European dairy farmers have taken to the streets again this week in a wave of discontent that is spreading as far as the remote hills of central Wales in the United Kingdom.
Graham Lawrence is one of just two dairy farmers left in the Welsh country of Powys and says he may have to give up his small herd of cows altogether because of the plummeting milk prices.
“We can’t make a living as things are now and we’ve been really let down by our government,” he says. “The French and Germans are doing far more to help their farmers.”
The United Kingdom, along with The Netherlands, is one of just a handful of EU countries to oppose more direct intervention by Brussels, and supports Brussels’ moves to remove all milk quotas by 2013 in a bid to free up the sector. On Monday, the EU Commission pledged to free up 280 million euros in emergency aid for farmers but says it will not change its longer-term plans for the dairy industry.
"Small rural farms like ours cannot keep going if they scrap the quotas. There will be no one left here soon," says Mr Lawrence.
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