Dairy Crisis Update - 13th of July 2012 - what can you do?

So as we gather on the 13th of July 2012, or Friday the 13th, some of the blog readers have asked what can be done? This advice is by no means definitive but only from what I have read online and from the twitter stream of @eurolinkseas. I did ask a question on my twitter feed:

"Now that public is getting behind #sosdairy, @NFUSouthEast @FARMERS4ACTION @FarmersWeekly @FarmersGuardian what do we tell them to do?"

I have yet to hear from any of them, but they are all busy.

So onto the advice...

• The NFU tweet is "Here's our poster in case you haven't seen it yet - It's time to back our dairy farmers ! #SOSdairy (Please click on the link)

•  Olivia Midgley (@FGoliviamidgley) from The Farmer's Guardian reports that "Scotland lays down dairy SOS action plan" here "@RichardLochhead @NFUStweets #sosdairy " - she continues in her article that the Scottish Government unveiled a 5 point action plan on the 12th of July and Rural Affairs minister Richard Lochead also called for his Welsh and English counterparts to meet up before Royal Welsh Show. The five points are as follows:
• Ministerial Summit
• Agree on a voluntary code of practice
• Demand clarity from the retailers for the consumers about how much the producers receive.
• Long term strategic report needed for where the dairy sector is going in the next 10 years and how it will get there.
• Ensure that the Scottish Agriculutural Organisation Society have sufficient resources to speed up the work on producer organisations and co-operatives. 
• More information can be found at the Farmer's Guardian Dairy Crisis micro-site that is found here.
• ‏@FARMERS4ACTION report that the e petition has 10,745 signatures at quarter to five on Friday afternoon with 134 signed in the last hour. If you haven't signed it, this is another thing that you can do. 
• Johann Tasker of the Farmer's Weekly writes about how the RSPCA backs farmers on milk prices (by me 4 @FarmersWeekly) he writes, "The RSPCA is urging shoppers to avoid cut-price milk sold by supermarkets, warning that it could have a knock-on effect on cow welfare" more can be read at Johann's article found here.  #SOSdairy
• So if you wish to do something, when choosing to buy your milk and other dairy products, look for either your local dairy and support the local shop or when buying from a supermarket choose the ones who support the dairy sector - these are M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose are praised for paying above the cost of production.
• The Farmer's Weekly have a dedicated micro website for the dairy crisis and this can be found here. 
•  Alistair Driver from the Farmer's Guardian reports in his blog that Jim Paice MP was ridiculed publicly but #SOSdairy lines up bigger targets for August, have a read of Alistair's blog if you didn't catch the summary.

What else can you do:

• Follow the  #SOSdairy on comments in Twitter.
• Print off the poster prints from the NFU and stick on a car window if it doesn't obliterate the driver's vision or put it up on your wall on Facebook, the print can be found here - 
• Buy your milk from local dairies or from M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco, or Waitrose.
• Write to your MP, the dairy produce processor and the supermarkets - the Farmer's Guardian does a very good page on what to write and who to write to but you may have to give your email and subscribe (freely, I think), the page link can be found here.

Have a good rest of the Friday the 13th.