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If you tolerate this

Now that the dust has settled a bit, I have been thinking about the case of Nocton Dairies, which did not happen in Lincolnshire in the UK. Peter Willis and his partner were basically run down over their plans for a 3,400-cow mega dairy by a publicity campaign mounted by various non-governmental organisations via the media. The Environment Agency reacted to the public pressure by requesting additional information on the aquifers. They withdrew the application in February, rather than technically be denied the permission. It resulted in the same thing – no new dairy.
What continues to niggle at me is the next step. Yes, the NGOs got their way and Nocton doesn’t exist. But news is that they’re already turning their firepower onto new, smaller applications for British dairies – suddenly, a 1,000-cow operation is under scrutiny by the same NGOs in England.
This may lead to a disturbing trend. If the NGOs continue to put pressure on new projects, no new projects will be built. Expansion will be more haphazard – cows added here and there at existing facilities. It is definitely going to be a more expensive and less efficient way of building production, but at least it will avoid the hysterics of a media onslaught.
Cheese and other dairy products do not get made from thin air. Nature abhors a vacuum, and if the UK does not appreciate people like Mr Willis, other countries will. He is an optimistic man – I suspect we have not seen the last of him, and for British dairy’s sake I hope we haven’t.
In the future, dairy processors may be importing the milk produced by other countries’ cows – nations where several thousand head dairies are not a dirty idea. What will that do to our food miles, and to our pride of place as one of the world’s premier countries for dairy cows? It is a shame, because cows like English weather.
It is easy to rest on laurels in most everything in life. Unfortunately, as Nocton has proved, we in the dairy industry cannot take our positive image for granted here in the UK. Any new project is now likely to have not only all the applications and planning information, but a media strategy in place as well. That is, if anyone wants to risk their reputation and their finances to actually put in an application. It is a sad sign of the times.





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