Rachel's Organic

Rachel's is an organic dairy products company based in Aberystwyth, Wales. Founded by local farmers but now a subsidiary of French company Lactalis, it was United Kingdom's first certified organic dairy.BackgroundThe Williams family took over Brynllys farm in Ceredigion, West Wales in 1942, and started developing a herd of Guernsey cows. Dinah Williams is the daughter of Abel Jones, Professor of Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and his wife Bessie Brown MBE, the university’s first dairy instructress and organiser of the Women's Land Army in Wales during World War I. After World War II, Dinah often appeared with Lady Eve Balfour, trying to dissuade farmers from using artificial fertilisers and pesticides, leading to the formation of Soil Association.As a result, in 1952 Brynllys became one of the earliest members of the Soil Association, and established the farm as the first certified organic dairy farm. After the death of her husband in 1966, Williams handed over the farm to her middle daughter Rachel and son-in-law Gareth Rowlands. At this time they were supplying premium organic milk to the Milk Marketing Board.