Branded milk is flying off the shelves in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets across the country as shoppers support a nationwide call to arms to buy branded milk.
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It’s a simply strategy aimed at forcing the supermarkets to charge a fair price for fresh milk, and if shoppers continue to vote with their wallets, the days of $1 a litre milk may be no more.
If that happens, Matt and Emily Neilson think the dairy industry has a fighting chance at a sustainable future.
The dairy farming couple, who lease a farm at Bandon Grove where they milk 50 cows, are young and passionate about making milk.
They have joined the call to arms and are urging Hunter shoppers to keep buying branded products and leave home brand fresh milk on the shelf.
They say that’s the only way to send a strong message to the supermarket giants and make them do the right thing.
Coles announced it was cutting its private label milk to $1 a litre five years ago, and Woolworths chose to follow suit. Since then hundreds of dairies across the country have closed their doors and farmers have been forced to either converted to other farming methods of walk off the land.
That price drop may have got more customers through the doors, but for farmers it was a huge step backwards.
The concept of paying a ‘fair price’ is a grassroots movement us Maitland people know well.
The move to get a fresh produce market up and running in central Maitland is all about the need to support local farmers and pay them a fair price. The 20 tonnes of Morpeth pumpkins sold in The Levee within 12 hours in March was about paying the farmer a fair price and supporting him in his hour of need.
Now more than ever we are realising our intrinsic link to agriculture and the role farmers play in our lives at least three times a day. Now is the time to stand up for what we believe in and think about our dairy farmers every time we go to buy milk.
They are among the most hard working people you’ll ever meet. They work seven days a week, 365 days a year including public holidays and Christmas. They get up before dawn to milk in the morning and are milking again as the sun sets in the evening.
They do it because they love it, but they can’t do it for nothing. With your help their future could be a lot brighter.test
