1. Why is factory farming such a big deal?2. Impact on our resources and environment3. Impact on our food and health4. Why do we need Compassion in World Farming?5. Can we feed the world without factory farming?
This week, I was asked by the PR firm involved in the proposal for the Nocton mega-dairy why we’ve included industrialised dairy in our new campaign. My answer: Because you made it an issue.
Read more about our battle for food sense and against factory farming’s new frontier here.
There is real progress being made for farm animal welfare in the European Union. The New Year will see us celebrate a ban on barren battery cages for laying hens. The long-term use of cruel sow stalls for pregnant pigs will be banned the year after. Veal crates – narrow premature confines for calves – are already history.
However, factory farming’s new frontier is the US-style mega-dairy. I saw dozens of these recently in California’s Central Valley and they were far from pretty. Thousands of cows crowded on dirt; not a blade of grass anywhere. This is what is known as ‘zero-grazing’.
We were pleased that, after months of campaigning, a proposal for a 3,700 cow mega-dairy in Lincolnshire, UK was withdrawn. The average dairy herd in Britain is currently about a hundred cows. We were deeply disappointed when Powys County Council ignored strong opposition to agree a 1,000 cow mega-dairy at Leighton near Welshpool. It is a set-back that has only strengthened our resolve to oppose this new threat, not just in the UK, but across Europe.
I don’t believe that big always means bad; intensification is the real crux of the issue. Britain’s biggest breeding pig farm, for example, is run along extensive lines with the sows kept outdoors. But highly intensive farming methods often go hand-in-hand with scale, as is the case with mega-dairies and meat chicken farms.
Read the rest of this entry »
Since I last wrote in September about CCTV in slaughterhouses, I am pleased to report on encouraging developments at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on this very important issue.
Thanks to pressure from individual businesses and retailers, the number of slaughterhouses with CCTV has more than doubled in the last year. According to the FSA, 19% of red meat slaughterhouses and 29% of white meat slaughterhouses, which account for about half of all animals slaughtered, have installed CCTV.
This would not have happened without the undercover investigations of Animal Aid who caught on tape appalling cruelty to animals on the slaughterhouse floor with their investigations. Congratulations to them for bringing this to light!
According to the Food Standards Agency, major retailers who now require CCTV in their suppliers’ slaughterhouses include Asda, The Co-operative, Iceland, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
Although the current situation is for voluntary installation, Compassion continues to press FSA and DEFRA to require slaughterhouses to have CCTV in operation with no exceptions. It is the least we can do for animals at the time of their slaughter when they are most vulnerable.
Read the rest of this entry »
Xalapa, Mexico: It could be an English upland scene, except the light is so good the grass looks greener than I’ve ever seen. Small groups of black and white cows are dotted across a rolling landscape. A tiny hummingbird flits like an electric bumble-bee around a roadside conifer.
This is southeast Mexico and we’re at an altitude of 2,000 metres on the lower slopes of an ancient volcano. Our ascent was coloured by the sight of dairy cows eating grass like they should. The contrast from California two days ago is stark; cows grazing naturally versus a land perversely peppered with mega-dairies; industrial facilities with thousands of cows crowded in one place.
We’ve stopped outside the village of Acajete and look toward the Sierra Madre mountain range shrouded in the morning mist. In the distance, the bustling city of Xalape winks in the sunlight. A farm-hand walks up the hill carrying three white buckets. Wearing a blue Ferrari tee-shirt, white wellies and a baseball cap, he waves and beckons warmly. We are treated to an impromptu tour of the farm.
Ana Maria Frauzoni Hernandez, a farmer herself and veterinarian, arrives to take us round. We are taken through a cluster of modest flat-roofed buildings that comprise the farmhouse and the dairy. There’s an unmistakable smell in the air; of baby-sweet dairy mixed with a slight hint of manure. Hernandez explains that this is her brother’s farm. She talks about respecting the cow as a noble animal. We walk past scattered trees to where 20 calves are loafing in the sun. I stand in the inevitable cow-pat.
It’s just one of 34 farms in a local dairy cooperative. It’s a pretty big farm by European standards. There are 500 cows on this farm, but you really wouldn’t know it as the cows gently graze in small clusters across the hillside.
We watch as forty Friesian cows are milked on the hillside. The cows and two farm-hands stand amongst a smattering of silver milk-churns. Hernandez explains that the cows are milked twice a day. Her father used to milk them three times a day but the cows got stressed. When milking is over, a horse carries the churns up the hill. The cows walk up the hill too. It’s wonderful to see them walking naturally; without the bloated bulging udders and splayed back legs so characteristic of what we saw on California’s mega-dairies.
