A Dairy Story has launched Join the Moovement, a global pledge campaign inviting people to sign their support for cow-with-calf dairy and add their pin to a live map on the film’s website.
The campaign launched on 29 April 2026. Within hours, hundreds of people across 19 countries had signed the pledge, making visible a groundswell of public support for a system in which dairy cows and calves remain together rather than being separated shortly after birth.
The pledge map was developed in response to a query asking about evidence of public support for change in the dairy industry. When the film team joined with Rainton Farm for a meeting with Scottish Government policy officials, the officials asked where the evidence was that members of the public had concerns about the early separation of dairy cows from their calves. The question revealed a visibility gap whereby strong public feeling existed, but had no visible form.
“We realised that the demand for change was real but invisible,” said Lorna Young, Producer of A Dairy Story. “The pledge map changes that. Every pin is a person saying that cow-with-calf dairy should be the new normal, and that’s evidence we can take into conversations with cinema programmers, policy makers, and the farming industry.”
The map, built on the A Dairy Story website, allows signers to choose whether to display their first name and an optional message alongside their pin, or to remain anonymous. Messages from early signers reflect the depth of feeling the campaign has already gathered. “This is a moovement whose time has come. Better for the cows, better for us, better for the earth,” wrote one signatory. “It is natural for calves to be with their mothers,” wrote another. “This needs to be the norm across the industry.”
Among those who have pledged is Kevin McSweeney of Five Freedoms Dairy in Colorado, one of a growing network of cow-with-calf dairy farmers in the United States. “I own a calf-at-foot dairy,” he wrote. “It is the most beautiful thing to see.”
A Dairy Story is currently on the international film festival circuit, with screenings confirmed at DocLands in California this weekend, Jersey International Film Festival in May, where a Q&A will be led by India Thompson, who is establishing her own cow-with-calf dairy on the island, and Unisphere International Film Festival in New York, the film’s seventh US festival selection. A UK theatrical launch is anticipated from mid-June 2026.
The pledge map is live now at adairystory.com/join-moovement.
What you told us
Audiences told us they left A Dairy Story feeling inspired. Over half were new to the cinema they saw it in, and nine in ten would go back.
Audience survey launched as community screenings approach
A one-week audience survey has been launched alongside the film’s published distribution plan, ahead of community screening bookings opening on 18 October.
The Distribution Plan
As our festival run ends, find out where A Dairy Story is on its distribution journey, including roughly when it will be available for community screenings in the UK and around the world.