Over 64,000 people have signed a petition against plans for a mega dairy farm, Nocton, in Lincolnshire, a county in the east of England. The petition was organized by 38 Degrees, a non-profit organization that includes Body Shop co-founder Gordon Roddick and Green & Black's Henry Tinsley as founders. The document will be delivered to North Kesteven District Council Tuesday at 1:15pm, the day when the public planning consultation closes. This is the second application made to the local council. The first was shelved due to concerns raised by members of the public, which in turn prompted one of the companies involved to quit the project. The applicants intend to increase the number of cows from the initial 3,700 to 8,100 if they get the green light from the council. The animals would spend most of their lives indoors, with little or no access to pasture. Besides the petition more than 1,550 objections had been filed to the council's website by midday on Monday, although it is estimated that many are yet to be listed. The chorus of opponents include celebrities such as comedian Jo Brand, conservationist Bill Oddie and conservation champion Professor David Bellamy. “These farms would make a big contribution to climate change. Keeping cows inside almost all year is cruel and there is evidence that cows kept in factory farms suffer as a result,” said 38 Degrees. Members of the public were asked to include in their objections issues related to environmental pollution, increased traffic, noise and other problems that an operation of such size is likely to bring about. The council is expected to make a decision by March. If successful, the development will cost £34 million and will be fully operational, 24 hours a day, by the end of 2012. Factory farming, the American way The campaign against Nocton Dairy brings together animal rights and environmental activists, the former for welfare reasons and the latter for environmental motivations, although welfare also plays a role in this particular case against American style factory farming. “The people behind Nocton Dairies have said it will be like a four star hotel for cows. It won't”, said AnimalAid, an animal rights group that is also campaigning against the Nocton farm. “It is tantamount to a prison where high yield cows will be milked to exhaustion – and, like all dairy cows, they will be sent to slaughter at just a fraction of their natural lives.” AnimalAid said the applicants used the quiet Christmas break to re-submit their application, hoping it will ‘slip through on the quiet'. In an earlier report about the case, a London animal rights activist told Bikya Masr: “People need to understand what is going on with these super dairies. It is horrific for the animals and on top of that, dairy products are not the healthiest things to be consuming, so it is a double-edged sword that needs to be re-examined.” BM