The cows here are kept outdoors all year round. No chemicals, preventative antibiotics or hormones are used. A bit of supplementary food is offered when the grass is short.
Hernandez tells us that the cows here have an average lifespan of 20 years. Again, hugely different to the mega-dairies, where cows are often worn out and sent for slaughter at just 5-6 years. She reflects that cows on mega-dairies are likely to suffer stress from the way they’re kept.
Toward the end of the tour, Hernandez laments at the difficulty of getting a profitable price for the milk. It’s a familiar theme on both sides of the Atlantic. And with all systems big and small; the memory is still fresh of the tears of a Californian farmer, talking about the suicide of his friend, a large-scale dairy farmer.
The milk here is sold under the name, ‘Joyalat’ – Joyal I’m told meaning Jewel. Hernandez sees the milk as “white gold”. She shares customer feedback about how good the milk is here, apparently because the cows graze naturally on grass full of nutrients.
We tasted the yoghurt from the farm; it was full of flavour, very smooth and with no hint of sharpness; delicious. A poster in the dairy window proclaims proudly that “The best milk in the world is produced in Mexico”. Today, I’m inclined to agree.
Central Valley, California: I’m inside the world’s largest cheese factory. It’s huge; complete with security guards, visitor centre and restaurant. White-coated workers are busy making orange-coloured cheese. It’s the culmination of my journey through California.
The drive here was along a road littered with mega-dairies; industrial dairy farms with thousands of cows crowded in one place. I passed a livestock auction market where young cows are bought and worn-out ‘cull’ cows sold for their final journey.
Earlier, I flew out in a small plane. I asked the pilot whether we would fly over any mega-dairies; he was concerned he might not find one for us. He needn’t have worried. Within minutes of take-off, we flew over our first. Then came another, and another; thick and fast. They were like angry scars on the face of this regimented countryside; muddy-brown blots amongst vast fields of uniform crops.
Thousands of cows stood crowded on dirt; not a blade of grass in sight. This was ‘zero-grazing’. Lagoons the size of Olympic swimming pools, some like small reservoirs, captured the inevitable outpouring of liquid manure from so many cows. A thousand cows produce as much muck as 50,000 people. There were far more than a thousand cows on each farm.
These lagoons are said to be poorly lined, allowing muck-slurry to seep out, often contaminating ground water. They sometimes overflow, polluting precious waterways in this arid State.
I also visited a local school surrounded by mega-dairies; five within a three-mile radius. Between 3,000 and 6,000 cows on each; that’s 30-60 times more cows than the average dairy farm in Britain.
The march of the mega-dairies is the target of fierce opposition. Residents and public health experts concerned about farm dust and gas emissions and how they affect people. Fishermen, environmentalists and local communities worried about water pollution and what it does to wildlife and drinking water. I also spoke to farmers. As the dairies get bigger, more and more farmers lose their livelihoods.
I scanned the shelves of cheese in the factory shop. I tried some. It was fairly tasteless and rubbery. The visitor centre painted a picture of how cows are kept. It was unrecognisable from the reality of the mega-dairies just along the street. Where cows never see grass and are pushed to produce so much milk that they quickly become worn out. A poster at the nearby auction mart showed photos of happy-looking cows beside the words of a Beach Boys song; “I wish they all could be California girls”. I couldn’t help thinking that the cows would disagree.
It’s easy to feel hopeless when faced with what seems like an onslaught. It’s also inspiring to connect with the growing movement for change, both here in the USA and in Europe.
We should remember what we’ve already achieved. Extreme confinement crates for dairy veal calves – banned in Europe; the use of the GM milk-boosting hormone, BST – banned in Europe; and the 8,000 cow mega-dairy proposal in Nocton, England – ripped up at the planning stage.
We are making a difference. And by joining hands with the mega-dairy protest movement in the USA, we can do so much more.
Following our success in stopping the proposed mega-dairy at Nocton, Lincolnshire which had a starting herd of 3,700 increasing later to 8,000, I am absolutely dismayed by Powys County Council’s decision to allow a 1,000 cow mega-dairy at Leighton near Welshpool.
It’s extremely sad, not only for the cows involved, but also for the beautiful Welsh countryside. According to reports, the mega-dairy will be on land overlooking Powis Castle in the Severn Valley.
Cows belong in fields. Not industrial factory farms. They can live up to 20 years or more. But high yielding dairy cows typically live for just six years. Many suffer with chronic lameness, mastitis or infertility.
