Asda, the UK’s third largest supermarket, has announced that over 100 of their stores will stock Free Range Dairy Farmer’s Milk, a new range of milk, from the 1st March. The decision comes nine months after World Animal Protection supporters emailed their supermarkets, including Asda, calling for free range milk.
The charity’s Full Fact Milk campaign has called on supermarkets to stock free range milk since December 2014. A YouGov poll commissioned by World Animal Protection in 2015, found that 87% of respondents would want to buy free range milk which came from cows that grazed on pasture, and meant farmers would receive a good price for their milk.
Asda’s Free Range Dairy Farmer’s Milk will carry the Pasture Promise™ label which guarantees cows have grazed on pasture for a minimum of six months of the year. World Animal Protection has worked closely with the Free Range Dairy Network, the Community Interest Company behind the label.
Grazing allows cows to move around freely in fields so they can express their natural behaviours. Those permanently housed in sheds on factory dairy farms, are pushed to their limits to produce more milk, and are at a higher risk of suffering from lameness and udder infections.
Ian Woodhurst, World Animal Protection’s Farming Campaigns Manager said: “World Animal Protection’s Full Fact Milk campaign called for UK consumers to be able to choose milk that comes from cows that graze in fields. We are delighted that ASDA is the first supermarket to do this with their new range of milk bearing the Pasture Promise label. We believe this is fantastic news for the welfare of cows, for consumers and for dairy farmers.
“We know that the British public are concerned about the welfare of cows in factory dairy farms and believe cows should be given the freedom to graze outdoors in fields. We hope that other supermarkets will follow Asda’s lead.”
