MP Neil Parish & DEFRA spokesman blame the victim instead of addressing the injustice

 

James Badman FFA

Protesting farmers, who are losing money on each litre of milk they produce, are heaping pressure on processors Dairy Crest, Arla Food and Robert Wiseman Dairies to reverse plans to cut their milk price.

Brushing aside these legitimate concerns, former farmer Neil Parish, Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, said prices would always rise and fall on the market, and – in effect – told farmers to ‘get on their bikes’.

 

Neil Parish ignores the imperative to cut pollution and carbon emissions

 

Despite the imperative to cut pollution and carbon emissions expressed by our government and others across the world, he pointed to the Government’s Farming, Food and Drink Exports Action Plan, which includes appointing a food and drink ambassador and championing British food at overseas events. Central to the strategy is removing bans on British meat imports. If successful, this would benefit corporate exporters and food processors, not the primary food producers.

His words are in tune with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman, quoted in the Western Morning News, who said: “Time after time ministers have been saying that milk processors should stop squabbling over milk bottling contracts and focus on the wider, more lucrative emerging markets which are crying out for dairy products like butter and cheese.

 

Rebuttals extracted from a manifesto by former dairy farmer Michael Hart

 

Facts presented by Michael Hart demolish the Neil Parish/DEFRA argument – “the standard political answer to the problem of low farm gate prices in all sectors”:

• “farmers are flooding the market with liquid milk”: we drink more straight milk and use more liquid milk in tea, in coffee and on cereal than other countries – the demand is there.
• “ India is an emerging market for dairy products”: Parish ignores the fact that India is the largest milk producing country in the world & will increase home production as the skills and knowledge to produce more become available.
• China is third in the world milk production table and, while imports are increasing, home production of milk has risen rapidly over the last eight years and will continue to increase as they import genetics and knowledge to enable them to do so.
• Brazil, another country Neil Parish mentions as a possible market, is number five in the world milk production league, producing more than twice as much as we do. Last year the neighbouring milk exporting  country of Argentina increased production by 12.6% and cost of production is much lower there than here.
• Other southern hemisphere milk exporting countries have also increased production: Chile up by 5.6%, New Zealand up by 10.4%, Uruguay plus 19.5% and the USA, Australia, both exporting countries have increased production as well.

 

Michael Hart asks: “So who is more likely to supply the emerging markets of the southern hemisphere those countries already there, or close by, or us here in the UK thousands of miles away?”

 

“Farmers produce raw material, like milk, which they sell to a processor to make the product for the consumer to buy – whether that is for the home market or for export markets. Processors and exporters export, and they benefit from that, not farmers, hence the need for fair trade products so that farmers get a fair price . . .

“When I was producing milk before the BSE export ban in 1996 I was surprised to find out that my milk was going for export to Belgium for use in chocolate, due to its quality. However while I assume that the exporter was getting a good price which made it worth exporting the milk, I as the producer of that milk received no more than I would have done for use here in the UK – again showing it is not farmers who benefit but the exporters.

 

“I do not believe that exporting – put forward by Mr Parish as the answer – is the answer to the problem faced by UK dairy farmers. It is being put forward to avoid the government dealing with the real problems.”

 

Michael is a sheep and beef farmer in Cornwall, an ex dairy farmer, and has travelled widely on agricultural matters.