The U.K. may need legislation governing relations between dairy farmers, who face losses after milk-price cuts, and processors if the two sides are unable to agree on a voluntary conduct code, a lawmaker wrote.

The government’s failure to help processors and farmers institute a voluntary code of conduct for setting out contracts is “unacceptable,” Anne McIntosh, chair of Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter today to Agriculture Minister Jim Paice. The voluntary code should address prices, volumes, duration and timing of milk deliveries, she wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in London at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net