UK Supermarkets Zero-Support for Zero-Graze Dairy

UK Supermarkets: Please Commit Zero Support for Zero-Graze Dairy Units: For cows, for people, for the planet

For the attention of:
Sainsburys – CEO Mr Michael Coupe
Lidl – CEO Mr Christian Hartnagel
Aldi – UK CEO Mr Matthew Barnes
Morrisons – CEO Mr David Potts
Tesco – CEO Mr Dave Lewis
Asda – CEO Mr Sean Clarke
Waitrose – Managing Director Mr Rob Collins

Petitioning Chief Executive Officers of UK leading supermarket chains: declare zero support for zero-graze dairy farms.

What are zero-graze dairy farms?
Recently planning application was sought in West Sussex for four zero-graze dairy units. These are large sheds where cows live inside all their lives and are fed with processed cattle feed. They never go out onto pasture – in fields – and they never eat grass – in fields.

For more information about the above plans, see the objections from Dean Farm Trust:
http://deanfarmtrust.org.uk/threat-of-new-zero-grazing-farms-act-now/

VIVA also has information about intensive farming and zero-graze industrialisation on its website here:
http://www.viva.org.uk/dark-side-dairy/intensification-and-zero-grazing

CIWF has more information on their campaign to 'keep cows in fields' here:
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/our-campaigns/dairy/

Why should zero-graze dairy farming be stopped?
While elements of zero-grazing are already common in the dairy industry, for example cows are often kept in sheds and fed specific diets over the winter months, these more industrialised farms are a shift away from any outside space or grazing whatsoever, keeping cows in intensive factory farm conditions all year round.

Many people are already choosing to go vegan due to the inherent cruelty in the dairy industry, many vegetarians also avoid cow milk due to animal welfare standards in the dairy industry. As we know, cows are kept almost constantly impregnated, milked to within an inch of their lives and repeatedly have their calves taken away from them. While many people already boycott this industry, milk is still part of the daily diet for most and I hope all of us, vegans and non-vegans alike, can agree that it is not desirable for dairy farming to become even more intensive and even more industrialised than it already sadly is.

What can we do about it?
As well as rightly tackling and protesting every individual planning application for zero-graze industrial farms as they arise, it would also be productive to tackle the demand side of these businesses. If the major supermarkets in the UK publicly declared that they would not purchase milk from zero-graze dairy farms due to animal welfare and public health concerns then hopefully fewer businesses would be motivated to build these factory farms in the first place.

This petition is therefore aimed at the Chief Executive Officers of the major supermarket chains in the UK and calls upon them to make public declarations to keep cows in fields and not to support the factory farming of cows in zero-graze industrial dairy units.

Consumer Power!

Waitrose, for example, already have commitments to monitoring their supply chain of dairy produce and to ensuring that cows are allowed to graze naturally for a certain period in every year. If all supermarkets were to publicise a similar stance and specifically boycott produce from zero-graze dairies then perhaps the incentive to further industrialisation in this area of agriculture could be curbed. If enough customers demanded such a commitment, the major supermarkets may consider making it.
This petition would aim to encourage the supermarkets to make such a commitment; please sign and share.