Controversial plans to build a huge, US-style "mega" dairy farm in Lincolnshire, housing thousands of cows and compared by critics to a battery chicken farm, have been withdrawn. Nocton Dairies, the applicant, blamed objections from the Environment Agency for the decision but hinted that a new plan could be submitted. The company singled out the environmental regulator's concerns over risks to the water table and whether the change in land use would benefit the public.
Emma Hockridge, head of policy at the Soil Association, is quoted: "This is good news, particularly for struggling small and family dairy farmers. Already up to three dairy farmers give up in Britain every day and the unit was likely to mean yet more small family farms going out of business. Nocton was a potential animal welfare disaster and highlighted the way in which our farming systems have become increasingly divorced from what nature intended."
