Milk Wars - Attack of the clones

Sharon Lee is determined to help people fall in love with real food and has designed a smart phone app named FlavourCrusader. It will help people buy fruit and vegetables to their satisfaction with a seasonal guide, tips to enhance flavour and prevent waste. FlavourCrusader is a passion project that has had contributions from many strangers, friends and tweeps.

Being ahead of the food game as she is, we decided to ask Sharon about the recent Milk Wars in Australia and what it means to the industry and how we can use our buying power to make a difference.

CMW: What do the Milk Wars mean for the average Australian?
SL: In the short term, it means cheap milk.
If it continues for an extended period there may be several flow-on effects—one that is related to health—and that is the access to nutritious food.
If it is unsustainable for farmers to keep producing milk they will of course stop farming, or perhaps look elsewhere to sell.
Also, local fresh food businesses will suffer, as more people will shop for other items like meat and vegetables once in store. If fresh food businesses close, decreased accessibility may result in higher prices and (especially for low-income groups) may result in a lower consumption of healthy food.
So, to sum up, in the short term it means low prices. In the long term, it may mean for the average Australian, reduced access to fresh, nutritious food.

CMW: Woolworths has publicly admitted that this will hurt farmers; what message do you think this is giving to customers of the big supermarket chains?
SL: The message is that due to supermarket dominance, their marketing war will have far reaching economic and social impact. If you can afford to pay more than $1-a-litre for milk—please do—farmers really do need our support. The future of farming and food is up to us.

CMW: Do you think this could actually help the smaller farmers who are producing quality organic produce?
SL: The milk war has put the lack of supermarket competition, the milk processors and milk under the spotlight. It has angered people; it may spur them to go beyond the supermarket and look elsewhere.

The source.

And this is why I quickly set up the alt.milk directory. (http://t.co/Rn1TEfG) I started the directory but it has had several submissions from people on Twitter. Please have a look and share it with friends. If you do know of any other niche supplier or can supply a photo, drop me a line @flavourcrusader or leave a comment.
The directory lists a variety of dairies—some with a handful of cows to others with several milk suppliers. What binds them is transparency; the websites usually tell me whether the milk is homogenized or not, sometimes the breed of cow, philosophy of farming and whether the milk is permeate-free. If it's not on the website I rang and asked and they were more than happy to divulge. It tells me they are proud of what they do and have nothing to hide.

I’ll leave you with this:
“Despite the profusion of brands and the plethora of claims, the only really meaningful choice when buying milk is between full-cream, low-fat and skim, as the generic brands are little different from the more expensive national brands.
If you like the taste of old-fashioned, full-cream milk that hasn’t been homogenised, or you’d prefer milk from cows that have been treated more kindly than usual, you’re more likely to find it as organic milk that has been produced by a small local dairy.”

Choice magazine: Milk Products Review and Compare, 10 Sep 2009