VIVA!’S DAYS OF ACTION WIN HE ARTS AND CHANGE

In almost 50 actions across the UK in January, Viva! supporters hit the streets en masse to urge Costa Coffee customers to choose an ethical latte – and there will be more demonstrations in March!

It’s difficult to think of an industry that grossly misrepresents what it does more than the dairy industry In one of the most successful and longrunning examples of marketing hype in history, we have been persuaded that dairy farming is natural and kind and dairy products are essential for good health. Nowhere do they mention killing calves and milking mothers ‘til they’re dry.

Dairy farming is presented as a simple process of surrogate breast feeding – cows eat grass and turn it into calcium; human children then turn this calcium into bone by the supposedly ‘natural’ process of drinking dairy milk Dairy is not pure nor natural nor kind – in fact it isn’t even a health food but linked to numerous diseases So successful has the industry been in obscuring the truth that 60 per cent of consumers have no idea that a cow has to give birth every year to produce milk (Viva! NOP survey).

And this is why our anti dairy campaigns are so important.

On Saturday, January 28, teams of Viva! campaigners and volunteers up and down the country were mobilised into action They armed themselves with the facts from Viva!’s investigation into Home Farm, a large Kent dairy supplying Freshways, who in turn provide milk to Costa Coffee. And they will do it all again on March 11.