Bucolic scenes on UK milk adverts hide reality of life for ‘battery cows’
Some of the UK’s biggest food firms are accused of misleading consumers after buying their milk from intensive industrial dairy units despite using images to promote their products that show cows grazing in green fields.
Tens of thousands of dairy cattle in England are kept in hangar-style sheds with no or very limited access to pasture. They will typically be milked three times daily, often on large electronic rotating milk parlours, producing up to 32 litres of milk each day.
The animal rights charity Viva! is this weekend launching a campaign on the conditions of “zero-grazed” cattle. It cites research showing zero-grazed cows have a higher level of health problems, such as lameness and mastitis, and mortality.
“These battery cows are denied their most inherent instinct: grazing on grass outdoors,” said Juliet Gellatley, the founder and director of Viva!, which promotes veganism. “Consumers are misled into believing that cows graze outdoors.”
Campaigners describe the units as a “disgrace” and there is mounting pressure on the dairy industry for better labelling and transparency in the supply chain, identifying products containing milk from cows with no access to pasture. At present, there is no requirement for mandatory welfare labelling on milk products.
The Observer has established:
Tesco’s fresh milk is promoted with an image of a grazing cow on its cartons. One of its biggest suppliers is the Lea Manor farm in Cheshire, part of the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor group, with 2,600 dairy cattle kept in open-side sheds, with no access to pasture.
Arla Foods has promoted its Cravendale milk brand and its Care welfare and environmental programme with farmer suppliers singing “everybody’s free” in fields. It has confirmed
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