The Ethical Dairy in at Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries and Galloway south west Scotland has launched a crowdfunder to help prove the viability of the low-intensity dairy farming model being piloted on their farm at Rainton.
The crowdfunder is to support the costs of transitioning to this radically different farming model that addresses consumer concerns over dairy calves and welfare. It has been launched after talks with potential ethical investors stalled.
David Finlay said:
“Because we are tenant farmers we have little security to offer traditional lenders so we have been exploring bringing an investor into the business for a couple of years. We were assured by advisors that an ethical investor would be in place by the end of last month, but frustratingly that hasn’t happened.
“At the same time we have also been approached by members of the public who have indicated that they want to help us prove this model faster. So we have launched a crowdfunding campaign.
“Our goal is to prove that cow with calf dairy farming can be viable at a commercial scale and we are making good progress towards this. There are several reasons why we need to increase investment at this time and the key reason is that demand for our products is greater than we expected, which means we need to speed up our long term plans, which means increasing investment in production facilities faster than anticipated.
“Since we want to share our model freely with other farmers and since our goal is to prove this concept works, not make massive profits, it would seem we are a poor fit with traditional investors. So we are inviting members of the public to contribute directly to helping us prove this model.”
The Ethical Dairy was awarded FPMCG funding recently to help finance new cheese making facilities to enable production to be increased by a factor of ten. However, the business will need to pay the full costs of this up front, reclaiming grant support retrospectively. The purpose of the crowdfunder is to support cashflow during this process.
David Finlay added:
“We have pulled together a fairly quirky selection of rewards, everything from being a cheese testing champion to an on-pack sponsor to special events, and of course lots of cheese related rewards. The crowdfunder has been launched in the spirit of providing a way for people who support what we are doing to contribute directly to it.”
The Ethical Dairy brand was launched in March and is the culmination of 10 years of development and planning by the Finlays to create a sustainable food production system based on ecological farming principles. The approach has met with widespread support from members of the public and the food industry.
The crowdfunder can be accessed at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/theethicaldairy
More information about The Ethical Dairy and its products can be found at www.theethicaldairy.co.uk on Twitter on @theethicaldairy and on Facebook @EthicalDairy
