Nocton Dairies
Encyclopedia
Nocton Dairies is a British company which was formed by Devon farmer and cheese-maker Peter Willes and Lancashire milk producer David Barnes in order to construct an 8,100 dairy
at Nocton
Heath in Lincolnshire
, which would have allegedly been the largest in Western Europe.
After an inaccurate report that the company had resubmitted their plans in August 2010, a revised application was submitted on 17 November 2010 for 3,770 cows in an effort to address concerns.
With the new application lodged, public concern was raised again and opposition became increasingly vocal; local landowners who had previously agreed in principle to the use of their land for the spreading of the waste, pulled out of their agreements after fears of being named and targeted.
On 16 February 2011, the company finally withdrew its planning application completely. A statement released by Nocton Dairies cited the objections of the Environment Agency as the sole reason and raised concerns that facts had been twisted on animal welfare. It added: "The concept we have been proposing is a sound one. We challenge other farmers to pick up the baton and see where these concepts can take them." Just hours after Nocton Dairies' shock announcement, officers at North Kesteven District Council took the unusual step of making a public statement that they had been minded to recommend refusal of the application, on six grounds, namely:
1. The failure of the applicant to fully assess alternative development sites which presented fewer environmental risks.
2. The unacceptable and significant risk to groundwater quality, including the nearby public water supply.
3. Significant uncertainties regarding the impacts and control of odour from the operation of the dairy, and associated land spreading, and its effects on residential amenity.
4. Insufficient detail regarding the frequency, volume and duration of operational noise, including from animals, and its effects on residential amenity.
5. Probable negative and adverse impacts to Bardney Limewoods Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a series of Local Wildlife Sites from increased ammonia and nitrogen deposition.
6. Insufficient justification for the construction of on-site agricultural workers houses.
Meanwhile two separate but associated plans supporting the dairy were still active; a pipeline for the transportation of the digestate produced and a storage reservoir. Nocton Dairies did not withdraw either of these plans. In February 2011 North Kesteven District Council refused planning permission for the pipeline and the following month they refused permission for the reservoir.
signed by 172 MPs in the House of Commons on 8 March 2010; it was labelled by media reports at the time as a battery farm for cows, despite reports of a growing number of similar (albeit smaller) indoor-based systems for dairy cows already successfully operating in the UK and Nocton Dairies' explanations that their housing plans mirror those in which all UK cows are already kept for the 6 months of the winter.
Some local people formed a campaign group CAFFO after concerns were voiced over the potential for pollution of the water aquifer, smells, animal welfare, disease control, security, transport issues and property blight surrounding the site. A Number 10 e-petition, calling for a public inquiry into the development, was signed by 1,234 people in 3 weeks before the site was closed for the 2010 UK election period. However, a later Government response emphasised the rigors of the planning process and current UK legislation ensuring high welfare standards.
Animal welfare organisations and vegan and vegetarian groups also joined to support the case against the dairy. A Facebook
group set up by Viva! calling for a halt to construction attracted over 7,500 members. The World Society for the Protection of Animals
(WSPA) launched its 'Not in my Cuppa' campaign in September 2010 in anticipation of the resubmission of Nocton Dairies' proposal, featuring celebrities including Twiggy
, Andrew Sachs
, Chrissie Hynde
, Jenny Seagrove
and a large number of soap stars, and has since attracted over 25,000 pledges from the public that factory milk from battery cows will not be used in their cuppas. The results of an Ipsos MORI survey released at the launch showed that 61% of those questioned said they would never buy milk produced in large-scale indoor dairy sheds. Compassion in World Farming
's 'Cows belong in fields' campaign was launched late 2010, and the CPRE also campaigned on the issue. As well as this, a campaign was set up through site 38 Degrees
who submitted a petition of over 50,000 signatures to the district council in January 2011 on the basis that the farm was cruel and would put other farmers out of business.
