Janet wrote:
You can't keep propping up businesses on emotive arguments about
doe-eyed cows and sad farmers.

Nobody did. The supermarkets, having cornered the market in retail
milk sales, collectively stopped paying a fair price to farmers for
what they produce, so that they could rake off a doubled profit for
themselves.

It is fantastical, that these same supermarkets woo customers
consciences with "fair trade" exotic goods such as tea and coffee,
with a promise that the third world producers get a fair deal and can
make a reasonable living. At the same time supermarkets manipulate
the milk market to deny the same fair deal to UK home producers.



Fair trade is total ballcocks anyway, for all kinds of reasons. It's
basically a scam run by a bunch of champagne socialists to sell feel-good to
naive consumers. It's not even a "fair" deal for the farmers; they are
forced into communist-style collectives run by local overseers. I won't
touch the stuff myself.

The supermarkets, to be fair, just sell the stuff because there's a demand
from Guardianistas for it, like "organic" vegetables. The supermarkets
didn't create that demand, but you can't blame them for supplying it.



Ian