Creaming it off

I have to say that I am pretty angry at today’s report from the Office of Fair Trading that the UK’s four big supermarkets colluded with milk processors to keep the price of dairy products artificially high.

Quite apart from the fact that consumers were cheated, the practice apparently continued while dairy farmers were going out of business at the rate of three a week in Wales because they couldn’t get a decent price for their milk.

We have to acknowledge that agriculture is a strategic industry; in times of war or other crisis our very lives will depend on farmers. Every time a farmer leaves the industry, valuable skills are lost and we become increasingly reliant on foreign-produced food, frequently from countries with dubious standards of husbandry, hygiene and animal welfare.

If the OFT’s charges are made out, I hope that the members of this squalid cartel get the kicking they will justly deserve.