I often think that as someone who has been so closely engaged with farming and nature all of my life, I have a really good connection with food and I understand how important simple, honest food is in making this world a better place. However, a recent experience taught me that food is about so…
What does sustainability mean to you? Is it all about climate change and saving the planet? There are numerous definitions of sustainability to be found these days, but I like this one I came across on Investopedia.com that says “Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations…
The way milk is produced on farms has changed beyond all recognition, over the past 30 plus years in which I have run dairy herds and many people have fallen out of love with milk. But, I believe we can make milk great again, by connecting farmers and consumers and telling the truth about its…
Release date: Monday 25th February 2019 Over 100 milk producers in England and Wales have left the industry in the last month1 alone, with dairy farmers quitting at the highest rate since 2007. Dairy Farmer Neil Darwent, founder of the Free Range Dairy Network, is concerned that if the industry doesn’t try new ways of…
Images of cows in lush, green pastures are synonymous with British milk and the seasonal grazing of dairy herds has been practiced by many traditional, family farms for generations. But, this free range farming system is now at risk of being turned into a meaningless label, defined by those who have never got dirt beneath…
Thanks to the wonders of social media, I discovered earlier this week that we have helped to inspire the first free range milk initiative in India. The Svasvita Naturals project has been established in Bangalore, by Siva Ramachandran. Siva explains “We are a group of people with a common mission to increase Indian small…
We are delighted to be Official Milk Sponsors of the first ever Bristol Coffee Festival, which is being held in the Passenger Shed, at Bristol Temple Meads Station, on the 7th & 8th of September. Described by the organisers as “a caffeine-fuelled celebration of the best the city has to offer”, the festival will…
We are running our ‘Come Back to Milk’ event as part of World Milk Day over the coming weekend, to help people understand how we are restoring the true value of milk from traditional, pasture-based dairy herds. Over the last twelve months we have seen a lot of bad press for milk and dairy,…
Congratulations to Free Range Dairy Network members Brian and Liz McNab-Jones, on winning Family Farming Business of the Year at last night’s Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards. Brian and Liz produce fantastic cheese from their herd of free range cows, under their Godsell’s Cheese label and they also supply Pasture Promise free range…
In our attempts to win badly needed recognition and value for traditional, family dairy farms, it often feels like we are bound in chains. Changing attitudes to milk is not easy, in a modern day dairy supply chain comprised of so many links, each trying to extract profit along the route from farm to fridge.…
I was very pleased to be quoted in an article by The Times Environment Editor, Ben Webster, on Saturday (10th March 2018), which revealed how meat and milk labels used by food producers and retailers, often hide the fact that food is produced from animals that never go outside. A key driver for me…
Last week, as we kicked off our Coffee & Cows campaign, we met with representatives of Fairtrade UK, who brought Ketra Kyosiimire, from the Ankole Coffee Producers’ Cooperative Union (ACPCU) in Uganda, to a Free Range Dairy farm in Gloucestershire. The ACPCU now represents around 9,000 coffee growers, supplying 17 Fairtrade certified primary cooperatives across…
Nothing average about Pasture Promise free range milk. Today, members of the Free Range Dairy Network are taking provenance and traceability in British milk to a new level, publishing for the first time, details of the number of days and nights that cows supplying free range milk under the Pasture Promise label TM, are grazed…
How many cows do you see in fields these days? Well, right now probably none, as it’s winter time and most are indoors for food and shelter. But, even in the spring and summer months, the number of dairy cows going out to graze is declining. Less than half the number of dairy herds we…
I was recently reading an article about an interesting initiative in France called “C’est qui le patron?” (Who’s the boss?). Founder of the scheme, Nicolas Cee, set up the label in the autumn of 2016, in an attempt to restore power to the consumer in deciding the value (price) of the food they buy.…
The past year has seen much of the world in turmoil and here in the UK we still face great uncertainty about life in a post-Brexit era. We often feel helpless about things that go on in the world around us; powerless to do anything to put them right. So caught up have we become…
A recent blog by fellow Free Range Dairy Network director, Carol Lever, cited consumer research by Harris Interactive, which provided a sharp insight into changing attitudes toward milk and dairy, particularly amongst 16 to 24 year olds. 39% of respondents in this age group said they were ditching dairy, due to increasing concerns about its…
When I was in a local supermarket last week, I picked up a carton of Alpro Roasted Almond (unsweetened). I noticed, on the packaging, an image of a white liquid, very much like milk, gushing from a split almond and wondered, could it be milk? I looked carefully at the ingredients listed on the back…
Just recently I came across a new milk label in a supermarket. Well, not a new label exactly, more like an existing label which had two words added to it – ‘free range’. I have since learned that this is the result of dairy giant Arla rebranding its organic milk offer, to help people fully…
I’m delighted to report that Free Range Milk pioneers, Stephenson’s Dairy, have been offered the chance to supply milk to 24 Booths stores in the north west of England, from July 1st. Chris & Steph Stephenson took up the Pasture Promise logo back in May 2015 and switched all of their customers to free range milk.…