Udder rubbish ....

ParaHandy

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In the 1970's the high cost of liquid milk packaging in glass coupled with many horror stories of thugs using glass bottles as a weapon encouraged milk to be packed in disposable packaging and sold in shops, not by a doorstep delivery. The government at the behest of the Milk Marketing Board imposed a surcharge on such packaging. The MMB were quick to realise that consumption of liquid milk would decline. People were in the habit of buying 4 or so pints per day and if all was not consumed at the end of the day, it would be drunk and was healthy.

The MMB had already successfully argued their case in the run up to metrication where the change from a pint (548ml to 500ml) would merely reduce consumption by 10% with no gain and were thus well versed in their case.

However, the supermarkets saw milk as a crucial item in a staple and healthy diet which could draw in custom and whereas they had no inclination to handle glass which would require them to accept and return empties (to the dairies), they saw non-returnable milk packaging as a very different proposition. Within a year, the surcharge had gone and supermarkets began to position the milk counter close to the front door. (It is now nearer the back so have you have to pass, almost, everything else to get to it) By the mid eighties, door step deliveries had all but disappeared. The supermarkets had an almost complete monopoly of retail sales.

And, incidentally, the same unwillingness (it was an absolute refusal) by supermarkets to handle returns, unlike all other of our EU "partners", was the reason why our packaging waste recovery costs so much more.

With entry to the EU, regulations covering pasteurisation, and more, swept away smaller dairies, the MMBs were gone by the late 80's and the liquid milk market collapsed. Rather oddly, whereas the UK had a production limit imposed, the same was not true of France and Germany. Supermarkets bought surplus from the rest of the EU and forced the UK to supply at the same price which is well below manufacturing cost.

So what's happened to the cows? Well, we've fewer of them and getting less. For the furry animal lovers got a trifle upset at all the badger bashing the dairy farmers got up to. Having a tuberculosis and brucellosis free herd was pretty essential because TB was a human disease and the public would not accept drinking the stuff if riddled with TB, so for years the badgers which were known to be infected with TB and had a nasty habit of passing it on to the cows got culled until we got all lovey-dovey with the nocturnal little TB infested rat-bags of badgers and the culling of badgers was stopped. Everyone's happy?

Well no, because TB's a killer. TB, which had been under control for decades, in just 7 years is rife and the cost of wiping out dairy cattle infected with it is now approaching £100m a year. Politicians such as Mr Banks and many others who thought nothing of wiping out vast herds of animals on the suspicion of foot & mouth and who dislike fox-hunting and see badger culling as a like activity argue that there should be bovine fields and badger fields where the two can co-exist in peace and harmony but far enough away from each other not to cause each distress. The lunatics are, indeed, running the asylum.
 

zefender

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Re: Which lunatics? Which Asylum?

Being the one industry which has avoided the principles of supply and demand via decades of subsidies like the CAP, farming decided to produce yet more loss making goods for even greater subsidy. The impact of such an intensive approach evidenced itself in the decimation of birdlife, hormones and pesticides throughout the foodchain, river pollution and BSE.

When the overproduction became a bit embarassing, farmers were then given money to do nothing with their land - the set aside scheme.

Now, a new initiative is to pay farmers to turn the countryside into a huge theme park where they get paid to return farmland back to what it was before intensive agri-production. Marvelous!
 

Danny_Labrador

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I live between two farms, have done for many years.
At one time one tanker used to pass every day one his way from collecting from one farm to go to the next and so one, very peaceful in the country.

Since the demise of the Milk Marketing Board - we now have three tankers every day, (Arla, Paynes +). Sometimes they nearly collide - comming as they do from different directions. Its very busy with tankers now.
 

Skents

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ok....the TB won't infect us as raw milk is illegal, if a cow reacts to DEFRA test it may or may not be infected, if the cow should have very early signs of a possible case of TB it is likely to be past calving age (and so dead) before physical signs of the disease manifest....so what is the point of spending all this money?
 

ParaHandy

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Re: Which lunatics? Which Asylum?

bluidy landlubber ... worst river pollution came from when the detergent industry discovered phosphates in the late 60's. Ooops, they thought 10 yrs later as our rivers asphyxiated themselves .....

the dairy industry doesn't deserve your brush of tar ...
 

zefender

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Re: Milking the issue

Well, in more recent times, farming accounts for about 11% of all pollution in UK rivers. The biggest source of such pullution is slurry from dairy farms. The number of incidents reached its peak in 1996 and since then it has been reversed by (yet more!) grant aid for slurry storage facilities. In 2002, the UK government, faced with major EU imposed fines after ignoring rules on nitrate pollution, produced legislation to meet the minimum EU standards only - infuriating the greens. Michael Meacher basically backed down against the farming lobby, as have dozens of his predecessors over the years.

I'm not picking on individual farmers, or even particularly the dairy farmers. My gripe is that the farming industry has become chronically subsidy dependent and appears to be about the only industry which is able to survive outside the rules of basic economics. That might be OK in times of war and food shortage but not in an age of over production and consumer obesity. Whilst I congratulate the farming lobby on finding a new source of revenue (theme park building), I'm afraid the industry has zero credibility in my book as a suitably qualified and commited guardian of our environment.
Time the tap was turned off IMHO.
 
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