Dairy Cow Feed Additive Trials - statement from Soil Association

[Verbena17]

In case anybody is wondering about how safe the Uk milk chain is, following the past few days news about the Bovaer dairy feed trials and Arla milk/products, the Soil Association has made this statement…

‘This week, Arla Foods UK announced a trial on 30 farms for the use of Bovaer®, a feed additive aimed at reducing methane emissions from cows. news.arlafoods.co.uk/news/major-ret…

This has led us to receive a large number of questions about whether this feed additive would be permitted in organic. It would not.

Soil Association organic standards stipulate that all ingredients/components of a feed additive must be actively approved for use and be deemed safe and nutritionally useful for the animal. The main components that make up Bovaer® are not included in the list of approved products/compounds and as a result, Bovaer® would not be permitted under organic standards and for use in organic farming.

Arla buys milk from many different farms and they supply both organic and non-organic milk. Any organic milk they supply must meet organic regulation requirements and the production has to be completely separate from any non-organic milk. This must be demonstrated and independently audited every year.’

I thought I read that Müller were also using milk from Bovaer farms?

Do you have a source for that? I have no idea. It's a bit surprising that consumers have to try to figure this out for themselves.

Thoughts please? As this is in the Arla milk that’s supplied to Tesco, Morrisons and Aldi then do their own brand products contain it already? Anyone know? Thanks

Just copied this from twitter:

"This site has been set up to provide information about which farms, suppliers, producers, and supermarkets are selling products from animals that may have been fed feed additives, such as Bovaer® which is being trialed by Arla Foods. We make no claims as to possible harms or otherwise that these feed additives may cause, but absolutely believe this information should be available so people can make their own informed purchasing decisions. This site is not ran or sponsored by any industry body or organisation, it has been set up purely to provide information, not marketing messages or industry propoganda."

https://fullfartmilk.info/?s=09

Think I just read other people’s comments on X and they said Muller and Arla but I’ll go check

Supposedly they could do yes.

Aha is that from Robin Minotti? He’s been brilliant looking into everything

Yes it is Robin Minotti.

Lurpak is made using purely Danish milk, provided by Arla farmers in Denmark.
From 1st January 2025 all dairy cows in Denmark will be fed Bovaer or an equivalent, this is law, failure to do so could result in prosecution.

I have just heard from dairy farmers who do not supply to Arla, that they have been told by their buyers to be very positive about the use of Bovaer because in 5 years all dairy farmers in the UK will be expected to use it as well.

Just 😩😩😩

Currently 0.12% of Arla farmers are trialling Bovaer the rest of us weren't informed or consulted. We are called farmer owners but it doesn't mean much. We are expected to jump through hoops on emissions but then they do this to us.

The majority of Arla farmers do not agree with this and can see that it will hammer us financially due to the boycott. You can call for everyone to support local farmers but all of us are someones local farmer. 30% of dairy farmers in the UK are Arla farmers. The cost of setting up processing for people to buy milk from us is prohibitive. The majority of dairy farmers in the South West of England are continually in and out of TB restrictions so there is no option for selling raw milk.

And can I ask how viable a switch to organic farming methods would be and how strong the demand for organic dairy would need to be in order for farms to switch? And what timeframe would be realistic for a farm to switch from non-organic to organic?
Also useful to bear in mind that of&g, one of the major certifiers of organic produce in the UK, will be reviewing Bovaer in the future. Currently their organic certification does not allow Bovaer but clearly they are not ruling out allowing it to be used and for products to still be certified organic by them in the future. https://ofgorganic.org/news/of-g-position-on-use-of-feed-additive-bovaer-in-organic-systems

Let’s just hope that people will start waking up soon and realising that UK herds being given additives to stop methane will make zero difference to worldwide methane. It’s a drop in the ocean and global warming and net zero are literally just a way of fuelling never-ending taxes.

I don’t think that’s going to happen unfortunately.
Whilst Joe Public think it’s ridiculous the elite of this world care not.
We already know that government do not care a jot about what we want or what we think.
The best we can hope for is enough people boycott the brands so their profits fall.
Money talks. Profit margin is the only thing they care about.

This explains A LOT…

Here’s how the CCA scheme works…
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/climate-change-agreements--2

Went to morrions kerry irsh butter is outta stock and also never seen so much milk lol 😆

Our food chain is pretty buggered, they can’t churn the food out fast enough. We’re like a plague of locusts consuming everything in our path.

I consider myself fortunate to have avoided Arla products ever since seeing the name outside massive farms of maize mostly and seeing no cows, ever! Where are they? In a massive rotating milking machine 24/7/52?
I don’t “know” what’s wrong, but it doesn’t feel right, as with a lot of things …. 🙁

Full Fart Milk! 💀

This! They are saying it doesn’t go into the milk but without long term studies they don’t know what diseases those cows could develop which could then be passed to humans, as with mad cow disease. That’s what is concerning me.

3- NOP is the ingredient in Bovaer that is of particular concern. A tiny amount may pass into milk, it's metabolite NOPA certainly does. The amount is considered too small to be harmful. Studies on this were only 3 months long and I don't know how biased they were. Is NOPA harmful or not? I don't know what it is so I'm in no position to judge. I feel the risk is low to UK consumers at the moment as only a few dairies in the UK are using Bovaer and only small traces of NOPA will be in the milk. I do think the government plans to role this out across the UK though, will that mean that cows will no longer be able to graze outside? If that is the case it has huge implications for animal welfare. What is the environmental cost of producing, packaging and transporting these feeds rather than using grass? I read on a farming forum that cows need extra minerals if being fed Bovaer so it obviously does impact their health. Farmers also think that messing about with a cow's digestion is generally a bad idea.

They are saying it doesn’t go into the milk but without long term studies they don’t know what diseases those cows could develop which could then be passed to humans, as with mad cow disease.

how can they test large scale and long term without using 'real life' milk producing farms and processers?

I find the government overreach insidious.

its not the bloody cows destroying the planet FFs

I’ve been reading this thread in growing despair at the descent into bickering about whether Bill Gates or cows farting is responsible for climate change.

And then I thought… Imagine if this turns out to be the organic food consumption tipping point, increased awareness, driving increased demand, leading to more farmers going organic, increased supply and therefore lower prices and healthier, affordable food on the shelves.

Might also push more people to become vegetarian/vegan.

Arla have messed up massively by imposing this on people, but they might still achieve their stated aim by default and its ordinary people and farmers that benefit for a change, instead of. If business (assuming they don’t tie up the organic food production market!)

Where is the downside? 🤷🏾‍♀️