HEATHER CAUSNETT (Letters, January 22) raises important issues regarding the price we pay for milk and its effect on the future of dairy farming.

I too heard the news last Monday, articulated first by Anne McIntosh MP, member of the environment, food and rural affairs committee.

The problem is complex, as it includes global markets and commodity supply chains as well as how prices are adjudicated.

Global prices have fallen (by 50 per cent in the past 12 months) to their lowest for eight years and dairy farmers have had to accept on average 20 pence when milk costs between 28 and 31 pence a litre to produce. The end result is that many dairy farmers have been forced out of business. If the Government fails to address the problem, we may be importing milk in five years from now.

Those of us who can afford it, however, can do our bit to support local dairy farmers by boycotting supermarkets and paying a fair price for our milk and even have a doorstop delivery made by local drivers, as I have recently decided to do.

At 50 pence a litre for organic whole milk, it is a price I am prepared to pay.

Ginnie Shaw, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for York Outer for the Green Party, Derwent Mews, Osbaldwick, York.