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TLDR: Support our campaign to reduce the United Kingdom's dairy herd by 25% by 2025* as part of a global effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide. MILKED will deliver this petition to world leaders at COP27. Together we can change this.

We are Chris Huriwai and Amy Taylor. We made MILKED to show the true cost of the dairy industry in our home of New Zealand. What we discovered was a horror story – and it’s spreading around the world as we speak.

The image of New Zealand is one of beautiful mountains and pristine rivers. Our country has given the world so much inspiration for how to enjoy and respect the earth. Growing up, dairy farming was a part of that image, a normal part of life.

But that image isn’t real. What we uncovered in MILKED is terrifying: people and cows dying for profit; rivers polluted, nature being destroyed. We also revealed that New Zealand’s largest dairy producer, Fonterra, has been massively underreporting its greenhouse gas output, creating more emissions than the whole of Sweden.

But this isn’t just about  New Zealand. This is a global problem. And the UK has a huge role to play.

The United Kingdom is in the world’s top 10 for the size of its dairy herd and milk production.

That’s why we’re asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice to reduce the U.K. dairy herd 25% by 2025, as part of a coordinated effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide.

Why is this important?

Each year the global dairy herd of over 260 million cows produces around 26 million tonnes of methane (100kg per cow, per year). Methane is over 84 times more potent in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time horizon.

Reducing methane emissions would have an immediate impact on Earth’s climate. The U.K. and its partners launched the Global Methane Pledge at COP26. But we need to reduce methane much sooner than 2030.

This action will protect wildlife and natural habitats, reduce emissions, and save lives.

The United Kingdom must take action

In the U.K. 40% of agricultural methane emissions come from the dairy industry. Also:

• The U.K. produced 15.3 billion litres of milk in 2020.
• The average size of a farm’s dairy herd has nearly doubled since 1996.
• And yet milk consumption per person has fallen by 50% since 1974.

Globally:

• More than three quarters of our planet’s agricultural land is used to feed livestock, but this land only produces 18% of the world’s calories.
• The number one risk factor for new zoonotic diseases like Covid 19 is the increased demand for animal protein. 
• Humans are the only mammals to continue drinking milk throughout our lifetimes.
  About 65% to 70% of adults are lactose intolerant.

Take action now and we can reduce dairy farming’s impacts on people and planet.

Around the world dairy farmers are transitioning to plant-based milk production, led by pioneers such as Elmhurst and supported by organizations like TransFARMation. But the U.K. government must do more to aid farmers in this essential transition.

Demand for plant milks is on the rise. Oat milk uses 13 times less water, 11 times less land, and creates 3.5 times less greenhouse gas emissions than cow’s milk. 

MILKED has exposed the truth. But we can’t fix this on our own. We need action, and that’s where you come in. 

We witnessed horrific abuse, pollution, and illness caused by the dairy industry.

Support our campaign to reduce the U.K. dairy herd 25% by 2025* as part of a global effort to reduce the devastating impacts of dairy worldwide. MILKED will deliver this petition to world leaders at COP27. Together we can change this.

*Reductions through slowed breeding, not slaughter. The cows have given enough!