Cows kept outside generally have more opportunity to behave naturally; including grazing on pasture, walking freely and breathing fresh air. Cows kept indoors are more restrained. They are kept in forced ventilation. They often stand on hard concrete. They are fed a diet with more concentrate in it which often leads to digestive problems.
To learn more about the welfare of cattle and mega-dairies, please visit our website.
Because cows belong in fields and not in mega-dairies, Compassion believes the Powys dairy is nothing short of a backward step; not only for dairy cow welfare, but for dairy farmers too.
Britain’s dairy farming remains a largely pasture-based business. There is no need for it to follow the US mega-dairy route. I believe that farming and food industry interests must work together with government and consumer groups to ensure Britain’s dairy industry continues to use more humane, economic and sustainable principles. A dairy ‘arms race’ which pushes cows ever harder in pursuit of lower costs is a bad route for cow welfare and a road to nowhere for the future of dairy farming.
We will continue our campaign to keep dairy cows in fields. And will continue to oppose applications for mega-dairies. I’m pleased to say that we recently opposed a mega-dairy in Carmarthen which it was feared locally could expand to as many as 3,000 zero-grazed cows. This application was withdrawn.
To learn more about our campaign against mega-dairies and all forms of factory farming, please visit our new campaign Filthy Business.
Los Angeles: Wide awake with jetlag, I’m here in California at a conference preparing to speak on how to achieve better lives for farm animals. I will be meeting with foundations who generously support the work of like-minded organisations. I will talk to them about the reforms we’ve achieved for farm animals in Europe. And why there is still so much to do to end factory farming in Europe, the USA and throughout the world.
After the conference, I’ll be heading out to continue researching material for my forthcoming book. This will include visiting the almond groves where millions of bees are used to pollinate the trees. I’ve written before here about how the bees are exploited; highlighting this as yet another example of how industrial agriculture simply isn’t sustainable; and how factory farming of both animals and crops often go hand-in-hand.
I’m then going to Mexico to talk to people there about the problems of living with factory farming. It’s important for me to travel to meet with key players and see for myself farming practices throughout the world.
I wouldn’t be able to make these trips without Compassion’s staff who I know I can rely upon. I thank them and you for all your support.
Philip with Huckle, the latest addition to the family
I’m watching the latest addition to our family; a small, featherless hen fresh from her battery cage. Her entire life has been spent crammed with others into a cage where she could not even stretch her wings, let alone walk, flap, scratch at the ground. In short, she was denied being able to do the things that make life worth living for a hen. Just hours away from that wretched existence and her weakened body responds to the warmth of the sun. She walks the length and breadth of our garden. She scratches at the ground and pecks inquisitively at a world previously denied her.
I was recently asked how I feel about the European ban on barren battery cages, due to come into force on New Year’s Day. Put simply, it is perhaps the most monumental victory in the history of animal welfare. It is a huge success story won by the persistence of so many.
After all, it takes a lot to get something banned. Especially when that something dominates an entire industry. Churning out a staple product – eggs – for much of Europe. Yet, we did it. By waving banners, writing letters, buying better eggs. By coming together.
I remember the day the agreement was reached; in June 1999. Animal campaigners throughout Europe had gathered in Luxembourg. We eagerly awaited the outcome of EU negotiations on the future of cages. I will never forget the overwhelming sense of elation at hearing that barren cages would be banned! Standing on the steps of the European Council building, nervously hanging on to every word, as the UK Minister explained what had been agreed. An enduring feeling of privilege at being there on the day that history was made. An end in sight to the nightmare of the battery. The beginning of a better way.
It’s not a perfect law. Sadly, they rarely are. There was the painfully long “phase in” period of 12 long years for example. And then there was the clause that will allow so-called ‘enriched’ cages; bigger with a perch and stuff.
But so many more hens will be living lives of freedom. The rise of keeping hens free range, particularly in the UK, has been obvious.
And then there is the corporate trend. Some of the world’s biggest companies have recently decided to go cage-free on their eggs. McDonald’s in Europe, Sainsbury’s and Unilever to name but three. They have harnessed the food quality benefits of going cage-free; and responded to their customer’s aspirations for a better world on their plate. Millions of hens are living cage-free lives already as a result.
Back at home, our new hen nestles into a bed of straw. It’s the first time she has ever made a nest. She lays an egg. I can see the difference made to the life of this one sensitive creature. How wondrous then that, from 1st January next year, the tireless efforts of compassionate people everywhere will have touched the lives of so many millions more.
I cannot thank you enough; for being part of this campaign, for your support. Together, we are making a difference. There is still much more to do.
