Signing off for a couple of weeks

Transition Culture will be going to sleep today until the middle of August as I turn off my computer and phone and spend some time with my family.  Thanks for your interest and support over the past few months.  I’d like to leave you with a request that you support the NFU’s ‘It’s time to back our dairy farmers’ campaign, opposing the cuts in prices paid to dairy farmers  due to be introduced August 1st.

Cuts will mean that the price farmers are paid will no longer cover the price of actually producing milk, having a disastrous impact on small family farms, and boosting the case that the only ‘efficient’ economies of scale for producing milk is in huge dairy complexes where the cows are kept indoors all year round, and fed silage and pellets.  There are various thing you can do to support the campaign, one of the key ones is not to buy you milk from places that don’t pay farmers a sustainable milk price.  The worst offenders?  Asda, Morrisons and, surprisingly, the Co-operative.  Buy your milk from places that pay a milk price that covers the cost of production.  Better still, buy it from a local dairy.  In the same way that there has been a ‘Move your money’, campaign recently to withdraw support from an unfair banking system, what we need now is a “Mooove your Milk” campaign (sorry, you can tell I need a break).  Thanks folks, see you soon.  In the meantime, don’t forget to book for the 2012 Transition Network conference in September, it’s going to be fantastic.