In recent months, we’ve all seen how unchecked sewage is threatening our precious rivers, seas and lakes. But when it comes to the appalling state of UK waters, agriculture is an even bigger culprit.
Big food companies control much of the food we eat and have created a system dominated by large-scale factory farms. And factory farming is on the rise. The number of intensive livestock units in the UK has risen by 12% since 2016, with the largest “megafarms” increasing by 20%.
We’ve teamed up with Sustain and Compassion in World Farming to reveal the shocking extent to which waste is spread from factory farms – creating another growing threat to our waterways.
Explore our muck map to see how your area is affected. And find out why we need a new UK law that requires companies to avoid harm to people and planet in their supply chains.
Explore the muck map
In the absence of adequate monitoring (and in the case of Northern Ireland, the complete lack of an independent regulator), Friends of the Earth, Sustain and Compassion in World Farming have commissioned research that's mapped:
- The likely spread of manure from pig and chicken factory farms across UK land
- The amount of manure and nutrient pollution produced by constituency, local authority and water catchment.
Toggle through the map to find out more about the impact of factory farming, and enter your location to see how much waste from these farms is produced in your area.
Companies behind the pollution
Previous research by Friends of the Earth and Sustain discovered that the 10 largest UK livestock companies are responsible for more waste than the 10 largest UK cities.
2 Sisters, Arla, Avara Foods, Banham, Bernard Matthews, Cranswick, Karro, Moy Park, Noble Foods and Pilgrim's Pride produce up to 55,262 tonnes of animal excreta (slurry and manure) a day – the equivalent of over 120 double decker busloads per hour. And their intensive livestock units are clustered in polluted river catchments including the Wye, the Trent, the Severn, Lough Neagh and the Broadland Rivers catchment.
What’s more, we found that none of the companies have policies to prevent pollution leaking into waterbodies. This raises serious concerns about the lack of regulation for companies that own intensive livestock operations, and how this wild west is hampering the recovery of the UK’s polluted waterways.
How these companies end up in our shopping carts
We found that all the major UK food retailers were sourcing from one or more of the agribusiness companies investigated. This chart shows the links between the chicken and pig companies analysed in our research, the UK’s major retailers and the large conglomerates that act as holding companies.
The meat companies that supply major retailers are often owned by even bigger global giants in a complex chain. For example, Cargill, which controls much of South America’s soy production, is joint owner of Avara, the UK’s third biggest chicken producer. And the world’s largest meat company, Brazil’s JBS, owns US-based Pilgrim's Pride, which in turn owns a host of subsidiaries including Moy Park.
Make companies accountable for the damage they cause
Demand a new UK lawHow's UK factory farming harming people and planet?
Polluting our waterways
Intensive agriculture is the main cause of river pollution incidents in England, threatening wildlife and human health. It’s also linked to the ecological collapse of the River Wye in Wales and Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. Find out more about water pollution.
Suffocating our largest lake
Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the UK and Ireland, has been overrun by enormous swathes of toxic algal blooms, mostly caused by farming run-off. They’ve made the water a major health hazard and are destroying this vital wildlife haven. Find out more about Lough Neagh.
Destroying habitats overseas
The soy that feeds our factory-farmed pigs and chickens is fuelling the destruction of precious habitats in South America. Only 50% of the Brazilian Cerrado’s original vegetation now remains, and reports of landgrabs are common. Global giants like Cargill dominate the production and export of soy, while others like Brazil’s JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, drive cattle expansion. Find out more about how the UK is destroying habitats worldwide.
What needs to happen now?
This isn’t about attacking farmers – quite the opposite. In fact, the power held by large international conglomerates like Cargill and JBS is harming farmers and widening inequality. While the turnover of big food companies is growing, many farmers are struggling to make ends meet, and some receive just 1% of the profits for common foods like cheese, carrots and bread.
So, what are the solutions? The government must prioritise the urgent protection of our waters and wildlife from harmful pollution, whether from factory farms or sewage. And it must stop the harmful activities of UK businesses here and overseas. We’re calling for:
- A new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act to require UK companies to prevent environmental harm and human rights abuses in their supply chains, and to enable affected communities to seek justice if and when harm occurs.
- An immediate halt to both new factory farms and the expansion of existing factory farms in polluted river catchments.
- An independent Environmental Protection Agency in Northern Ireland so that it can operate without ministerial interference. (Currently, the environmental regulator sits inside the government Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK without an independent agency.)
- Fair opportunities supported by government for farmers to transition to more sustainable farming, including producing less and better meat and dairy.
