As such, to most of the population, the grumbling of milk producers is a distant thing. The process of producing milk is almost an anacronism in the UK nowadays and people know it. The money is going/gone out of it because of cheaper imports from lower paid nations and a market price driven by the end seller. Also by a dispassionate populace.
People dont really care anymore, deep down. Farming has been a dying trade in the UK for decades for very good reasons. Just like factory mill workers and coal miners, we have moved on to other more IT or service based jobs. Those who would have been factory workers of three decades ago are now more than likely call center workers or data entry techs. All the low paid low skill manual jobs went overseas to developing nations. Farming as well. Its only that milk goes off so fast that we still have any point source supply left at all.
So what you are left with is hopping mad milk farmers who refuse to move with the times and let Bulgaria supply our milk cheap while they move off the land and into the city like good first world citizens.
That public support is at best marginal is proven by the fact the only way they can think of to get any support at all is to give the stuff away after buying it in the shop. Buying it in the shop. We used to run infront of the kings horse for things we believe in. What happened to us?
Now, I offer all this as devils advocate so dont jump down my neck but seriously, what do they think is going to happen? People will suddenly decide that a 30% hike in all dairy items produced in the uk will be fine? Yes they will, no problem they will say, and they will then buy cheaper milk from somewhere else (paul and wiggz aside
). Dairy farming in the UK is finished. They know it, we know it, it just has to happen. As a trade it is laying on the cold milk parlour floor bleeding out from a terminal knife wound to the gut.If they could come up with an adequate synthetic milk substitute they would be back in business. That is much more in keeping with the modern western economies and the tech driven development of society. Pulling on cow nipples is old hat. Where is the development curve? If they could come up with a substitute they could beat down the old style in favour of the new but they wont. They will dig their heels in till they fall off the cliff.
I would take interestingly shaped concrete and easier navigation if it means I don't have to endure a county of zero contours and farmed land everywhere. From my current vantage point I can count 16 fields, all growing the same thing. It's really great being outdoors in it all...
this is my house, so maybe I can get away with saying I dont live any particular place? 