of increasing the bottom line of corporate food production. What can you do? Consumers can begin buy milk directly from dairy farmers, dairy farmers can begin selling milk directly to consumers. It can be done. All regulations can be gotten around. Ignorance is slavery, understanding is freedom. ~Savvy-Ma
Uhh, noting on of the top comments, isn’t the cow revered in India or something like that?
I come from Carroll County, Indiana, which is the single largest pork producing county in the single largest pork producing state in Indiana. Farmers don’t exactly get paid “pennies” but farmers here have went to Purdue University more likely than not, and like i said get paid well. But have you any idea what it takes to run a farm? Tractors, Combines, Auger Carts, staff… The money they end up with is not nearly what they deserve for 15 hours a day for 10 months of the year, and they deserve the right to protest for what they believe.
“The problem is that the dairy industry, like the food industry in general, is completly regulated by corperate lobbied regulations which favor centralized mass production of end products like bottled milk, cheese, icecream and so forth…Ignorance is slavery, understanding is freedom. ~Savvy-Ma”
Thank you for the valuable information, I quite enjoyed reading that after the previous comments
We don’t need milk anyway. We can make it from soy and it doesn’t create the waste and pollution that cows do. I’m afraid the dairy industry will continue to fade away… dumping milk on the ground hurts no one but the farmer. Guess that’s why they’re farmer.
What kind of loser country is this that the riot cops have wicker shields?
No one here has ever farmed have they?
In the UK it costs farmers 27.9 pence to produce 1 liter of milk,they get paid 23.89p to 27.66p per liter off of the supermarket,who then go on to sell it to joe public for up to 80p per liter.
Damn those greedy farmers.
squidpig.
I say well done the farmers for a creative demonstration that raises awareness of their cause – without them we are truly lost.
Sorry can't really feel sorry for the police – they're doing their job and I guarantee milk is better than a cobblestone….
You know what? Maybe we dumb worthless Dairy Farmers should just all take care of ourselves. Since we are worthless and all. All you complainers can figure out how to milk your cats. By the way, our cows are not abused. They have names and their own personalities. Some have the personalities of you bashers. I even had a black eye for a month after being kicked in the face. Fun huh? They are happy and have as much food as they can eat. Even when we go broke providing their food we still need to keep them healthy. They can’t eat feed or hay. They eat green leafy alfalfa. We have to make sure they get vitamins and minerals. But we take care of them the same as the others. My boys love their calfs and the calfs love them. OHHH abusive as heck. They look sooo abused when they are comfortably laying in the sun eating green grass and happily chewing their cud. They sleep on soft bedding not concrete. We don’t just produce milk. We grow our own feed corn, hay, oats and beans. This takes a lot of money. The equipment doesn’t run on water. We produce corn and soybeans and wheat for food. It is no use trying to explain the work that goes into it. You still wouldn’t get it. Maybe you should come work here for a few days. Just a suggestion, don’t wear good clothes. You may get covered in manure. You will come out smelling like a rose. LOL!
We know where the money goes…. processing plants and distribution channels and retail outlets. Example: 2 small convenience stores, about 3 miles apart. Same milk label, same grade, same date code, same delivery date. One store gets $2.99 per gallon, the other asks $3.89 for the same gallon. Delivery costs for 3 miles along the same route? Maybe $4 to fuel the whole truck, divided by 40 total gallons or so… add $0.10 per gallon.
That would be a retail markup, but lets not forget that the store selling it for $2.99 is already making a decent profit. Hmmmm… One store makes ~ $0.50 per gallon, the other gets $0.90 more?
For those of you who are arguing about how much milk costs, I don't have time to read all the comments, so I'm just going to post this anyway. I have two cows that I milk by hand and I just have to say that farm fresh milk is not expensive. Yes, it is sold for about $4 or $5 a gallon, but it doesn't cost anything for the farmer if you don't feed them grain.
@chels I know what you mean, its hard to find good help these days. People now days just don’t have the work ethic they used to have. I mean consider whoever wrote this post, they must have been working hard to write that good and it took a good bit of their time I am sure. I work with people who couldn’t write like this if they tried, and getting them to try is hard enough as it is.
“If the farmers aren’t making enough money from milk, they should produce something else instead.”
What they have now is all they have, many of these farms were passed down and this is all they know. Not to mention they have put a lot of money into building up their farms and they cant just throw that away. It would be very hard for them to produce something else and make a suitable product.
Exactly two comments worth reading; the rest of you are beneath contempt — or, at best, thoughtless and/or ignorant.
I hope things keep getting worse: you pigs have absolutely no comprehension of exactly how privileged you are, or how distorted your beliefs and value systems are; when something truly awful happens, it will be exactly what you have earned through years of systematic laziness and greed.
Alabama, I went to the university and get desk jobs, none of them pays me as it should. So, what is your point? I need an advice from you.
tha’s all right
not only this much i like it all
thank you very much……….
i think they are …
The Milk farmers are the ones getting milked, while the corporations they sell it to make the real money. again the small guy has to make the sacrifices so that corporate CEO’s can afford their private jets. we the consumer pay the tab.
and for the idiotic comments that farmers should change their job if they don’t like the pennies they get, what do you think will happen to food prices when all that’s left are 1 or 2 mega corporate milk farms?
which is probably what these corporations want anyway, squeeze the competition out of business so they can have it all and charge what they want.
@Jenna – Jan 12, 2010
>>”For those of you who are arguing about how much milk costs…but it doesn’t cost anything for the farmer if you don’t feed them grain.”
