Cow Appreciation Day

When we think of our countryside we always think of cows in fields. Cows have been part and parcel of our lives since we were children but they go back much further than that. They occupy a unique role in our history and have been domesticated since at least the early Neolithic age. Early Neolithic populations who domesticated cattle as well…

One year on

One year on for Stephenson’s Dairy and Free Range Dairy … I was at Cup North, part of Spin Manchester, this weekend helping Chris of Stephenson’s Dairy with his milk stand. Chris was also providing all the Free Range milk for the coffee roasters J Atkinson & Co. Ltd, Casa Expresso and Ancoats Coffee Co,…

Should we stay or should we go?

As the big question looms over whether we stay or leave the EU, we’re hearing about immigration, the NHS and cost to UK households but just as important but not getting the column inches in the media is food and farming. Understandably people are concerned about housing, education, jobs and health but for real unrest…

The White Elephant of Dairy

In the UK we’ve got used to having what seems like a limitless choice when it comes to our food purchases. In the supermarkets chiller section, we see row upon row of milk that’s standard, organic, semi, skimmed and whole fat. We buy 80% of our milk in one of the main major supermarkets and…

Ecofeminism

I went to a really interesting seminar this week organised by Food Thinkers Collaboration about Ecofeminism with Professor Mary Mellor of Northumbria University and renowned food investigative journalist Shelia Dillon.  Ecofeminism is a word if I’m honest I’ve never come across before but I found a lot of what was discussed made sense in relation…

Force Fed British Families

A new report released by ‘The Food Foundation’ this month called ‘FORCE-FED: Does the food system constrict healthy choices for typical British families?’ takes a closer look at what a typical British family eats and what influences their food choices. The report looked at national data sets, primary data collection, secondary sources alongside interviews to…

A big world on a small planet

“We need to update our worldview: we are no longer a small world on a big planet. We are now a big world on a small planet.” I thought that sentence by Johan Rockström a professor in environmental science at Stockholm University and executive director of Stockholm Resilience Centre really captures the problems we are…

Support your local dairy farmers

Free Range Dairy has three core principles A fair price for farmers Freedom for cows to graze for six months Affordable, healthy milk for consumers What is also important for Free Range Dairy Network is to match local farmers to local markets and their communities. People have said they want to pay more for their…

The Green, Green Grass of Home

As we look forward to another hopefully sunny Bank Holiday weekend it reminds me of the last one I spent visiting Margam Country Park in Wales. I was pleasantly surprised to see a formerly considered extinct breed called Glamorgan Cattle with two new calves. It was thought that the Glamorgan breed had died out in Britain…