CIWF wins award for Nocton campaign
10 June 2011 | By Alistair Driver
COMPASSION in World Farming has won an ethical award for its campaign to halt the proposed Nocton mega dairy, in Lincolnshire.
The animal welfare charity picked up the Campaigner of the Year award in the Observer Ethical Awards 2011 on Thursday at London’s Victoria & Albert museum.
It was honoured for its ‘Cows Belong in Fields’ campaign, sparked by Nocton Dairies’ plans for an 8,100-cow dairy unit last year.
Nocton withdrew its application earlier this year. At the time it said the sole reason was the refusal of the Environment Agency to lift its objections made on the basis of the risk of groundwater pollution.
But CIWF claimed ‘the huge intensity of public opposition’ and the work of organisations like itself were also factors.
The award was accepted by leading CIWF officials and celebrity supporters Bill Oddie and vet Marc Abrahams (celebrity vet).
CIWF prevailed over other high profile shortlisted candidates such as Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and 38 Degrees, which also campaigned against the Nocton proposal.
CIWF’s Nocton Campaign Manager, Pat Thomas, said the ongoing campaign ‘stretches beyond Nocton, at a time when the spectre of the factory-farming threatens to undermine the UK dairy industry’.
“We are celebrating both the win and the public momentum behind it that says unambiguously that factory farming is cruel, unsustainable and unacceptable.”
CIWF shared the award with local campaigners, including CAFFO (Campaign Against Factory Farming Operations)
“Defeating the mega-dairy took genuine teamwork and we were happy to provide local support and are grateful for the support that we received in return from local people and groups, particularly CAFFO. It was clear to us from the beginning that the proprietors of Nocton Dairies had dangerously underestimated the knowledge and persistence of local residents and the weight of public pressure,” she said.
The charity said it ‘continues its fight against mega-dairies in the UK’ and said it recently submitted an objection to the proposed 1,000-cow ‘mega-dairy’ in Powys, Wales.
CIWF’s award follows hot on the heels of a Chartered Institute of Public Relations excellence award for the World Society for the Protection Animals’ ‘Not in my Cuppa’ campaign, also opposing the Nocton project.
CIWF’s award was announced the day after the Women’s Institute decided not to vote on a resolution to oppose large scale farms.
Related articles
- Milk Monday: No Respite in the Battle against Mega Farming in Britain (seymourjacklin.co.uk)
- The Code of Eggs (socyberty.com)
- Observer Ethical Awards 2011: Shortlist (guardian.co.uk)
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