Environmental Studies AS Enrolment task

One of the big stories this year has been the protest of farmers regarding the price of milk.Read the following story and complete the tasks at the end.

(If you need to make the tables larger, please do)

No whey forward – future of Britain’s dairy industry hangs in the balance

Years of falling milk prices could spell an end to the fresh, safely produced dairy products we take for granted. The number of dairy farmers in the UK has halved in the last decade, with falling milk prices the main cause. With the latest news of a major dairy cooperative forced to delay payments to farmers and a price war among supermarkets, the sector is likely to decline further.

Dairy farmers are among the most sensitive to volatile pricing. Fresh milk has a short shelf life, so unlike livestock farmers who may have some choice over when to sell their meat, dairy farmers must take deliveries at the farm gate every day.

But their position has been increasingly precarious. For the first time in living memory, there are fewer than 10,000 dairy farmers in the UK, and that number is less than half those in 2002. Supermarket price wars have reduced the price of milk in the shops dramatically. In recent weeks, the money dairy farmers can expect to receive at the farm gate for their product has sunk to about 20p per litre – down from 33p a year ago. At the same time, energy and feed costs have increased, putting farmers in a double bind.

Milk has now fallen to below the price of bottled water, as Meurig Raymond, president of the National Farmers’ Union,has pointed out, and is now below the cost of production for most farmers. The only way most of those producers can stay afloat is by relying on subsidies from the European Union under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Big supermarket buyers know how much their producers are receiving from the CAP, and can therefore tailor their price cuts accordingly.

Raymond,a dairy farmer himself, said: “The recent milk price cuts from most processors have had a massive impact, with some farmers now facing their lowest milk prices since 2007 at around 20p a litre. Farm costs remain some 36 per cent higher than they were eight years ago and the single largest component of a dairy farm – animal feed – is more than 50 per cent higher than 2007 levels. This combination has left many producers under extreme financial pressure and fearing for the future of their dairy businesses.”

Although prices have fallen for years, mainly as the result of supermarket competition and pressure on suppliers, in recent months the increasingly international market for milk has also played a part. Good weather in New Zealand and other major producers has led to a glut of dairy products – including dried milk, cheese, cultured milk and others – on the world market. A slowdown in the rate of growth in China is also playing a part, as middle-class consumers there were eagerly buying dairy products in bulk for the first time. Dairy sales abroad had increased 60% for UK farmers since 2009, before the current problems.

Some farmers have been dealing with the price falls by concentrating herds into “mega farms”, in which hundreds of cows are housed together in massive sheds, fed on processed feed instead of grass, often never allowed to roam freely, and dosed frequently with medicine to keep them healthy. The economies of scale allow them to sell milk more cheaply, but the farms are a far cry from the vision of the countryside that many people still hold, and have faced local opposition.

The pricing of milk has never been clear or transparent to shoppers - to the benefit of supermarkets. Consumers unhappy about the supermarkets’ pricing policies and keen to support farmers can look for independent milkmen and farmers who sell direct to retailer, where their products carry a slightly higher price.

Sutton Coldfield Dairies, which serves part of Birmingham, for example, was set up by ex-Dairy Crest employee Phil Mitchell and sources from dairy farmers in a 30-mile radius in the Midlands. Suffolk-based Marybelle sells its own milk and award-winning yoghurts to a network of local retailers, including supermarkets Waitrose and the Co-operative. And straight to your door, Riverford and Abel & Cole - better known for their organic vegetable box deliveries - also supplies milk direct from organic dairy farmers.

Elizabeth Truss, the secretary for environment, food and rural affairs, recognised the problems facing the dairy industry in her address to Britain’s farmers last week at the Oxford Farming Conference. She mooted the possibility of a futures market for dairy; vowed to cut the number of inspections of dairy farms; and to deal with bovine TB. She said: “This government has backed dairy and backed the food industry across the board. Since 2010, we have signed deals to open 600 overseas markets to British food and farm products. We are putting an emphasis on dairy as we seek new agreements.”

These measures will take some time to come into effect, and there is no guarantee they will halt the decline. For consumers, falling milk prices may look like good news but we face a choice: fresh and safely produced milk, taken for granted for more than a century, is now expensive to produce in this country. Do we want a future of higher milk prices, or one of importing milk from other countries? Or one in which cows no longer see grass?

Task 1

Using the news report complete the following questions Name …………………………………….

  1. Why are dairy farmers at greater risk to price fluctuations then other farmers?

  1. Why are farmers losing money

  1. How many dairy farms are there now in Britain

  1. What is the biggest cost to dairy farmers

  1. What other factors have led to milk prices dropping?

  1. How have some farmers tried to cope with this situation

  1. How do these mega farms reduce costs

  1. What could consumers do help farmers?

  1. What is the Government doing to support farmers?

  1. Using the table Cost of Milk, Work out the following
  1. The percentage of the retail price that goes to the farmer

  1. How much per litre is a farmer paid for milk?

  1. If the farmers were paid 15% more for milk how much would 4 pints of milk cost?

  1. How much profit would a farmer make if there was an increase in 30% paid to them?

  1. How much would then would 4 pints of milk cost?

  1. Do you think consumers would pay this, give a reason for your answer?

Task 2 Name …………………………………….

The end of the news article finished by posing some interesting questions, including Do we want a future in which cows no longer see grass?

Does it matter how food is produce, and why should Environmental Scientistscare about Agriculture?

Complete the table making notes on the impact of modern farming, use the internet to help you, the following websites might help;

Modern farming / Impacts
Impact on the Biosphere
Use of other environmental resources in agriculture
Pollution
Food miles
Sustainable Development