video record
Media not available in the Digital Archive
Description
The production of food is just as much an industry as the manufacture of cars, in that it's dependent on efficient organisation for collection and promotion of its products and it is influenced by ...external factors such as supply of raw materials. We take milk industry as an example and look at the various factors affecting its production. We start on the farm where our presenter, Dick Morris (OU) visits 2 dairy farmers, Warwick Peters and Giles Tedstone. Both farmers run herds of the same size but their approaches vary in the extent to which their system relies on mechanisation. It's after the milk leaves the farm that the complex organisational network becomes apparent. The sales of milk in this country is organised by the Milk Marketing Board, who are responsible for buying and selling all the milk produced on the farms. We talk to John Chapman of the MMB, who explains its current role and suggests how it might change in the future. One of the trends already establishing itself is a greater involvement in the manufacture of milk products. We visit their research division at Crudgington, where they are looking for new ways of using milk, especiallly those products such as skimmed milk that are left over from the manufacture of butter and cheese. Alan English tells us about the research and shows us some of their successes to date. But the underlyingtheme to the programme is one of sustainability. T101 students are reminded by John Naughton at the beginning of the programme to look out for all those factors that might affect the future of the industry. They range from biological ones like the health of the soil, to physical ones such as the supplies of fertiliser and machines, to less obvious economic factors which affect the price paid to the farmer.
Metadata describing this Open University video programme
Module code and title: T101, Living with technology: a foundation course
Item code: T101; 12; 1988
First transmission date: 1988
Published: 1988
Rights Statement:
Restrictions on use:
Duration: 00:25:00
+ Show more...
Producer: Philip Ashby
Contributors: Dick Morris; John Naughton
Publisher: BBC Open University
Keyword(s): Dairy industry; Milk; Milk Marketing Board
Master spool number: HOU6168
Production number: FOUT333D
Videofinder number: 2206
Available to public: no