Dairy farmers were been targeted by “vegan activists” after taking part in a documentary on the milk industry.
The Ethical Dairy was featured on an episode of BBC’s Panorama looking at whether animal welfare is being compromised to keep milk prices low.
At the farm at Rainton near Gatehouse, calves are kept with their mothers to suckle. On the programme, David Finlay – who runs the farm with wife Wilma – spoke about the benefits that approach brings both the animals and the business which produces award winning cheese.
However, Wilma has revealed that while they were “comfortable” with how the farm was represented on the show, their involvement has led to “attacks on our social media by vegan activists”.
In a blog published following the programme being broadcast last week, Wilma wrote: “I have written previously that had life taken a different path for me and I had never met David, then I would now, almost certainly, be vegan.
“And so I will never criticise anyone for being vegan. I know that for many people adopting a vegan lifestyle is a sign of concerned citizens wanting to make a difference.
“I also know that around 20 per cent of our customers are vegan or plant-based and buy our cheese for their non-vegan family members, often children. Some of the most heartfelt comments and messages we receive on social media are from vegans.
“However, we have had to ban a few individuals from our Facebook page this past week and that’s something we have never done before, so I wanted to explain why.
“We can handle criticism of us. We notice and value the strong debate that frequently takes place in the comments of our posts – debating the merits of different systems of food production and of dietary choices is a good thing and we don’t interfere with those conversations.
“What we do have a problem with is activists targeting individuals in an organised way through our social media channels.
“We believe that people have a right to express how they feel without facing hostility or abuse from others. This has happened a couple of times in the past week, and where we have noticed it, we have taken action.”
The post added that after the programme, a number of people had been keen to find out what goes on at The Ethical Dairy which has won awards for its efforts to tackle climate change, to the extent the couple have decided to stop joking about plans to put their story in a book and start writing it.
