DECLINING DAIRY INDUSTRY DOESN'T HAVE TO LOSE
The Green Party is encouraging people to buy locally
produced dairy products from small shops rather than supermarkets. Animals Count
believes a more radical solution is needed.
The recent closure of the Aeron Valley cheese factory in Felinfach (BBC, 30 March 2007), Wales, was a tragedy for the families who depended on it for their livelihood, but it was a tragedy that could have been predicted and mitigated.
The world is changing faster than at any time in history. Every product, indeed every industry, has a life cycle. In order to survive, let alone thrive, a company must anticipate and follow market demand.
Cheese, labelled along with milk a wonder food in the fifties and sixties, has this year been declared a junk food by the independent Food Standards Agency. What else can you call something that contains no fibre, no complex carbohydrate, and has 70% of its calories as fat, most of it saturated?
Dietary choices
Saturated fat represents 10% of calories in the British diet. If we were to
replace half of that with mono- or polyunsaturated fats from plant sources,
heart disease might fall dramatically. This is precisely what happens when
someone takes up a largely or wholly plant based vegetarian or vegan diet,
provided they don't simply replace meat with cheese but instead go for high
protein low-fat foods such as beans, lentils, tofu and meat substitutes made
from soya or wheat.
As well as Britain's 3 million vegetarians, half the population are cutting back on meat and/or dairy products either to lose weight or to avoid heart disease, and when you cut down on fat, cheese is the first food to go.
But there is another reason why dairy sales have been declining. Cows, like humans, only produce milk after having a baby, so for every dairy cow each year you get a free calf that is no good for anything but veal. Many people won't eat veal through guilt over the short, miserable lives of veal calves.
As a result there has been an explosive growth in the numbers of vegetarians
replacing dairy products by soya, oat, rice or even almond milk.
Sales of dairy products are currently falling 1% a year, whilst sales of soya
milk grow 20% a year.
Dramatic declining dairy industry
One of Labour's Top 50 Achievements includes "Free school milk for five, six
and seven-year-olds in Wales". As prices of milk are kept artificially low due
to subsidies, surplus is dumped at schools! Ever thought about why bottled milk
is cheaper than bottled water?
In 2004 a committee of MPs produced a report on milk and concluded that up to one third of the sales price of milk is unaccounted for due to processors' charges, and that "the dairy industry suffers from suspicion and mistrust, self-interest and a lack of constructive dialogue" (BBC, 8 June 2004).
After more than two and a half years, the average farm gate milk price is still just over 18 pence per litre (DEFRA, 12 March 2007) while it cost at least 21 pence per litre to produce milk. On 3 April 2007 TESCO announced it would pay 850 farmers up to 22 pence per litre. Nevertheless, the dairy industry is dramatically declining with up to 3 farmers going out of business every day (Guardian Unlimited, 26 February 2007). Tragically, some farmers even commit suicide.
Government policies need to change
It is the job of government to prepare the economy for change, not to prop up
outdated industries with massive subsidies that result in overproduction and
then price collapse. It doesn't matter how much you subsidise something, if
demand is falling then the industry will inevitably fail unless it diversifies
some of its capacity into areas where demand is growing. People have to eat
three times a day; that is not going to change, so there will always be new areas
to conquer and in which to reap a tidy profit.
Redwood Foods is a fast-growing company whose Cheatin' Chicken and non-dairy
"cheeses" can be found in the fridge of any health food store. They have seen the
future and are creating jobs, as are Ethical Wares in Felinfach, Wales, who market
non-leather boots and shoes at their animal sanctuary.
Government should be helping farmers who want to diversify, but most MPs don't
really seem to care about the countryside.
Animals Count's reforms
The new Animals Count political party believes in phasing out livestock
subsidies and helping dairy farmers to gradually move into areas where they can
earn a decent living producing high value products that are currently imported.
Obvious examples are nuts, trees for wood, organic fruit and vegetables, and
those beans that will grow in our temperate climate.
Another great advantage of these products is that they do not require anyone to get up at 5AM to milk them. Industries where demand is falling must be helped to retool and retrain parts of their factories to produce the new plant-based superfoods. Ultimately this will be good for jobs, kinder to animals, better for human health, and less polluting for the environment.
Everybody wins.
Alex Bourke is Vice-Chair of the Vegan Society and a spokesperson for Animals Count.