Vegans ramp up farmland buying campaign

A vegan initiative is stepping up a campaign to outbid livestock farmers at land sales.

The Vegan Land Movement (VLM) acts as a buying collective using cash generated by crowdfunding pleas.

The aim is to force livestock farmers out of land acquisitions by offering inflated values.

See also: 2023 challenges facing sheep farmers and how to face them

According to its website, VLM is a community interest company of like-minded people trying to establish vegan principles in food production.

The goal is to remove land from animal agriculture and, instead, rewild it by planting trees and encouraging wildlife species.

The movement says it acts by stealth, operating as an unnamed bidder at sales to avoid any collective competition from others who might not agree with its principles.

Successful bids

It was cited as an unnamed party in a recent sale of rough grazing land in Somerset, where it successfully bid £44,000 for the 2.75ha plot.

The former dairy pasture will now been planted with trees.

In 2020, VLM also bought 1.2ha of dairy farmland in the same county, at Earlake Moor, where tree planting has already begun.

And last year, it purchased further grassland which had planning permission for a free-range poultry unit for 2,500-birds.

In total, the acquisitions have been relatively small, but the profile, backed by anti-farming rhetoric, is gaining momentum with articles appearing in the wider press.    

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