An idea whose time has come from The Ecologist:
The Ecologist office is set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within a United Nations Biosphere Reserve. Hartland peninsular is dotted with steep, wooded valleys where bluebells, ear...
An idea whose time has come from The Ecologist:
The Ecologist office is set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within a United Nations Biosphere Reserve. Hartland peninsular is dotted with steep, wooded valleys where bluebells, early purple orchids and woodpeckers abound.The hills afford breathtaking views across the Bristol channel to Lundy Island, itself a nature reserve with a no-fish zone that is having a beneficial effect on marine ecology, and looking south-west down to Cornwall, on a clear day, one can see to Boscastle and Bodmin moor beyond.
But something is missing from this bucolic scene – one notices it first whilst walking the country lanes on a warm spring evening. There is no rhythmic munching of grass on the other side of the hedge; no bovine belching or contented sighing as the cows enjoy the sun on their backs after a long winter in the cattle yard. For here in Hartland, as elsewhere in the country, the trend is towards carbon-intensive, ‘industrialised’ farming where huge herds of 1,000 cows or more are kept indoors all year long, with only a concrete yard for exercise.
Undoubtedly, farmers have been squeezed into such ‘economies of scale’ by supermarkets that offer minimal profit margins and demand a uniform product; and also by the growing dominance of agro-technology that drives towards bigger, mechanised farms, but there are serious reservations about the long-term sustainability of this farming model.
One of the primary concerns of industrial-scale farming is that of animal welfare. When cows are confined in large numbers, bedded on sand, and forced into an unnatural feeding regime, their behaviour often changes which can lead to stress symptoms and ill-health. Cows farmed in this way are more likely than their pasture-based cousins to be lame and suffer from debilitating mastitis. As a result, the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed has become a cause for concern, specifically regarding antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are excreted and transferred to slurry lagoons.
As this slurry is then regularly sprayed onto surrounding fields, its impact on local communities and wildlife can be severe. A study conducted in North Carolina showed people who lived near intensive farms were significantly more likely to fall ill than those living in a rural setting away from industrial farming. Similarly, rates of asthma in children living near intensive farms are consistently elevated.
The sheer quantity of slurry waste from intensive farms is also concerning because of its impact on the environment whilst storing it and on spreading it. Leachate from slurry lagoons and slurry spreading has been shown to adversely affect rivers and ecosystems. Should any milk enter the wider ecosystem (having been flushed-away if a cow has mastitis or is on certain medication), eutrophication – the excessive loading of nutrients into the ecosystem – will occur. Its effects can be devastating, and include a massive overproduction of algae and a consequent lack of oxygen for fish and other aquatic species.
Here in Hartland, millions of gallons of slurry are spread on this small peninsular every year. We don’t know if those mysterious strands of ‘scum’ that appear in the sea each spring are a consequence, or if the slurry run-off is having an effect on the no-fish zone; we don’t yet know if the foul-stench of endless slurry-spreading is affecting tourist numbers and local businesses; nor do we know if the regular increase in tummy upsets during the times of slurry-spreading is mere coincidence – and it seems it is up to us, the local community, to prove that we are being adversely impacted by too much slurry, before anything will be done about it.
Should this ‘mega-dairy’ model become predominant, each one could displace up to 100 existing family farms from the market. Already, we have lost thousands of family farms: in 1970 there were approximately 100,000. In 2013
