MPs brought face to face with the human cost of factory farming

This week residents from across the UK – including factory farm hotspots Shropshire, the Wye Valley, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk – and from as far away as Edinburgh, Cornwall, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, came to Westminster to deliver a clear message against factory farming.

Many had never met their MP before. They explained first hand the harms faced by communities across the country and urged their representatives to stand up against plans to expand the industry, and to back farmers instead.

A day to celebrate

The energy in Parliament was incredible. Around 30 MPs sat down with their constituents to hear their stories. Hundreds more wrote to their MPs in advance or on the day. Our cross-party MP hosts spoke passionately about their commitment to working together for a better future for farming, and after speaking to their constituents many MPs said they were keen to offer their time to support the cause.

Above all, the day showed the power of people speaking up for their communities.

“Why would anyone want more of these units?”

The most powerful testimonies came from those living near industrial livestock units. Ann Cuthbert lives beside an intensive pig facility in Stow Bedon, Norfolk. She told the room in Westminster:

“Living next to an intensive pig farm housing up to 6,990 pigs is hell. We never know when the next wave of pollution and dust will arrive. During severe episodes, we experience overpowering ammonia-like odours, burning eyes and breathing difficulties. We also hear the distressing screams of pigs, even at night. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

Jen Davey’s family runs an organic farm near Wragby, Lincolnshire, where a new megafarm is planned:

“A massive new facility is planned in our village and we are furious about the harm it’s going to cause. Our family’s organic farm, which includes a 150-year old orchard, is at risk from the toxic chemicals that would be released. I dread to think what this will do to our health and I can’t believe the government wants to see this across the UK. We must stand up, this isn’t farming and it isn’t the kind of future we want.”

A plan written by industry

The lobby came just days after we learned that the Government’s plan to expand industrial poultry is being drawn up by the industry itself. Answering a written question from Kerry McCarthy MP, Defra minister Stephen Morgan confirmed the plan is “being developed by industry”, with the Government acting as a ‘convenor’, and so far without the public being consulted.

An industry report recently called for more than 7,000 new poultry sheds and fast-tracked planning approvals.

As one attendee noted, expanding intensive chicken production makes no sense in 2026. It can’t be squared with the Environment Act target to cut farm pollution in our rivers by 40% by 2038. Expanding poses a risk to future food supplies by locking the UK into high-emissions food production and diets, which undermines the very resources we need to produce food, including water, healthy soils and the climate. It’s against the Climate Change Committee’s advice that we need to eat around a quarter less meat by 2040.

Industrial livestock production also increases our reliance on imported feed, including soy from South America, at a time when the Government’s own national security assessment warns that UK food supplies are at risk from ecological collapse, and that the UK does not have enough land to feed its population and rear livestock.

Attendees urged their MPs to back a better plan for farming, one that ensures that farmers get a good income from producing healthy, UK-grown food like pulses, legumes, nuts, fruit and vegetables. They backed Foodrise’s asks for:

• A different poultry plan, built around farmers and food resilience, with fair contracts and support to move to higher-welfare production and to grow more vegetables, pulses and beans.
• Revise outdated planning policy to treat factory farms as industrial development, rather than agriculture, reflecting the scale and nature of these operations.
• Nitrogen budgets for every river catchment, so we stop approving new units where rivers are already polluted.

Read our full briefing for MPs.

Thank you

A huge thank you to our hosts, Terry Jermy MP, Adrian Ramsay MP and Wera Hobhouse MP. Thank you to our partners Communities Against Factory Farming, River Action and Project Slingshot. And thank you to everyone who took the time to write to their MP, travel to Westminster or meet in their constituency.

Every story told made a difference and this is just the beginning. We’ll keep working with MPs, and with communities, until we end industrial animal production for good.

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