18 April 2011

Hundreds of UK farmers could be driven out of business if planning permission is granted for mega farms in Britain, a joint report from the Soil Association and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) reveals.  The possible impact on small and family farms is revealed as Derbyshire County Council starts a public consultation on plans for a giant pig factory at Foston.

It is likely that hundreds of small and family farms will struggle if large amounts of cheap meat or milk flood the market from these massive industrial-scale production systems, particularly in an already tough economic climate for dairy and pig farmers.

Had the mega dairy at Nocton, Lincolnshire, gone ahead it would have produced at least 38 million litres of milk each year, enough for 2.5 billion cups of tea. And the proposed pig farm at Foston in Derbyshire would produce 52,000 pigs each year enough pork to make over 56 million sausages each year - more than 1 sausage for every adult in the UK.

The original proposal for Nocton was for it to contain over 8,000 cows. This was subsequently reduced to an initial 3,770 cows, but even this could have forced around 50 average sized family dairy farms out of business. Based on government figures, up to 350 of the smallest pig farms could lose all their sales if the pork from Foston hits the market.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said:
“Developers claim they’re meeting public demand, but it’s wrong to say the British public are demanding that cows must be kept inside throughout the months they are milked, or that 2,500 mother pigs should spend their entire lives shut up inside a factory. These huge factory farms could herald a new phase in the way British farmers keep animals, opening the floodgates to similar developments and changing our farming landscape forever.”

Simon Pope, WSPA UK Head of External Affairs, said:
“We know from America that the real cost of food produced in factory farms is poor animal welfare, pollution and the economic death knell for thousands of small scale farmers. That cannot be something we sleepwalk into accepting here. If we do, it’s difficult to see how the British countryside and our traditional rural communities will ever be the same again.

Read the report here -
‘Old MacDonald had a farm: The possible impact of proposed mega dairies and massive pig factories on the small family farm’