Chicken farmers lose out to vegan crowdfund project
POSITIVE NEWS: Power to the people, or rather power to the vegans! The Vegan Land Movement (VLM) has revealed that its latest crowdfunded land buy-out actually blocked the plans of two chicken farmers, one of whom was looking to build a facility with a turnaround of an estimated 20,000 birds per year.
It turns out that VLM hadn’t intended to buy out another plot of land so soon after their last victory, but when they discovered that two chicken farmers had submitted planning permission to develop units on the land in question, they had no choice but to try their best to prevent them.
“We found out from the estate agents that there were two chicken farmers interested - one had already submitted an offer and the other wanted to extend the planning permission to house even more birds,” VLM wrote on its website.
“The planning permission was for 2,500 chickens. This equates to approximately 20,000 chickens a year, based on a 6.5-week turnaround. So, it was not a big unit, but as many of you know when these units are built, they often end up becoming larger over time.”
Given the size of the plot and the units planned, it may seem something of a small victory. But for those 20,000 birds per year and the benefit to the local environment, it is everything. And while some may say that the farmers can simply look elsewhere, it’s a symbolic victory of huge importance, sending a message that vegans can come together to create a real difference.
“The VLM have not only blocked this chicken unit from being built, but we have also prevented the subsequent pollution that would have had a big impact on the local biodiversity causing many adverse effects,” they added. “This land is near a river that is already suffering the consequences of animal waste runoff and a unit like this would have been devastating for the already struggling wildlife in this area”.
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We must also consider that the purchasing power of the Vegan Land Movement model - provided by the Global Vegan Crowdfunder platform - is almost unlimited. All they need is more vegans willing to donate, and anything is possible. Compare this to farmers who must rely on traditional sources of capital, bank loans, private investment and suchlike.
“We would like to say thank you to all of those who donated towards saving this land as well as the lives of the 20,000 chickens who would have suffered there. Whether you donated £1, £10,000 or everything in between, you helped make this happen.
“This land, like the other two parcels of land bought by the VLM, will never be used to harm sentient life again and will also become a safe place for the critically endangered species who can now make it their home.”
VLM is now discussing plans for the land, such as creating a veganic mixed orchard run by a local group, with all fruit and produce free to be harvested by anyone. As VLM states, the idea is to become a large movement that unites communities and provides a model for other groups around the world to do similar.
“If the VLM grows and enough people subscribe every month, this would enable us as a global community to buy similar plots much more frequently. This would make a real difference to critically endangered wildlife, help to mitigate against climate breakdown and of course end the exploitation of animals farmed on these parcels of land.”
For more information, visit www.globalvegancrowdfunder.org.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.
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