Animal Rebellion protesters target largest dairy factory in the UK
31st August 2021
In the early hours of this morning, protestors occupied the distribution dairy factory of Arla Foods, the multinational company which is one of the largest manufacturers of dairy in the world.
Credit: Animal Rebellion.
Around 50 activists have been camped out at Arla’s dairy factory in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, since 5am this morning. Thirty activists are locked onto bamboo structures and concrete barricades, while others are lying in the road in an attempt to prevent the distribution lorries from leaving. Animal Rebellion is demanding that Arla go plant-based by 2025 and supports a transition for its workers.
Multinational company Arla is one of the largest manufacturers of dairy in the world. The factory provides 10% of the milk supply for the UK with 150 vehicles delivering raw milk each day and 1.1 billion litres being produced every year.
Thames Valley officers are urging people to avoid the area and have put a road closure in place on the A41 to manage traffic. Police are at the scene and have confirmed it may take several hours to remove the protesters, as they will require the help of a specialist removal team.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said: “Thames Valley Police officers are at the site of a protest outside the Arla dairy factory in Aylesbury.
“At 5:17am this morning reports were received that a number of protestors had gathered and blocked the entrance to the dairy. Officers attended the scene within minutes.”
The police are using angle grinders to dismantle the bamboo structures this afternoon, and the first arrests have been made.
Activist James Ozden said: “There’s a pretty huge queue of backlog lorries on both sides. It’s definitely quite inconvenient and there are a lot of workers out here milling around because they don’t have anything to do.
“There are no HGVs or milk product lorries coming in and out of Arla today.”
He added: “If we are going to address the climate crisis then we need to have a major shift from animal-based food products to plant-based. We are calling for an urgent transition.”
A spokesperson for Arla said: “As a cooperative owned by farmers we are committed to producing dairy for the UK in the most sustainable way possible. We already make raw milk with around half the average emissions of dairy globally and intend to be carbon net-zero by 2050.
“We are working with the police to limit the impact of this demonstration to both our customers and those living locally to the site.
“We have managed to complete our morning shift change over and all colleagues are safe, however, access to the site for our larger vehicles is being blocked. We are working to manage the impact of this.”
Only last month, Arla had to cut back on deliveries due to the country-wide lorry driver shortage and more recently it was asked to stop sending milkshake mix to McDonald’s because of supply-chain issues attributed to the pandemic and Brexit.
The Buckinghamshire protest is part of two weeks of direct action led by climate activists Extinction Rebellion, which have so far shut down parts of central London and led to hundreds of arrests.
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