From Wicked Leeks

Earlier this year, Wicked Leeks brought you the story of poo, pollution and profits: how the UK’s intensive poultry industry has become a runaway train that was killing our rivers. Since then, the slope has grown even more slippery.

“We are at ‘peak poultry’,” says Ruth Westcott, a campaigner with Sustain, who has been tracking this issue for years. “We think it’s the large agribusinesses that are to blame. They need strict regulation, in the same way government is proposing to regulate sewage companies.”

Credit: Paul Groom Photograph

Six months on and Westcott and her allies at Friends of the Earth and Compassion in World Farming have published a sequel to this ‘storm’. Their new ‘muck map’ reveals the areas of the UK that are most at risk of nutrient pollution from manure produced by factory farms – these are the ones with more than 40,000 birds or 2,000 pigs and as such are classed as ‘intensive’ by the government, requiring an environmental permit to operate.

Using government data and farmland maps, the campaigners determined the probability of muck being spread across the UK (this was calculated using average distances that manure is exported to farmers, combined with the manure produced by each factory farm). You can use the map to zoom into your local area, but the overall picture is mucky, to say the least.

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