Intensive livestock farms fail to declare climate impacts in ‘emissions scandal’ | Environment

Intensive livestock “megafarm” plans are omitting crucial climate impacts, it can be revealed.

Last year, campaigners celebrated the “beginning of the end” of polluting industrial agriculture, after the Supreme Court’s landmark Finch ruling on a Surrey oil well confirmed that applications for major developments should take into account all significant direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

However, a review of 35 development projects proposed in the UK’s largest agricultural counties since the June 2024 decision found that the applications systematically ignored or downplayed the industry’s carbon footprint.

Research from advocacy group Sustain, which was analyzed by DeSmog and the Guardian, looked at all applications for Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Wales and Northern Ireland that were being considered by local councils between the 2024 decision and September this year.

Farms housing more than 900 sows, 3,000 pigs, 60,000 hens for eggs or 85,000 chickens for meat are required to provide information on expected environmental impacts under UK law when applying for planning permission.

The applications reviewed were mainly submitted by UK-based agricultural companies, but some came from large meat producers, including Crown Chicken, a subsidiary of Cranswick, which is one of the largest meat companies in Europe and slaughters almost 60 million poultry a year. Cranswick was responsible for three million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2024.

If all applications considered were accepted for development, an additional 30,000 pigs and almost five million chickens would be raised across England, Northern Ireland and Wales, representing more than 37 million additional animals raised in the UK each year.

Intensive pig and poultry farming are major emitters of methane and nitrogen oxide, powerful greenhouse gases that cause about 30 and 300 times more global warming than carbon dioxide, respectively, over a 100-year period. According to Sustain estimates, if all applications analyzed were approved, this could generate around 634,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions per year, the equivalent of 488,000 round-trip flights from London to New York.

None of the 35 applications provided figures for likely emissions from the farm, despite councils being required to consider climate damage in their planning decisions. Government policies say local planning should support the country’s goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

The findings come as the number of intensive farms increases across Europe, with more than 1,500 industrial-scale pig and poultry farms operating in the UK.

“Vital information is being hidden from councils and the public,” said Ruth Westcott, campaign director at Sustain.

“It is clear that food companies do not want to admit the pollution they are causing, as this could impact whether they are allowed to expand and make more profits at the expense of our communities,” she added. “It’s an emissions scandal.”

Municipalities are facing growing pressure from residents to deny building permits to companies that fail to rigorously assess climate impacts.

In April, following public pressure, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council refused planning permission for the Methwold megafarm which would have housed almost 900,000 chickens and pigs, partly because of its lack of climate assessment – making it the first known refusal on these grounds.

Breckland Town Council, in Norfolk, also refused planning permission for the Cherry Farm in October, partly because it had failed to provide an updated environmental impact assessment, including “project-specific carbon emissions”. The farm – which is owned by Wayland Farms, also a Cranswick subsidiary – was forced to seek retrospective approval for construction that had already been completed. Local residents had complained about the “stench” after its expansion in 2019.

Asked about the lack of climate data in its applications, Cranswick declined to comment.

In total, four of the applications reviewed have been refused so far, three of which were submitted by Cranswick.

However, other councils in Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire approved six farms which provided no specific information on their climate impacts over the past 12 months, the study found.

Councils which responded to requests for comment said they had complied with planning rules and were unable to comment on individual planning applications.

More than half (57%) of the planning applications considered were for extensions and major alterations, and the remainder were for new farms.

Jan Palmer – a resident of the village of Methwold in Norfolk who campaigned against the Cranswick megafarm which was refused planning permission in April – called for a closer look at the impacts of the proposed farms.

“These are industrial developments. It’s called industrial agriculture, and it generates industrial emissions,” she said. “If my application to register a local megafarm had not been so fiercely contested, and by so many people, it would have slipped through the system like so many others do – quietly and without scrutiny, but with devastating consequences.

Companies seeking permission for any large-scale development – ​​from highways and oil and gas extraction sites to intensive farms – are required to carry out environmental impact assessments showing the likely effects of developments on biodiversity, climate and other environmental factors.

Requests for intensive livestock farming routinely include information on issues such as air pollutants and unpleasant odors, the study found. However, the vast majority of applications neglected climate impacts.

Of the applications reviewed, 35% only mentioned farm operations in passing, while 55% did not mention these climate impacts at all.

Major projects must assess all “significant environmental impacts” under UK planning law. Lawyers said few cases have so far tested the threshold for significant climate impact from farms in court, but given intensive farming’s well-documented emissions, applications could face increasing challenges in coming years.

“When companies fail to assess their climate impacts, they can expose themselves to legal action,” said Ricardo Gama, environmental lawyer at Leigh Day Solicitors. “Agriculture has been under the radar on a lot of these issues, but I think that’s changing. »

In the past year, six local councils granted permission to applications that contained no assessment of likely farm emissions, as well as one council that granted permission to a farm after only passing discussion, the study found.

Planning authorities have a duty to consider all relevant environmental impacts before granting permission, according to legal experts.

Although applicants propose which environmental impacts should be assessed as part of planning applications, it is the council’s legal responsibility to ensure that all significant effects are covered and adequate information about them is provided before granting planning permission.

“When the council, inspector or secretary of state considers granting a building permit, climate impacts must be weighed in the balance,” Gama said. “I think the advice approach[es] this will change as the public becomes more aware of the climate impact of agriculture.

The research found that environmental assessments also repeatedly failed to discuss emissions that did not come directly from farms. Of the 35 applications reviewed, only one included information on the farm’s likely emissions from animal feed – the largest source of greenhouse gases for large livestock and poultry.

The majority of pigs and chickens in the UK are fed soya, which is one of the main drivers of deforestation in regions like the Amazon. According to campaign group WWF, Britain’s demand for soya requires more than 1.7 million hectares of land each year – an area larger than Northern Ireland.

An environmental impact assessment of a mega poultry farm expansion currently under consideration in Shropshire – which would take the total number of birds to 350,000 – said carbon dioxide emitted by the development would be offset “due to reduced emissions from transporting poultry meat from elsewhere”.

Transport only accounts for 5-7% of total emissions from chickens raised in the UK.

A Shropshire Council spokesperson said requests were processed “in accordance with [EIA] regulations”, which included consideration of the direct and indirect effects of the proposed development on the environment.