TWO years ago the Devon Federation of Women?s Institutes began a campaign to raise public awareness of the unfairness of the difference between the retail price of milk and the price paid to the dairy farmer. This campaign became a national issue for the WI last year and it is now a matter of some urgency if the British dairy farmer is to survive. The price paid to the farmers is an average of 18p per litre which is 2p less than the cost of production. Ten years ago the farm gate price was 24p per litre, since then production costs have risen dramatically. Farmers are surviving by taking other part time work. Farmer?s wives are working to supplement the family income and in so many cases the situation is becoming desperate. The traditional dairy farm, which largely shaped so much of our countryside and contributed so much to the rural way of life, is doomed unless things change. The consumer knows that the retail price has risen but has no knowledge of the fact that the man who actually worked to produce the milk has received less than he did ten years ago. The doorstep pint now costs approximately 80p ? of which the farmer receives less than 10p. Does this seem fair? Rhoda Lee Resolutions adviser to the Devon Federation of WIs