
Shepherds pour milk on roads to protest low prices - maury91
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/sardinian-shepherds-pour-milk-on-roads-to-protest-low-prices/2019/02/12/7c98e22c-2ed6-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.html
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maury91
I want to add more context to this story, the Shepherds are doing this protest
because the system is rigged. There is a monopoly on the milk in favour of big
companies, these companies buy the milk from the shepherds from a very low
price when the market is full and shepherds have a problem selling it ("You
can choose, sell the milk for me for 40 cents or sell to no one because no one
is going to buy it"). Then after the market wants milk again, the companies
sell the milk bought at a low price from the shepherds for a high price to the
distributors. Essentially these companies force the shepherds to sell the milk
to them for 40 cents/litre, and then they sell it to the customers for
1.5€/litre, nearly 3 times the price.

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maury91
This posts describes in depth what is happening:
[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215501485828857&se...](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215501485828857&set=a.1292228504377&type=3&theater)

Translation: "MILK AND NUMBERS The protest explained with the abacus.

The first number is 380 million, it is the liters of sheep's milk that are
produced every year in Sardinia. \- 1.20 is the price per liter of 3 years
ago, multiplied by 380,000,000 liters is equal to 456 million euros \- 0.60 is
the price per liter of 2019, it means that we have lost 50% of the value! it
means that in Sardinia there will be € 228,000,000 of lost earnings, it means
228,000,000 less that will circulate in Sardinia. It is a huge loss of wealth.

\- 14,000 are the farms of the island. \- 35,000 are the employees. \- 100,000
units of the armature. \- 365 days are working days for a pastor.

Milk is our gold, its derivatives are inimitable, they have no competition,
but pastors suffer, undergo the speculative actions of the great traders and
the big industrialists. A short example. those who have enormous financial
resources fills the stores when the price collapses. Then the price goes back
slowly, also due to the continuous post-sale decrease in stocks of dairies and
cooperatives. When there are strong signs of rising and the coop and small
industries are ready to sell, the speculators present themselves with their
stocks, bought at low prices, put them on the market under quoted prices, and
the first ascent is stopped and later it precipitates, for two reasons, for
the under-quoted cheese and for market clogging. At this point, who has to
empty the cellars is forced to sell off, and also becomes difficult, the
market has been clogged. Here he returns, strong of his money, ready to free
you from the problem, obviously take or leave.

<< Because throwing milk, it's a waste, it's a food, the fruit of your work,
what sense does it have, what do you hope to obtain >> This is what we hear
from those who fall from the pearls when they see videos on Facebook. And with
more millions of tips, as if we had not tried them all, but it is so, the
press does not tell us and people are not aware of the problem, they do not
understand the extent of the damage. For this reason I write these lines, to
tell, in a very approximate way, the blackmail to which we are subjected,
perhaps workers with precarious contracts can understand what it means to live
and invest with the uncertainty of tomorrow.

But I want to address especially to you that you have bothered to read these
lines and have had the patience to get up here. To you, that from the heat of
your apartment, heated and cooled promptly with every change of season, lying
on your beautiful sofa, lay the coat to your dog while you nibble a few
biscuits just bought at the discount store. Stretch your hand to the
smartphone, scroll your wall and do not hold back, you must write and
pontificate on our protest, continuing to criticize us yet again because we
waste the milk, we recommend to give it to the poor, Caritas, friends etc. .

I want to give you the last numbers of this abacus.

-12,000,000,000 euros, you read well, do not rub your eyes, TWELVE BILLION EUROS, so the waste of food in Italy has been quantified \- 47 instead, are the kg of food that every person wastes, every year, in Italy. So dear friend, before criticizing us for the symbolism of our protest I invite you to reflect, it was necessary to throw that apple for that small dent? Was it right to throw away that surplus of pasta you did not eat at lunch? And the half pack of biscuits that were only softened by the air? How much did you give these redundancies to the poor, to Caritas?

We are not perfect but our protest is legitimate. Sorry for the inconvenience,
but from now on when you're in the super market and find the pecorino at the
same price of potatoes, do not rejoice, somewhere in Sardinia, in some sheep
folded in the mountains, there is a shepherd with the face marked by sun and
the wind, who cries with his sheep.

Bakis Cavone"

