Brits don’t care about the price of milk, Kaleb Cooper has said, as he urged shoppers to buy more locally-made produce.

The Clarkson’s Farm star told City AM that farmers would be “very, very grateful” for price rises if passed on to producers amid a battle to stay profitable in the face of higher costs.

Speaking at the pre-match launch of the first TV advert for Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone, Cooper said: “You can sell your produce to a supermarket and there’s a middle [man] taking a slice of the profit, so therefore, unfortunately who takes the hit? It’s always the farmers.” 

“The government and everyone else knows that in a way, they know they can rely on that farmer waking up and milking their cows because they love their cows more than they love their family sometimes.” 

“Everybody walks into that supermarket or local shop and grabs that pint of milk because actually they don’t care [about] the price of it… actually if they paid the farmer 10p per litre more, and it actually goes to the farmer, would the general public know? No.

“I’ll tell you who would know, the farmer, and they’d be very, very grateful for it.”

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics earlier this week showed inflation stood at 2.8 per cent in the twelve months for May in signs the energy cost rises earlier this year had yet to filter through to prices on supermarket shelves.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks prices rose 2.2 per cent, a slowdown compared to the 3 per cent reported for April – but milk prices were among the fastest growing, up 7.2 per cent since last year.

Kaleb Cooper throws weight behind farming co-operatives

Cooper said farming co-operatives will be critical to continued survival of British farms. 

“I think you could ask every single one of the people that are in the co-operative and they would be very grateful to be in it because they’re selling their produce at a great price.” 

For Kaleb, though, it’s not just about the fairer prices, but also the rare satisfaction of farmers to enjoy their own goods: “When a farmer sells their produce to a wholesaler, they never get a chance to eat it.”

“I want to enjoy the stuff I’ve actually grown myself, if I go to the Farmer’s Dog [Jeremy Clarkson’s pub] and have a roast dinner I’ll know that I’ve grown the potatoes there.”

Asked why British farmers still do the physically punishing work to produce food, Cooper summed it up: “The reason farmers do what they do is because it’s a way of life. It’s not a job.”