However, a letter sent by the Farm Animal Welfare Council
to government ministers stated that cow welfare need not be compromised in large dairy units, a message echoed by the RSPCA in saying they didn't believe 'big is necessarily bad' and in fact could offer welfare benefits if implemented correctly. Despite this, the RSPCA still does not support systems that house dairy cows for 365 days a year in its Freedom Foods standards. Other debates range around the potential for a large dairy such as this to improve food security and opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint
of milk production through better efficiency and the adoption of technology such as anaerobic digestion
. More recently the Government has published its Foresight report on Food and Farming, and the dairy's developers have asserted that their plans would help address the report's conclusions that farming needs to produce more food using fewer resources while tackling climate change.
During the consultation period, the Council reported as many as 14,000 objections had been lodged with PETA
claiming responsibility for at least 6,000 CIWF 5,000, and other animal and vegan groups claiming many more; this was substantiated by an extensive social media campaign carried out by these groups against the proposal. However, this was countered by growing dairy industry support for the Nocton proposal, illustrated in submissions from the National Farmers Union (England and Wales) (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association
, and Dairy UK, representing processors and farmers. Dairy UK warned: "Reject Nocton and UK dairy will suffer."
, Tesco
, Waitrose
and Marks & Spencer
, as well as online food retailer Ocado
, all indicated they did not intend to buy milk from 'super-dairies', while Morrisons
and American-owned
Asda
seemed to support them. According to The Independent
, Morrisons said they would consider buying from the farm, while Asda said they refused to answer such a "hypothetical" question.
In letters to a Parliamentary group in March 2010, Tesco and Sainsbury stressed their commitment to animal welfare and stated that they had no plans to buy milk from Nocton.
In another letter, Waitrose's managing director Mark Price stated, “a dairy farm of the size proposed would not fit with the Waitrose way of doing business, and I have to say that I am anxious that it represents the first step along the way towards a highly-industrialised, US approach to farming”. On 17 November 2010, Marks & Spencer declared, "M&S does not buy milk from 'super-dairy' farms and we are committed to our current pool of dedicated dairy farms." Jason Gissing
, co-founder of Ocado, said in a letter published on the Ocado web site in December 2010, "Rest assured, Ocado will not be milking it with Nocton.".
However, Morrisons again stressed its willingness to consider buying the farm's milk at the NFU conference in February 2011, saying the supermarket was open-minded about purchasing milk from Nocton-style dairies. And despite the stand taken by these other supermarkets, they were accused of being hypocritical when it was revealed in an industry newsletter that a number of them already willingly take supply from larger indoor-based UK dairy farms.
The industry reaction was somewhat different. The news coincided with the end of the NFU conference where NFU president Peter Kendall, Agriculture Minister Jim Paice and food critic Jay Rayner were among those defending the concept of large scale farming,; the news was greeted with concern that the dairy industry would find it hard to meet future challenges if it could not evolve and develop. Mansel Raymond, chair of the NFU's dairy board, said: "It is disappointing that the application has been withdrawn. Any planned investment in the dairy industry is a positive step. Nocton was an imaginative and innovative proposal, and I firmly believe that there remains a place in Britain for this type of investment if we are to meet the growing demand for food.” The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers also expressed its disappointment at the withdrawal. The British Cattle Veterinary Association, which leads the industry in managing the health and welfare of dairy cows in the UK, also took the steps of dismissing claims that Nocton Dairies would have been a "cow prison", saying its developers demonstrated a commitment to good welfare.
, saying that the different systems are not being compared on a like for like basis and are ‘astonishingly naïve’. However, there are concerns that any similar proposal, if successful, would set a precedent for the development of large-scale farming systems more commonly associated with the US where such units are known as CAFO
s - although with the definition of a dairy CAFO being over 750 cows, DairyCo, the dairy industry's levy and advisory body, says there are already at least 12 such farms operating successfully in England.
