The petition is calling for the Prime Minister to scrap the National Fallen Stock Scheme. It wants reinstatement of on farm burial as a green initiative because it makes far more sense, environmentally.

It already has more than 250 signatures, but predictions say it will rapidly gain unanimous support from across the farming sector.

The petition says that when an animal dies on a farm the farmer buries because it is the quickest, greenest and most biosecure method of disposal. But as of last year, when one farm animal died on a unit, as occurs in any population naturally, a man then had to drive 60 miles or more to collect it, then 100 miles or more to the nearest crematorium, which uses gas, to incinerate the carcase.

“For a chicken worth £3.60 in the supermarket we burn over 100 miles of petrol, burn the gas for incineration and transport a dead animal miles from the place where it lived and died," says the group.

"Apart from the associated biosecurity risks, we must consider the energy used for this scheme and the amount needed to print the numerous forms that all have to be completed, transported, read and filed."

It says that if the Government is serious about green issues then it will act quickly to repeal this senseless, expensive law.

To sign the petition click here