In my last article, I mentioned the dangers of us perpetually reinventing new models of the unsustainable and inhumane system that we know as factory farming. Sadly, no sooner had I written than we heard of fresh proposals to do just that. Regular readers will be familiar with Compassion’s dedicated opposition to the proposal to establish a mega-dairy farm in Lincolnshire, with 8,000 cows kept intensively indoors. Now, we learn of another alarming proposal – a plan for a 1,000 head ‘super dairy’ in Powys, Wales.
With ‘only’ 1,000 cattle this is clearly not on the scale of the proposed Nocton Dairy in the East of England. It is, however, ten times the size of the current average size dairy farm in Britain. And it gives further evidence to our fear that once mass factory farming gains a planning foothold anywhere in Britain the floodgates could well be open for other proposals. As in Nocton, residents in Powys are rightly up in arms about the proposed factory farm’s impact on the environment, as well as the animal welfare implications.
Compassion’s message is quite clear – whether it’s for 8,000 or 1,000 cattle, a system as intrinsically flawed as industrial scale factory farming is never going to be able to put animal welfare first. There is only one way forward, and that is for factory farming to be consigned to the history books.