Comments made by at the 2011 NFU conference by food critic Jay Rayner during a panel discussion entitled ‘Is modern agriculture palatable?’ pointed to the industry being at fault. Mr Rayner told farmers that perception that the public would disapprove of such a development had been given fuel by a lack of positive PR. “The industry has to look at how it communicates to the media, not just to the industry and government. Basically it needs to work out a way to kill those page three Daily Mail
stories which misrepresent what agriculture is. There is a failure of imagination. You need to employ some PR people to communicate the realities of agricultural production in the 21st century.”
Either way, the fact that many farmers are prosecuted by the Environment Agency for pollution or waste offences as they struggle to adhere to constantly tightening regulation, demonstrates that environmental legislation is crucial to the protection of the land where any such development is placed. Following the withdrawal and refusal of Nocton Dairies' plans, one of the directors, Peter Willes, had to pay over £23,000 when he was found guilty of three environmental offences, two of which related to pollution of water courses. Mr Willes' previous pollution offences were also outlined in a Daily Mail article on mega dairies.
All involved also learned that social media plays an important part in 21st century campaigning as while they had no direct impact on the withdrawal of the application, thousands of supporters were gained via the range of sites named earlier. However, it also became clear that as well as factual information, a number of myths and untruths were also being propagated over social media - one led to a petition with 15,000 signatures being withdrawn as it falsely claimed hormones and tail docking would form part of the plan, prompting concerns that support generated in this way might contain little substance. Campaigners also learned that developers will take issue with their efforts and will seek to clarify where they feel inaccuracies have been portrayed; Nocton Dairies' referral of local group CAFFO to the Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
was 'informally resolved' when CAFFO notified the ASA that it had withdrawn its leaflet and promised not to publish it again, stopping the investigation in its tracks. At a later date, another large scale farm developer, Midland Pig Producers, threatened legal action against the Soil Association on grounds of libel.
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
at Nocton
Nocton
Nocton is a village south of Lincoln in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. To the east of the village is Nocton Fen, and a small area known locally as Wasps Nest....
Heath in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, which would have allegedly been the largest in Western Europe.
Planning applications
A planning application to North Kesteven District Council was made on 17 December 2009, but after concerns raised by the Environment Agency, was withdrawn on 15 April 2010 having already aroused considerable reaction in the media.After an inaccurate report that the company had resubmitted their plans in August 2010, a revised application was submitted on 17 November 2010 for 3,770 cows in an effort to address concerns.
With the new application lodged, public concern was raised again and opposition became increasingly vocal; local landowners who had previously agreed in principle to the use of their land for the spreading of the waste, pulled out of their agreements after fears of being named and targeted.
On 16 February 2011, the company finally withdrew its planning application completely. A statement released by Nocton Dairies cited the objections of the Environment Agency as the sole reason and raised concerns that facts had been twisted on animal welfare. It added: "The concept we have been proposing is a sound one. We challenge other farmers to pick up the baton and see where these concepts can take them." Just hours after Nocton Dairies' shock announcement, officers at North Kesteven District Council took the unusual step of making a public statement that they had been minded to recommend refusal of the application, on six grounds, namely:
1. The failure of the applicant to fully assess alternative development sites which presented fewer environmental risks.
2. The unacceptable and significant risk to groundwater quality, including the nearby public water supply.
3. Significant uncertainties regarding the impacts and control of odour from the operation of the dairy, and associated land spreading, and its effects on residential amenity.
4. Insufficient detail regarding the frequency, volume and duration of operational noise, including from animals, and its effects on residential amenity.
5. Probable negative and adverse impacts to Bardney Limewoods Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a series of Local Wildlife Sites from increased ammonia and nitrogen deposition.
6. Insufficient justification for the construction of on-site agricultural workers houses.
Meanwhile two separate but associated plans supporting the dairy were still active; a pipeline for the transportation of the digestate produced and a storage reservoir. Nocton Dairies did not withdraw either of these plans. In February 2011 North Kesteven District Council refused planning permission for the pipeline and the following month they refused permission for the reservoir.
