A meeting with the other side.......

It is a little unfair to describe World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) as "the other side" but to be honest most farmers would see them as that.

I met with Phil  Brooke at Compassion in World Farming earlier this year and after I saw a stunt in London with guantanamo cows i looked up WSPA. WSPA are the guys who are currently running a campaign called "Not in my cuppa" which is where I named this blog from. Their campaign is aimed squarely at large herd developments in the UK and specifically Nocton Dairies which they do not want to see built especially because they are based in the UK (Not in My Back Yard!!)
To be fair they are fairly supportive of "traditional farming" and have a good handle on dairy farming practices in this country.
As they are happy to see farmers grazing cows this means they are relatively happy with about 80% of the dairy faerms in the UK at present, but if you have a system based on total confinement of cows then their campaign is aimed right at you!!
This might be seen as a little unfair as there may be a number of reasons why a farmer will keep his cows inside- weather, grass growing conditions, robotic milking systems etc- and as we know all dairy farmers need to look after their cows well or they will not produce any milk.
As I explained in previous blogs I run a dairy herd where we graze grass as much a possible so I know from talking to WSPA that their campaign is not aimed at the way I manage my herd of cows- but if you look at their website www.notinmycuppa.com I struggle to see whether they show any differentiation on the front page in particular, The website is even using images of cows in fields with the banner not in my cuppa- talk about a mixed message!!

If consumers are unaware of how milk is produced (and I know that they are as I have asked them) then a casual look at this website would not tell you anything other than you should not drink milk that is "factory farmed" (and without getting into the issue of if milk is even factory farmed at the moment) consumers cannot choose their milk, unlike their eggs, on the sytem that it is produced under. In my view their campaign, if succesful, will only reduce demand for ALL milk produced in this countryIt is unlikely that WSPA will ever support large scale dairies, but in the meantime I would like them to consider the following:
* If you support what I do on my farm then show that you do
* If you want consumers to choose milk from a particular farming system you support than you would be better to campaign for labelling of milk rather than reducing milk consumption because this is more likely to affect the people you would hope to protect!!
After my meeting I came away happy that the WSPA  know about farming and are not talking out of their backsides!! But, I am concerned that their campaign against Large Scale Farms (which in a free society they are more than allowed ot do) will only damage an industry which has only just begun to be profitable again.
The risk for WSPA is that their campaign will put out of business the smaller dairy famrers that they say they support!! The words baby and bathwater come to mind.........