A 2017 snapshot

The rise of the Megafarm: How British Meat is Made a report from 2017

• Giant US style - now nearly 800 of these throughout the UK The UK is now home to at least 789 mega farms or what the US calls CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) To meet the definition of a CAFO, a facility must have at least 125,000 broilers (chickens raised for meat), or 82,000 layers (hens which produce eggs) or pullets (chickens used for breeding), or 2,500 pigs, 700 dairy cattle or 1,000 beef cattle

• The majority of the UK mega farms 575 are poultry, with 190 pig, 21 dairy and 3 beef units Seven of the 10 largest poultry farms producing meat or eggs or both in the UK have the capacity to house more than one million birds The biggest two farms can hold 1.7 million and 1.4 million birds respectively The biggest pig farm is able to hold 23,000 pigs, while the largest cattle farm in Lincolnshire can house approximately 3,000 cattle

• Most animals are confined indoors

• In Herefordshire, intensively farmed animals outnumber the human population by 88 to one

• The two biggest farms we have recorded have the capacity to house 1.7 million and 1.4 million chickens apiece

• The majority of Britain’s poultry meat is produced by a handful of large companies including Faccenda, Moy Park, Cargill, 2 Sisters and Banham Poultry all of which are privately owned Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda, McDonalds, and Nando’s are among the supermarkets and fast food chains who source meat from companies operating mega farms.

• Most permit holding intensive farms 86 in the UK are poultry farms The majority of the UK’s megafarms are poultry units

• Growing free range and organic chickens requires a lot of space about 4 sq metres per animal for organic birds Intensive farms typically have about 15 chickens per sq metre, or an area about the size of an A 4 sheet of paper for each bird

• While demand for free range e g gs has risen substantially in the last two decades, free range and organic chicken still only accounts for a tiny proportion of the market just 3 and 1 respectively According to CIWF there are nearly 17 million factory farmed animals in Herefordshire, 15 million in Shropshire and 12 million in Norfolk

• It sounds like a space saving idea but this ignores the fact that vast amounts of land are used elsewhere to grow food for them often in huge crop fields doused in chemical pesticides and fertilisers squeezing wildlife out, as industrial farming methods sweep the plane

• Most permit holding intensive farms 86 in the UK are poultry farms The majority of the UK’s megafarms are poultry units

• Growing free range and organic chickens requires a lot of space about 4 sq metres per animal for organic birds Intensive farms typically have about 15 chickens per sq metre, or an area about the size of an A4 sheet of paper for each bird

• While demand for free range eggs has risen substantially in the last two decades, free range and organic chicken still only accounts for a tiny proportion of the market just 3 and 1 respectively According to CIWF there are nearly 17 million factory farmed animals in Herefordshire, 15 million in Shropshire and 12 million in Norfolk

• It sounds like a space saving idea but this ignores the fact that vast amounts of land are used elsewhere to grow food for them often in huge crop fields doused in chemical pesticides and fertilisers squeezing wildlife out, as industrial farming methods sweep the planet

• Industrial scale farming also produces huge amounts of manure, carcasses, silage and dirty water, all of which can have significant environmental impacts even when disposed of properly

• As intensive farms have spread, small farms have closed down About 4,000 farms closed between 2010 and 2016 according to the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs, of which three quarters were in the smallest category (less than 20 hectares of land) The number of big farms those with more than 100 hectares remained constant

• Only 12 counties now host no pig or poultry farms classified as by the Environment Agency.

By 2020 things had NOT improved