?..?..?
In reply to Jenna – who seems to have overloooked a few things – on costs:
? Compliance with regulations; registration & identification of stock; meeting environmental conditions;
? Vet bills; medication; routine maintainance (foot trimming; worming, disease testing, etc.);
? Insurance;
? Stock replacement; stud fees;
? Pasture management (testing grass nutritional quality; mowing; reseeding leys; fertilizing; weeding; pest-control; hay or silage making; ~ fuel & machinery to do all this);
? Supplying & maintaining water in fields;
? Feed & nutritional supplements (grass is not adequate in winter in many parts of the world); parlour rations; hay/silage;
? Bedding – Straw or shavings etc;
? Transport;
? Maintainance of capital stock; buildings & equiptment;
? Capital investment to keep up-to-date & competetive.
? Milk storage – refrigeration; Cleaning & sterilising of parlour equiptment;
? Electricity (industrial supply);
? Water (industrial supply);
? Waste & slurry – movement, storage & disposal;
? Book-keeping/accountancy services;
? Farm labour & stock-persons;
These are only some of the associated costs for a pasture based system, where the cows are able to eat grass for most of the year.
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The demonstation is about awareness raising, the majority of consumers are not aware of the crisis in dairying.
Unless we want to see the majority of dairying move to indoor, huge, industrialized units, feeding GM grains & soy, milking cows bred to produce 3 times as much milk as is natural, 3 times a day, shortening their lifespan to 3years, we need to wake up as consumers and demand healthy, sustainable produce, from smaller accountable producers.
We need added value in milk to allow smaller dairy farmers to survive – people will pay a premium for quality, herd or breed specific, local milk, certified as non-GM, grass fed.
Presently, unless you buy organic, you can assume your milk comes from cows, raised on GM feed, as this is the case for almost 90% of the indusrty.
*******
Globalisation & Capitalist economics encourage the exploitation of resources, contributing to the increasing industrialization of agriculture, driving increasing consolidation, domination & control of markets into the hands of a small number of very large and powerful corporations.
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Giving food aid can be very counter-productive; it may stop some people starving in the short term; but does nothing to address the underlying problem, and often does much to make it worse.
Providing food damages the country’s own farmers and agricultural system, depriving them of a market for their produce. It sustains the country’s population (frequently) at a level greater than the country can support leaving them dependant upon more aid & accruing unservicable debt: aid is often tied to expolitative agreements & conditions from (E.g.) the World Bank, giving preferential (and often exploitative) concessions to develped nations.
******
I know i work everyday Im a farmer poulty and dairy the work is 7day a week and how ever many hours that are required even 24 .No days off no wk ends if people like myself dont do what we do where do you get your eggs, chicken, milk ,fruit and veg.?how much time and money would it take to do all this yourself and maybe you cant. show the farmer a little respect! Maybe they shouldnt have wasted the milk because there is hungry people out there but it is there milk if they dont get paid for it its none of your business they milked ,feed, cared for the cows they paid for all of this !electric is high, feed is high work is hard and vet is exspensive,not to leave out gas .there is to sides to this story and the farmers are hungry to so are there kids! what should they do ! maybe the companys should pay more so they can feed there kids and you get your food.Milk takes alot of hard work time and money just be glad ther are still farmers that do these hard jobs so your milk gets in the stores so when you want it there!you got to remember farmers are the roots of our country!
never criticize a farmer with your mouth full.
farmers work in all weathers,all hours.
farming is not a drudge job where anyone can do it properly.
a farmer has to balance a budget, maintain equipment, care for crops/cattle, deal with a mountain of red tape.
basically a farm is a business.
for me, it also a heritage of about 7 generations.
you need a good education.
farming is more than just milking cows and bouncing around on a red tractor.
and will you stop bitching about a waste of milk? its going into the soil and lowering the need of fetiliser later on.
all the slurry tanks there would only come to about 1.7 million liters of milk, ONE days intake for an average milk processes plant.
In the UK, I blame TESCO and their sister supermarkets for driving down prices and not encouraging QUALITY over quantity. If a farmer can cut corners he will, when the market is forcing him to. It was in the news a while back (not very heavily promoted, WHY?) that supermarkets and middle-men were fixing prices and denying the farmers a fair share. I don’t drink milk any more partly due to this, but I would buy organic if you do – the price is higher, and some of this at least finds its way to the farmer (although I’m still unhappy at the exploitation). Farmers are collectively a bit daft, though – what would happen if EVERY farmer said “FUCK IT, I’m not selling any more milk til the price is fair at x pence per litre and the middle-men contracted to a fixed % as well as the supermarkets”. This requires union action, at the highest level of the game. It hasn’t happened yet, why? Also why do farmers vote conservative, the fucking idiots? Can’t they see that said parties are the parties of big business, and not in a good way if the evidence on milk prices is that big business exploits farmers to the detriment of their mental health, physical health, and the cows’ health, too. The cows that make the milk that goes into your bodies. You milk consumers are ALL to blame unless you follow a better policy than demanding cheap milk from the supermarket without regard for animal welfare, farmer welfare and subsequent quality of produce issues. The supermarkets will listen to your spending habits, so tell them. Also milk is too relied on as a foodstuff along with cheese – very inefficient it is, in fact. I’m not a vegan nor even a vegetarian, but people need to get a clue about the supermarkets’ and friends’ game. It ain’t ethical, AT ALL. You are what you eat, and with milk, that makes you pretty damn sour.
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