* Studies though have found animal welfare no better on organic farms, though they do have "higher aspirations" that may improve conditions in the long run. * Organic milk is produced on farms that are forbidden to keep cows in zero grazing. If a customer is told - and people like cows - that they value fizzy water twice as much as they value milk then we have a way out of this mess." Should we buy organic milk? Organic milk has grown in popularity in recent years, but is it really better for animal welfare, the environment and health? * Britons buy 98 million litres of organic milk a year a 50 per cent rise in just two years but still only two per cent of sales. He believes that the public need to stop viewing milk as a "bottom-line, bog-standard product".
"One is the high-genetic holstein who will be kept in a high tech barn and who may be robot milked and go outside for two months a year. The other option is to still produce milk from cows fed food produced on the farm like grass or maize The solution is in the hands of the customer. But he believes the solution is for farms to start marketing " free-range milk" made by roaming cows: animal welfare supporters spend 40 per cent more on free-range eggs "There are two ways forward," Professor Webster says. He says: "The dairy industry is in crisis because the farmers are going out of business and the cows have undoubtedly been distressed by the drive for productivity." He is careful not to condemn zero grazing and says cows can be content there with rubberised walkways and sand to lie in. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sympathises with the farmers but advocates "dialogue" and urges all sides to co-operate in the Government's dairy supply chain forum. The Conservatives favour the use of farmers' co-operatives while the Liberal Democrats want a food trade inspector at the Office of Fair Trading to restore "equity" to the market. The drive for ever greater efficiency simply won't solve the problems, according to Professor John Webster, emeritus professor of animal husbandry at Bristol University.
While accepting that the wages of a dairy farmer are "pitifully low", the National Farmers' Union believes the way forward is through greater efficiency at dairies - allowing more money to be passed down the supply chain - together with supermarkets dealing direct with farmers. Continental cheese and yoghurt makers are already major importers here. The supermarkets point out that they do not deal directly with farmers. Instead, says the British Retail Consortium, farmers supply processors and manufacturers "some of whom operate on larger net profit margins" than the supermarkets The strike has split the farming community. He suspects foot-and-mouth disease may have been caused by cheap beef imports and blames British stores for buying cheap, intensively reared foreign poultry from Asia, where avian flu has emerged. And he worries that with the collapse of dairy farms, Britain will start to import milk from Europe, leading to it being four or five days old before it reaches our shelves. It organised the first farmers' strike last week and plans longer protests in the run-up to Christmas It is also warning darkly of food shortages.