What to do about milk prices!?!

[Peridot]

This has been worrying me too, and, coincidentally, I found the same link as you Yamin. It sounds as if the best thing we can do is to buy from local dairies, but if that's not possible the supermarkets paying their farmers the best prices are Waitrose and M&S. I don't shop in M&S but the last time I was in Waitrose I'm sure I saw that their milk was £1 for 4 pints. Maybe they are absorbing the cost elsewhere?

[Loopyloulou]

Many farmers are multi-millionaires ... (source: local and family knowledge)

True; they are the lucky ones. An acre of development land can make such a difference. Many others live hand to mouth.

Dairy farmers at present are paid c.21-34p a litre for non-organic milk, 26p is probably a fair average. Yamin's link is very good -the top price is paid to those farmers in the Waitrose milk suppliers co-operative based in Wiltshire, Waitrose do seem to have a genuine interest in their suppliers, as do M&S. Some other supermarkets also have a social conscience - for example Sainsburys pay their Devon-based organic milk supplier a guaranteed amount above the prevailing market price. I'm sure there are further examples.

Other farmers are not so lucky and have to survive in the open market. Until a few years ago the supermarkets would dictate a price, the processors would take 3p off that and give the farmers whatever was left. Industrial (or should I say agrarian) unrest, such as the famous(?) tractor blockade of Wiseman's Dairy in Bridgwater, has helped to level the playing field somewhat, but still the dairy producers of this country are going through difficult times at the moment. I remember, not many years ago, when a litre of milk fetched more than a litre of petrol...