http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/6958013/The-dairy-farmer-reduced-to-tears.html
The dairy farmer reduced to tears
By Olga Craig
Published: 9:30PM GMT 09 Jan 2010
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All across the country, diary farmers are facing the loss of their livelihood. In 1985, there were 28,000 diary farmers in England and Wales. By last November, when Mr Rickatson became one of the nine dairy farmers that throw in the towel each week, there were 11,551 left. As recently as two years ago Britain was self-sufficient in milk. Now we import 1.5 million litres a day. For the farmers who struggle on, their working lives – and that of their herds – have become a grind: such is their despair that one a week commits suicide.
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The chief villains are the supermarkets which, by driving down milk prices, are forcing farmers to intensify production or go out of business and leave the way clear for foreign imports. Currently one litre of full fat milk costs around 75p – of which farmers get around 26p, the exact cost of producing it.
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Interesting.
And, what happens when “foreign imports” can’t or won’t come?
Surely this is happening all around the world. The movie Gandhi had moving sequences about national economics.
Maybe Pat Buchanan is right?
How does one maintain a minimum national capability to feed itself?
It must all revolve around the definition of money?
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Reinke Faces Life 