Reaction to the applications
Nocton Dairies' initial application aroused much opposition, including an Early Day MotionEarly day motion
An Early Day Motion , in the Westminster system, is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by Members of Parliament for debate "on an early day" . Controversial EDMs are not signed by Government Ministers, PPS or the Speaker of the House of Commons and very few are debated on the floor...
signed by 172 MPs in the House of Commons on 8 March 2010; it was labelled by media reports at the time as a battery farm for cows, despite reports of a growing number of similar (albeit smaller) indoor-based systems for dairy cows already successfully operating in the UK and Nocton Dairies' explanations that their housing plans mirror those in which all UK cows are already kept for the 6 months of the winter.
Some local people formed a campaign group CAFFO after concerns were voiced over the potential for pollution of the water aquifer, smells, animal welfare, disease control, security, transport issues and property blight surrounding the site. A Number 10 e-petition, calling for a public inquiry into the development, was signed by 1,234 people in 3 weeks before the site was closed for the 2010 UK election period. However, a later Government response emphasised the rigors of the planning process and current UK legislation ensuring high welfare standards.
Animal welfare organisations and vegan and vegetarian groups also joined to support the case against the dairy. A Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
group set up by Viva! calling for a halt to construction attracted over 7,500 members. The World Society for the Protection of Animals
World Society for the Protection of Animals
The World Society for the Protection of Animals is an international non-profit animal welfare organization and also a federation of such organisations and active in over 150 countries with more than 1000 member societies.- Organization :...
(WSPA) launched its 'Not in my Cuppa' campaign in September 2010 in anticipation of the resubmission of Nocton Dairies' proposal, featuring celebrities including Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
, Andrew Sachs
Andrew Sachs
Andrew Sachs is a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and is best known for his portrayals of Manuel in Fawlty Towers, a role for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street.-Early life:Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina , a...
, Chrissie Hynde
Chrissie Hynde
Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...
, Jenny Seagrove
Jenny Seagrove
Jennifer Ann Seagrove is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero...
and a large number of soap stars, and has since attracted over 25,000 pledges from the public that factory milk from battery cows will not be used in their cuppas. The results of an Ipsos MORI survey released at the launch showed that 61% of those questioned said they would never buy milk produced in large-scale indoor dairy sheds. Compassion in World Farming
Compassion In World Farming
Compassion in World Farming is a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organisation, with headquarters in the UK, branches in eight European countries and international representatives in China, Australia and South Africa...
's 'Cows belong in fields' campaign was launched late 2010, and the CPRE also campaigned on the issue. As well as this, a campaign was set up through site 38 Degrees
38 Degrees
38 Degrees is a UK non-profit, progressive, political activism organisation that campaigns on a diverse range of issues, such as protecting the environment and tackling climate change, democratic media ownership, child poverty and political reform...
who submitted a petition of over 50,000 signatures to the district council in January 2011 on the basis that the farm was cruel and would put other farmers out of business.
However, a letter sent by the Farm Animal Welfare Council
Farm Animal Welfare Council
The Farm Animal Welfare Council was an independent advisory body established by the Government of Great Britain in 1979. FAWC has published its Final Report before its closure on 31 March 2011...
to government ministers stated that cow welfare need not be compromised in large dairy units, a message echoed by the RSPCA in saying they didn't believe 'big is necessarily bad' and in fact could offer welfare benefits if implemented correctly. Despite this, the RSPCA still does not support systems that house dairy cows for 365 days a year in its Freedom Foods standards. Other debates range around the potential for a large dairy such as this to improve food security and opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint
Carbon footprint
A carbon footprint has historically been defined as "the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.". However, calculating a carbon footprint which conforms to this definition is often impracticable due to the large amount of data required, which is...
of milk production through better efficiency and the adoption of technology such as anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic digestion
Anaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. It is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to release energy....
