11th Ocotber.

Nocton Dairies, the subject of a 38 degree campaign, claims that the group are using out of date information to gather support.

There is currently no live planning application or live letter of agreement with any landowner, a spokesman for Nocton Dairies told Farming Online.

The plan that the group cites is historic and many of the aspects have changed significantly since it was withdrawn six months ago. Nocton are urging the public to wait until new plans are released. Indeed many of the concerns raised by various parties are being addressed in the new plans, including bringing an anaerobic digester on line from the start. So isn’t this all a non-event?

Harnessing the power of the internet

The real story is how the internet is used by campaigners to fight their cause. Nearly 22000 people have signed the online petition to Lincolnshire County Council to stop plans for “mega-dairies” going ahead. Interestingly Nocton are not mentioned by name and the campaign exploits the more emotive topic “let’s stop cow factory farming”. Well who wouldn’t sign a petition to stop factories manufacturing cows.

But this raises the issue - can modern farming use the internet to gather public support. Farming Online were the first company to solely use the internet as a communication tool for the farming community and to provide business information to that group. It is fascinating to see how this tool has developed but are farmers failing to utilise these new resources?

An object lesson for dairy farmers

This whole issue stems from a story about dairy farming and how the public have made use of the internet to campaign against “factory farming”. Why then are dairy farmers not using the same systems to harness public support against the exploitation by supermarkets? Perhaps we need a 38 degree campaign “let’s stop supermarkets stealing our milk”.

Notes: 38 degrees is a campaign website (see links) so called because 38 Degrees is the angle at which an avalanche happens.

Links

38degrees

Nocton Dairies