AddThis SmartLayers

Farming editor stages own protest in milk price row

A regional newspaper journalist has staged his own protest as part of the national row over the price paid to dairy farmers for milk.

Joe Watson, the award-winning farming editor of Abedeen’s Press and Journal, reported in his column on Saturday that he had walked out of an Asda supermarket without the milk he had intended to buy.

He wrote that he had done this because staff at the store in Huntly were unable to answer questions about the prices paid to farmers for milk.

Writing in his column, Joe said that three staff members could not tell him whether Asda paid its dairy farmers a profitable price.

He wrote: “I felt tremendously good on Wednesday after walking out of Asda’s store at Huntly without the two four-pint containers of milk I intended buying.

“I left them at the till after staff were unable to answer what I thought was a very simple question: does Asda pay its dairy farmers a profitable ex-farm price?

“I know only too well the answer to that in that neither it nor its predecessor, Arla, do, but I wanted to see what staff at the retailer would tell me after more than a week of the milk-buying policies of certain retailers and the plight of dairy farmers seldom being out of the headlines.

“There is something deeply wrong when a pint of water costs more than the equivalent amount of milk.

“Tory MP Glyn Davies summed up the situation well in the Commons. He said dairy farmers were being torn apart by the corporate greed and ruthlessness of processors and operators. Hear, hear.

“The time has indeed come for change. A more equitable spread of profits across the dairy chain is required. Retailers can easily do that, without consumers paying a penny more for milk.”

The row over milk prices has centred on cuts of up to two pence per litre in the amount farmers receive from major milk processors, which is due to come in from 1 August.

Last week Asda, Morrisons and Co-op said that from August they would increase the premium they pay to farmers for their milk.

5 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • July 24, 2012 at 4:15 pm
    Permalink

    A clever stunt. Let’s hope it catches on. There is no doubt dairy farmers are being put under the cosh by greedy supermarkets. Anything that can bring this point out has to be welcomed.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • July 24, 2012 at 4:31 pm
    Permalink

    What a pathetic way to have highlighted an important issue. Obviously poorly paid supermarket workers aren’t going to go home each night and study the political and economic status of each of the several hundred products the store sells in case an expert comes in to quiz them.
    A child could have told this farming editor the students and part-timers he approached would have been unlikely to have that information to hand, and he must have known, but evidently the desire to show off was too much.
    His claim that he was about to buy a hefty amount of milk but was so aghast at the cashier lack of dairy knowledge that he stormed out is ridiculous.
    I would call this cheap stunt journalism is the nature of the protest wasn’t so unbelievably trivial.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • July 24, 2012 at 5:04 pm
    Permalink

    Presumably he’d have walked out if a check-out operator at Sainsbury, Tesco et al had not known the details of their company’s milk procurement policy? I doubt most would know or care about their own employer’s policy. Why should they?
    Causing a scene at the expense of a minimum wage employee is not the way to make big supermarkets change the amount they pay for milk. The reporter had no intention of buying the milk, because he knew full well Asda don’t pay the full whack.
    Cheap shot at someone who doesn’t represent the company, probably doesn’t particularly want to work on a checkout or stacking shelves, and is undoubtedly more concerned with their own poor levels of pay than those of farmers.
    Journalists should be speaking truth unto power. Not inconveniencing and embarrassing the powerless.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • July 25, 2012 at 1:13 pm
    Permalink

    I agree – this is a pathetic attempt at journalism. Asking a shelf-stacker or a cashier about the supermarket’s procurement policy is dumb – the question needs to be directed at the executive board. A cheap stunt.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • August 3, 2012 at 9:18 am
    Permalink

    I agree with everything that Simon, Rob, and Neil have said. A ludicrous stunt.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)