We should cut out the middle man and deal directly with the farmers
WITH the increasing numbers of pound shops, and our demand for a bargain, or cheap deals in supermarkets, it’s no surprise UK farmers struggling (“Summit calls for support for dairy”, The Herald, August 11).
The cost of a pint of milk is so cheap, it makes us think that is its true value and cost.
Until prices of milk reflect the cost of production by farmers more UK farmers will be squeezed out by discount food chains, and multimillion pound supermarkets.
Farmers need to be paid at least 30p a litre to cover their costs yet they were paid an average 23.66p for a litre of milk in June. If we want our farmers to earn the income they deserve maybe we ought to buy directly from the suppliers – our farmers – and cut out the middle man until their prices reflect the true value of milk production. Jill Ferguson, 1/1, 6 Crow Road, Glasgow. ON the TV news I watched another supermarket leader defending the low price his company paid for milk, giving the usual “market forces” excuses. Those of us with longer memories will recall that until the 1990s the price was regulated by the Milk Marketing Boards in both England and Scotland, so as to pay farmers a fair price. It was, of course, abolished by the Tories on the basis that “the market” would apply. Look where that has taken us.
Perhaps the Labour Party would win a few votes if they reversed this – a bit like British Rail? Ian Cumming, 54 Leslie Avenue, Newton Mearns. I HOPE no-one of influence or authority will take seriously David Stubley’s suggestion that we should return to the bad old days of being able to purchase unpasteurised milk in Scotland (Letters, August 8). He refers to “the very small risk of salmonella”. The truth is that prior to legislation being enacted, milk and milk products could be responsible for the spread of serious life-changing and life-threatening diseases from bacteria such as salmonella, e-coli, tubercle, brucella, campylobacter, and listeria, to mention but a few. Universal pasteurisation is a successful and valued piece of public health legislation which, since its inception, has prevented much serious illness to babies, children, adults, and workers alike and has stopped illness, disability, and sometimes death from milk-borne diseases in Scotland.
The present deeply worrying situation whereby up to 70 per cent of uncooked chickens bought from supermarkets may be infected with campylobacter food poisoning organisms is a situation crying out for similar public health legislation. H MacAnespie, 3 South Glassford Street, Milngavie. BEFORE the start of any campaign to bring back unpasteurised milk we should remind ourselves that bovine tuberculosis from infected raw milk was not uncommon before pasteurisation was introduced. Most of us in our 70s and older will remember that most school classes included a child with extensive scarring of the neck after recovery from discharging tuberculous lymph glands. They were relatively lucky. I lost an infant cousin to tuberculous meningitis caused by consumption of raw milk. This and other forms of bovine tuberculosis were not rarities until the 1930s when milk pasteurisation became the norm.
I think it will be found that raw milk sold in England is produced from tuberculosis-free cows which have to be slaughtered if they test positive to tuberculin testing – this was the basis of a storyline in Radio 4’s The Archers a year or two ago. Clive McDonald, 66 Grenville Drive, Cambuslang.