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 the United Kingdom's first certified organic dairy.
Background
The Williams family took over Brynllys farm in Ceredigion, West Wales, in 1942, and started developing a herd of Guernsey cows. Dinah Williams was the daughter of Abel Jones, Professor of Agriculture at Aberystwyth University, and his wife Bessie Brown MBE, the university’s first dairy instructor 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 the Soil Association.[1]
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.[1]