Expert Opinion: 'Why dairy farmers have become commodity slaves'

Fortune

Although through good fortune we managed to escape the intensification treadmill, I do not blame for a moment the majority of dairy farmers who have had no choice but to follow the best business case.

However, we are now witnessing the devastating consequences of this 50-year sequence of events, including what might be described as the ethnic cleansing by price of virtually the entire smaller scale dairy farming community, particularly in West Wales.

To add insult to injury, millions of consumers are now switching to vegetarian and vegan diets, because they are repelled by the perception that the modern dairy farm cow has become the casualty of an industry with a scale and attendant economic pressure preventing it from being loved and cared for in a way which is consistent with our obligation to respect the lives of the animals we farm.

Can all these trends be reversed? Yes, I believe they can, but only if the dairy farming community throws its support behind a multi-pronged initiative, working on three levels.

Firstly, we need top down action from Government in the form of redirected Pillar One payments, which offer rewards for dairy farmers who are less intensive, have smaller herds and whose cows go out to grass for six months of the year. In other words, those who deliver environmental and social benefits. Such payments should not be available to permanently housed herds.

Secondly, we need to apply the polluter pays principal, taxing inputs and practices which have damaging consequences to the environment and public health, including nitrogen fertiliser and antibiotic use.

Thirdly, we need a harmonised and transparent labelling scheme, which empowers consumers by providing accurate information about the degree of sustainability and provenance of all dairy products.

Some dairy farmers and companies reading this might have legitimate concerns about the potential for dairy imports to undercut our UK higher standards and cost of production, if we introduced some of the ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ I have described above.

In response, we are advocating the introduction of an internationally harmonised system of sustainability audits, facilitating trade in sustainably traded foodstuffs and applying tariffs and taxes to lower standard imports.

Some might think this is a far-fetched proposal, but in response I would remind them we are in the last chance saloon so far as climate change is concerned, and farmers are in the front line in terms of addressing most of the actions which could lower emissions, enhance biodiversity and improve public health.

In my opinion, we have no choice but to take these steps, because if we leave things as they are with current intensive dairy farming practices paying better than their sustainable counterparts, we will all be the long-term losers.