. More recently the Government has published its Foresight report on Food and Farming, and the dairy's developers have asserted that their plans would help address the report's conclusions that farming needs to produce more food using fewer resources while tackling climate change.
During the consultation period, the Council reported as many as 14,000 objections had been lodged with PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
claiming responsibility for at least 6,000 CIWF 5,000, and other animal and vegan groups claiming many more; this was substantiated by an extensive social media campaign carried out by these groups against the proposal. However, this was countered by growing dairy industry support for the Nocton proposal, illustrated in submissions from the National Farmers Union (England and Wales) (NFU), the Country Land and Business Association
Country Land and Business Association
The Country Land and Business Association is a voluntary organisation in the United Kingdom.-Membership:...
, and Dairy UK, representing processors and farmers. Dairy UK warned: "Reject Nocton and UK dairy will suffer."
Supermarket views
Supermarket chains SainsburySainsbury
Sainsbury may refer to:* Sainsbury * Sainsbury family, in British business and philanthropy- See also :* Sainsbury's, British business centered on supermarket chain* Harry Arthur Saintsbury , English actor...
, Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
, Waitrose
Waitrose
Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...
and Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...
, as well as online food retailer Ocado
Ocado
Ocado is a British Internet retailer specialising in groceries, headquartered in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The limited company was founded in January 2002 by Jonathan Faiman, Jason Gissing and Tim Steiner, former Goldman Sachs merchant bankers....
, all indicated they did not intend to buy milk from 'super-dairies', while Morrisons
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...
and American-owned
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
seemed to support them. According to The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Morrisons said they would consider buying from the farm, while Asda said they refused to answer such a "hypothetical" question.
In letters to a Parliamentary group in March 2010, Tesco and Sainsbury stressed their commitment to animal welfare and stated that they had no plans to buy milk from Nocton.
In another letter, Waitrose's managing director Mark Price stated, “a dairy farm of the size proposed would not fit with the Waitrose way of doing business, and I have to say that I am anxious that it represents the first step along the way towards a highly-industrialised, US approach to farming”. On 17 November 2010, Marks & Spencer declared, "M&S does not buy milk from 'super-dairy' farms and we are committed to our current pool of dedicated dairy farms." Jason Gissing
Jason Gissing
Jason Gissing was born in the UK in 1970. He was educated at Oundle School in Northamptonshire and Worcester College, Oxford University. He has an English father and Japanese motherHe is one of the founders of Ocado, the UK based e-grocer...
, co-founder of Ocado, said in a letter published on the Ocado web site in December 2010, "Rest assured, Ocado will not be milking it with Nocton.".
However, Morrisons again stressed its willingness to consider buying the farm's milk at the NFU conference in February 2011, saying the supermarket was open-minded about purchasing milk from Nocton-style dairies. And despite the stand taken by these other supermarkets, they were accused of being hypocritical when it was revealed in an industry newsletter that a number of them already willingly take supply from larger indoor-based UK dairy farms.
Reaction to withdrawal of plans
The consortium of opponents of the dairy - Vegetarian International Voice for Animals, The Soil Association, CPRE, Compassion in World Farming, Friends of the Earth, WSPA and local campaign group CAFFO - expressed delight that the plans had been withdrawn when the news was announced on 16 February 2011. WSPA UK's director Suzi Morris said: "This is fantastic news and greatly welcomed. This is a victory for consumers, dairy farmers and of course the cows within it and we can't forget the Lincolnshire community which has had a narrow escape."The industry reaction was somewhat different. The news coincided with the end of the NFU conference where NFU president Peter Kendall, Agriculture Minister Jim Paice and food critic Jay Rayner were among those defending the concept of large scale farming,; the news was greeted with concern that the dairy industry would find it hard to meet future challenges if it could not evolve and develop. Mansel Raymond, chair of the NFU's dairy board, said: "It is disappointing that the application has been withdrawn. Any planned investment in the dairy industry is a positive step. Nocton was an imaginative and innovative proposal, and I firmly believe that there remains a place in Britain for this type of investment if we are to meet the growing demand for food.” The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers also expressed its disappointment at the withdrawal. The British Cattle Veterinary Association, which leads the industry in managing the health and welfare of dairy cows in the UK, also took the steps of dismissing claims that Nocton Dairies would have been a "cow prison", saying its developers demonstrated a commitment to good welfare.
