Letter: Given the human labour required to produce it, why is milk sometimes cheaper than water?

By Letters

Published 6th Oct 2023, 06:00 BST

Your story on milk prices (Farmers ‘not paid enough for milk’, September 28) reminded me of three exhausting weeks milking my uncle Bob's herd in Co Tyrone after he had sustained an injury.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/business/northern-ireland-farmers-not-being-paid-enough-for-milk-ulster-farmers-union-4351468

It was a brutal three weeks and it was nice to get back to my 'shirt and tie job' as a rural GP in Scotland.

Milk or buttermilk, in some city centre supermarket chains or newsagents, now appears far cheaper than water.

I am not a Marxist, but one element of their philosophy rings true.

Outside of the diamond industry, most of the price of a product is reflected in the human labour required to produce or provide it. Why is milk sometimes cheaper than water?

James Hardy, Belfast