NFU, cows, the Great Milk Debate and COOL campaign

Children back to school on Thursday in many parts of the country so the sun came out and I spent the day in the sunshine standing in a field surrounded by dairy cows inquisitively looking at me while I, in turn, nonchalantly looked out across a Norfolk landscape. I had been asked to “star” in a photo shoot and interview for the NFU’s Countryside magazine, which brought me face to face with Holstein calves, cows and a magnificent, huge and, sometimes frightening, three year old bull. The cows were completely unfazed by our presence and equipment; many of them were lying down and lazing in their stall on sand - which I learned helps to keep them cool – while others were scratching their backs with a brush fixed at just the right height – it was idyllic, and I’m so glad that it wasn't raining or things might not have turned out quite so well!

My morning on the farm was to do with our upcoming return to the Great Milk Debate. In 2007, Federations held Great Milk Debates where not only members but the general public were invited to question dairy farmers, processors and retailers in a bid to raise the price that dairy farmers actually receive per litre of milk. The sharing out of pennies for that litre was not quite 'fair', and the WI had the mandate to raise awareness of the low prices dairy farmers were receiving for their milk. At the time, this did change in part but in the ensuing years, the margins are unfortunately slipping back, so along with many members, I felt it was imperative to raise this issue once again and stand behind our back dairy farmers.

Our recent campaign on county of origin labelling – COOL – comes naturally into this debate too, and imported milk, labelled or otherwise, is not, hopefully, the way our milk should go.

Concentrating on milk once again always reminds me of my very early childhood and my great aunts hand milking their small herd of cows, then taking it in churns on their milk cart, pulled by Dolly, around their village. People would come out of their houses with their jugs to be filled with fresh milk. It is always amazing to see how times change and how technology is changing our world.

Six-O Group and Climate Change

This week I've taken part in the second of our biannual meetings of the Six-O Group. This meeting is an informal gathering of the leaders of the six largest women's organisations in the UK, which are: The National Federation of Women's Institutes, Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland, The Townswomen's Guild, Business and Professional Women Foundation, British Federation of Women Graduates and National Council for Women Great Britain.

The meetings are a chance to catch up on what each organisation is working on at any given time with a view to strengthening the message, but also to learn from each other. One of the big issues we tackled was the huge but illusive problem of Human Trafficking. With the Olympic Games now in haling distance this issue will grow. Is that something many people would think about with the excitement of the Olympic Games coming to our country, I wonder?

We also discussed the environment, something that is never far away from the conscience of many a WI member. Have you seen our latest Climate Change Action Pack on how you can be involved in actions to improve that very environment? Which reminds me, the government and the media both seem to have gone very quiet on the issue of Climate Change? What is happening there I wonder Mr Huhne? At the Copenhagen summit the wealthy counties pledged to provide $100 billion by 2020 so that the poorer countries might adapt to the impact of climate change. What is happening there, I wonder. And all we marched for in the Wave on 5 December last year has not changed – well, hardly at all. That's the trouble. There has to be a way forward by the time the Mexico summit happens.

I've been doing some clearing of papers in the last week and amongst them I found a booklet, put out in 1999 by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The opening line from "Climate Change – Draft UK Programme Summary" reads, "In the last decades of the old century, the world has learnt some hard environmental lessons". We can equally well say that in the first decade of the new century those lessons have been compounded with the result of inaction. The summary of a decade ago is more or less the summary of today. But I know members have been taking action for the last 10 years that does help the situation; don't stop. We have to change to halt the changes that have sadly already happened with the climate of their land for many millions across the world.

Holidays, memories and the year of the archive

Holidays very often provide the 'free' time we feel we need to visit the past. I'm thinking of visits to museums, art galleries, and special exhibitions. One set of memories that I experienced a few days ago was that of the world of circus. Housed backstage at the Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth are the props from years gone by, photographs too, and literally, the roar of the crowd and the smell of the greasepaint greets the intrepid searcher who wishes to delve into circus history. This venue boasts 1 of the 4 remaining amazing water features still operating throughout the world today – a circus ring that drops down and pours water in, showing water spectaculars.

This set me to thinking of what we all do or don't keep; stuff, really. And in the WI world there is so much stuff. Every federation office will have artefacts and books and the like going back to the beginning of the life of that federation. I am a hoarder, so disposing of anything takes me ages since I fear I might need something that I no longer have because I threw it out! Many of you will probably know that feeling. Mind you, the NFWI possessions from the formation of the organisation, the archives, are now housed in the Women's Library in London having been rescued from the garage in our WI College in Oxford, Denman College.

A few years ago a great inventory was taken of all the textiles in the possession of WIs and federations and this is kept by the National Needlework Archive.

Throughout the federations many a County Records Office houses the minutes and paper archives of individual WIs. I know the photographs of my own WI are held in the records office too and they are "borrowed back" every time we have a special event when we want to look back at what the WI has done over the years. Many an album will have photographs behind the pages of self adhering plastic. I have learnt that this is not good as chemicals in the mix turn the photographs brown over time. We should all be using albums with the old fashioned photo corners and filmy tissue paper dividing the pages.

Quite a number of WIs now have their committee minutes and WI meetings records online. Others use this method but also keep a paper copy. And, of course, many WIs still use paper copies only. I wonder, though, in say 50 years from now, if many or our archives will be on memory sticks.

In my own federation we had quite an array of written pieces from the past and I recall one such, "A History of the federation", presented as a speech at the Autumn Council Meeting on 18 October 1952 - the month I was born! I quote the final paragraph:
"1938. The local authorities called on us to find billets for evacuees, and in 24 hours the committees of 70 villages had helped to get promises of accommodation for 5,000. Then we knew and rejoiced in our strength, and could go forward undaunted, secure in the confidence that so long as our great movement holds fast to it principles , and is based as if on the "spiritual ideals of fellowship, truth. , tolerance and justice" there is perhaps no limit to what it can accomplish for our home and our country".

2012 is to be the Year of the Archive. I know many federations have archivists but if all 69 of them had just one archivist each, then our history would be taped and tidied for the future. It is said the WI is one of the major custodians of our heritage, the social history of England and Wales. This we should never doubt.