I am pleased to have been invited by David Handley of Farmers for Action (FFA) to speak at Wednesday’s (July 22) meeting at Sedgemoor, particularly as it was an opportunity to share a platform with David and George Dunn of the Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA) to let people know – and answer questions – about the work our respective organisations are doing together to try and improve the situation for dairy farmers.
We have formed a cross-industry group, which includes the CLA and the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers as well as FFA and the TFA, to drive forward initiatives to help dairy farmers alleviate risk and market volatility. We are working together to identify measures, like futures markets, which other countries use to support the industry and promote the use of similar tools in the UK. The group will also encourage fairer, transparent contract arrangements and best-practice, particularly for A and B contracts, to help farmers question their milk-buyer’s intentions.
There are already several different organisations working on behalf of the dairy industry, each bringing their own perspective and ways of working, and I am unsure what would be accomplished by starting another one, which the local press has suggested will also be on the agenda at the meeting.
Exactly what would a new organisation do that we aren’t doing already?
Over the last few months the NFU’s dairy and food chain teams have met several times with all the main retailers – including the Co-operative, Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Morrisons and M&S, as well as Sodexo and Prices Foods – to challenge their commitment to British famers, and hold them to account and I write this immediately after a meeting with farming minister George Eustice when I was able to present him with several examples of exactly how farmers are being affected by unsustainably low prices.
I appreciate that despite all this hard work the situation for dairy farmers is still not as any of us would like it to be. Opinions differ about what we should do and how we are doing it and I look forward to a lively and robust debate about the problems we face.
All dairy farmers are welcome to the meeting at Junction 24, Bridgwater, on 22 July, 7.30pm for a prompt 8pm start.