ParaHandy
Active member
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.
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.