There have been stories in both The Sunday Times and The Telegraph recently, about the anticipated exodus of up to 2,000 farmers from the UK dairy industry in the coming year, as the milk crisis continues unabated. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a crisis as “a decisive moment” or “a time of danger or great…
Details
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…
Details
I have just returned from a conference organised by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), at which I was asked to present my ideas for driving change towards more sustainable livestock farming. The EEB is the environmental voice of European citizens and Europe’s largest federation of green NGO’s. Its recent conference was all about the European…
Details
Read more at: Free Range Dairy Hospitality & Catering News
Details
We are delighted to hear that one of our pioneering partners, Stephenson’s Food & Dairy are finalists in this year’s Red Rose Awards. The Red Rose Awards is the event where Lancashire business, commerce and industry are celebrated. It provides the best possible platforms to promote success, and to encourage inter-trading in the county.…
Details
Duncan Cruickshanks is one of the leading chefs bringing Free Range Dairy Pasture Promise to his clientele in London. He’s been Exec/Head Chef at The Hospital Club, which has a three-star rating from the Sustainability Restaurant Association, since June 2010. He has also been Head Chef at The Rivington Grill Dubai, Head Chef at Hotel Carasol…
Details
Foodspeed leads the way in sustainable dairy for caterers Free Range milk will, for the first time, be served in some of London’s top hotels, restaurants and caterers from today. Consumers, cows and farmers will all benefit from a new initiative that is the result of a partnership between dairy wholesaler Foodspeed, Free Range Dairy CIC…
Details
This week sees Free Range Dairy CIC take another big step towards offering consumers a more informed choice when they buy milk, as the first Free Range Milk is launched in London. Once again, collaboration with partners in the supply chain, who share our values, is key to helping us keep cows in fields and…
Details
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…
Details
Last week I attended the first Global Farm Platform Conference ‘Steps to Sustainable Livestock’, held in Bristol. The event was promoted as a ‘go to’ event for academics, researchers, NGO’s, policymakers and livestock producers working toward sustainability of ruminant systems. Presentations by researchers from all over the world covered themes including Consumption of Human Food…
Details
Have you noticed our updated website header? It’s just a small change where we have incorporated the Pasture Promise logo with the Free Range Dairy logo. We felt that we wanted to enhance the close association between Free Range Dairy and Pasture Promise. From this: .. to this: If you haven’t already, you can…
Details
Most people understand that it is the process of giving birth that stimulates milk production, or lactation, in mammals. In dairy farming the regular birth of calves is essential for keeping cows in a productive state, since the milk naturally begins to dry up around 10 to 12 months after giving birth. This is…
Details
In an article in the Independent (Nov 23rd 2015), about the rise of mega dairies advocates of industrial scale dairy farming suggested that the development of such facilities is essential to make milk production economically viable. However, this is something Free Range Dairy would challenge, as would Prof John E Ikerd quoted in the same article. Prof…
Details
“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…
Details
I was so pleased to read about Deputy NFU President, Minette Batters, promoting beef from suckler herds at the South West Beef event this week. It is music to my ears to hear someone else talking about defining the value in a traditional British farming system. Especially when that someone is a representative of…
Details
Last weekend I drove up to Manchester to attend Cup North at the Victoria Warehouse. It was a fascinating event bringing together coffee roasters, baristas, coffee machine suppliers and coffee connoisseurs from all over the country. There were films about the origins of coffee, ‘cupping’ competitions and barista demonstrations, all engulfed in a heady aroma of fresh…
Details
Cup North, a major coffee festival outside of London will be the first coffee festival to use Free Range Milk across the event. The milk bearing the Free Range Dairy Pasture Promise label will be supplied by Stephenson’s Food & Dairy from Morecambe in Lancashire. Manchester is seeing a huge rise in coffee culture and whilst people enjoy choosing…
Details
The clocks went back last weekend and British summertime has officially come to an end. The arrival of autumn in all of its resplendent colours marks another change in the seasons and nowhere is this more evident than on our farms and in our countryside. Yet industrial food and farming increasingly finds new ways to…
Details
I was very grateful to be given the opportunity recently to give a presentation about intensive farming and Free Range Dairy in Pembrokeshire, a very beautiful part of Wales. On their doorstep is the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the only coastal national park of its kind in the United Kingdom and one of three national…
Details
By Emma Van Der Merwe, Media and PR Manager for Fairtrade Foundation. In response to the on-going dairy farmers’ protests, Fairtrade Foundation’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Barbara Crowther, recently wrote a blog post on the Fairtrade Foundation’s website, entitled “Is it time for Fairtrade milk (again)?” Here’s an excerpt: “Shoppers in Asda in Stafford must have got a shock when they encountered two Friesian cows…
Details