9 June 2011

The Women’s Institute has decided to untable a proposed resolution on factory farming after delegates described the resolution as ‘confusing’ at its AGM held in Liverpool yesterday. image expired

Around 4,500 WI delegates were present to vote on the factory farming resolution, proposed by a Wiltshire branch, which stated, “This meeting abhors the practice of factory farming, particularly large animals such as pigs and cows, and urges the Government to ensure planning permission is not granted for such projects.”

However, the resolution caused great conflict and, in an unprecedented move, the WI members bypassed voting altogether and continued the meeting. Had the resolution gone through it would have seen the 207,000-member organisation campaign against large-scale farms over coming years.

NFU president Peter Kendall, who was present at the meeting along with Helen Browning of the Soil Association, said that if delegates had chosen to support an ‘end factory farming campaign’ it could have had severe ramifications for British farming. Having called for a debate that was not based around “scare stories and emotive language,” Kendall warned that, if passed, such a resolution could open the door to “cheap, lower animal-welfare meat from the rest of the world.” He concluded, “What kind of own goal would that be?”

The WI has now called on the farming industry to open up a “rational and transparent debate” on the future direction of UK agriculture.