Conclusion
Whether or not this or indeed any so called 'super-dairy' is ever built, this controversy is likely to have a lasting impact on Britain's future dairy policy. Supporters claim large scale farming offers opportunities to meet food security and climate change challenges of the future. Research by opponents counter this hypothesis with an argument that the economics of the system are unsustainable in a report titled: 'Weighing the economics of dairy farms'; however, the figures used in this report have also been heavily criticised by the industry's leading providers of economics data DairyCo, part of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development BoardAgriculture and Horticulture Development Board
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is a levy board funded by farmers and growers. It plays a vital role in improving farm business efficiency and competitiveness in the areas of: pigs, beef and lamb production in England; milk, potatoes and horticulture in GB; cereals and oilseeds...
, saying that the different systems are not being compared on a like for like basis and are ‘astonishingly naïve’. However, there are concerns that any similar proposal, if successful, would set a precedent for the development of large-scale farming systems more commonly associated with the US where such units are known as CAFO
CAFO
A Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation is a term that was first coined by the United States' Environmental Protection Agency to describe animal agricultural facilities that have a potential pollution profile...
s - although with the definition of a dairy CAFO being over 750 cows, DairyCo, the dairy industry's levy and advisory body, says there are already at least 12 such farms operating successfully in England.
Comments made by at the 2011 NFU conference by food critic Jay Rayner during a panel discussion entitled ‘Is modern agriculture palatable?’ pointed to the industry being at fault. Mr Rayner told farmers that perception that the public would disapprove of such a development had been given fuel by a lack of positive PR. “The industry has to look at how it communicates to the media, not just to the industry and government. Basically it needs to work out a way to kill those page three Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
stories which misrepresent what agriculture is. There is a failure of imagination. You need to employ some PR people to communicate the realities of agricultural production in the 21st century.”
Either way, the fact that many farmers are prosecuted by the Environment Agency for pollution or waste offences as they struggle to adhere to constantly tightening regulation, demonstrates that environmental legislation is crucial to the protection of the land where any such development is placed. Following the withdrawal and refusal of Nocton Dairies' plans, one of the directors, Peter Willes, had to pay over £23,000 when he was found guilty of three environmental offences, two of which related to pollution of water courses. Mr Willes' previous pollution offences were also outlined in a Daily Mail article on mega dairies.
All involved also learned that social media plays an important part in 21st century campaigning as while they had no direct impact on the withdrawal of the application, thousands of supporters were gained via the range of sites named earlier. However, it also became clear that as well as factual information, a number of myths and untruths were also being propagated over social media - one led to a petition with 15,000 signatures being withdrawn as it falsely claimed hormones and tail docking would form part of the plan, prompting concerns that support generated in this way might contain little substance. Campaigners also learned that developers will take issue with their efforts and will seek to clarify where they feel inaccuracies have been portrayed; Nocton Dairies' referral of local group CAFFO to the Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
was 'informally resolved' when CAFFO notified the ASA that it had withdrawn its leaflet and promised not to publish it again, stopping the investigation in its tracks. At a later date, another large scale farm developer, Midland Pig Producers, threatened legal action against the Soil Association on grounds of libel.
External links
- Advertising Standards Authority
- British Cattle Veterinary Association
- Campaign to Protect Rural England
- Compassion in World Farming
- European Food Safety Authority Animal Health and Welfare Panel
- Farm Animal Welfare Council
- Nocton Dairies
- Nocton in Lincolnshire
- Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
- The Campaign Against Factory Farming Operations
- This is Dairy Farming
- World Society for the Protection of Animals