More ethical dairy?

How should food businesses treat dairy in a sustainable food future?

Price pressures on farmers plus the climate and nature emergency we now face have increased the urgency of striving for fairer, more ethical dairy systems. But what would those systems look like? And how do we accelerate the shift to getting there? The Food Ethics Council is running a project with dairy farmers across the UK to discuss ethics and fairness in the dairy system. And to understand from them what, if it was possible, they would like to do differently?

After our initial workshops with farmers, we brought together dairy farmers, food retailers, processors, manufacturers and others at this Business Forum dinner event to broaden the debate. Ultimately, we want to join the dots to understand how dairy farmers and the wider food sector can work together to accelerate the shift to fairer and more ethical dairy systems.

Our speakers were:

  • Keith Gue (Sussex dairy farmer and Nuffield scholar) and
  • Paul Tompkins (Yorkshire dairy farmer and NFU dairy NE chairman)

Our Business Forum report shares key insights from the discussion.