silverguide.site –

The government’s intention to relax planning regulations to allow for more industrial chicken units is immensely shortsighted (UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying, 2 April).

These proposals would effectively commit the UK to business as usual for chicken production, one of the least resilient and most cruel farming systems we have. It also shows a worrying lack of ambition for our upcoming UK food strategy and 25-year farming roadmap.

Lower stocking densities are wrongfully used as a justification to relax planning regulations. These are only one very minor improvement to the shockingly poor welfare of chickens housed in these industrial units across the UK. Furthermore, the fast-growing, low-welfare breeds we use rely solely on the import of soy for feed – the only grain they can be fed. This leaves it vulnerable to trade disruption, something we are all too aware of right now with the conflict in Iran.

It is already clear that industrial chicken farming is unsustainable long term, with frequent disease outbreaks, energy price hikes and extreme weather like heatwaves and flooding. This is causing major issues for the industry and further lowering welfare standards for chickens that are already living in substandard conditions. This move around planning also flies in the face of the local communities that have been raising their voices in opposition to the ever-growing number of industrial chicken units. Objections to recent planning applications have succeeded, and local groups are even taking producers and retailers to court for the environmental damage they cause.

The government must urgently stop short-term thinking and instead cap the number of industrial units and put in place the building blocks for nature-friendly farming such as agroforestry and regenerative farming to create a truly resilient, high-welfare and equitable future for farming in the UK.
Ruth Tanner
UK country director, World Animal Protection