“Cows do not belong in Fields”

Cuddly bovine image to encourage signing a
petition against factory farm in Lincolnshire

The disconcerting statement “Cows do not belong fields” was, it seems,  made in a BBC interview by Peter Wiles, the director of Nocton Dairies who propose a US-style mega-dairy in Lincolnshire.

Here's a Youtube clip of the interview, though it’s not clear to me what the source is.  A BBC local radio programme perhaps?  It’s one of those moments when you wonder if you're being subjected to an internet spoof.  
 
On the assumption it’s for real, Peter Wiles can consider himself a lemon (it says here) that’s been spotted for his ludicrous comment and giving his opponents one of the best campaign slogans ever. A number of American style battery farms are planned, essentially they apply battery farming methods to cattle and pigs.  Here's an online petition, if you like that sort of thing.  NB There are only 3 days left to sign it.

Here's a campaigning website.

Nocton wants to keep up to 3,770 cows as intensive milking machines in vast hangars with restricted access to the outdoors. To put this in scale, a typical dairy herd in the UK currently has anything between 70-120 milkers, spending half their year outside on grass.

Campaigners says that if the Nocton nightmare gets approved, the days of these traditional herds will be numbered because the arrival in the UK of US-style mega-dairies will make existing dairy farms hopelessly uncompetitive. 

And here's 38 Degrees,  an organisation I've not heard of before though perhaps that’s just because I'm behind the times.  It seems 38 Degrees is the angle at which an avalanche happens. They hope that in the UK, 38 Degrees will enable people to act together, to create an avalanche for change.