July 1st 2016 marks the second birthday of the Free Range Dairy Network. Our ‘birth certificate’ below from Companies House shows the date we created our Community Interest Company (CIC) and embarked on our stated social mission “to promote the value of pasture-based milk production on British dairy farms for the benefit of cows, consumers and farmers”.
We want to mark the second birthday of the Free Range Dairy Network by thanking all of those who have become a part of our network and worked so hard to deliver British consumers a more informed milk choice. There is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding dairy farming and the crisis is far from over. But, thanks to the willing collaboration of farmers, milk processors, NGO’s and public support, we are starting to offer an alternative vision to the mass production of commodity white stuff. So, please join us in raising a glass of milk to all those that are committed to keeping cows in fields, producing great tasting British milk and returning a fair reward to farmers!
The best birthday present we could wish for is the universal adoption of a minimum of 180 days (6 months) at grass, as the standard for milk labelled as Free Range, as represented by the Pasture Promise TM label. We must avoid retailers and milk processors, who offer a token gesture to grazing cows, from watering down free range milk. Did you know that if farmers are only required to graze their cows four hours a day for 100 days each year, it means they only spend 5% of the year outdoors? We want to offer cows that freedom for at least 50% of the year.
You can find out much more about what the Pasture Promise label stands for on our Frequently Asked Questions page and please make a pledge to support us by making the Pasture Promise today. With your help, we hope that by the time we celebrate our third birthday in 2017, people across Britain will be enjoying free range milk in their tea and coffee, on their cereals and drinking it straight from the bottle.
Please share this post to help us to keep cows in fields and traditional British dairy farms in business.
Thank you.