Chris Platt: Protecting rural Britain means saying no to factory farming

Chris Platt, Co-Founder of Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.

Across Britain, our villages and rural communities are increasingly under threat from a new wave of industrial farming. Applications to build factory farms – sometimes housing tens of thousands of animals at a time – are appearing with increasing frequency before local councils.

Developers present them as engines of rural growth, bringing jobs, investment, and supposedly helping “feed the nation.” But when you look beyond the glossy applications, the reality is starkly different. Factory farming blights the communities it lands in, erodes the countryside, and undermines the values we as Conservatives should be defending local accountability, community resilience, and support for traditional British farmers.

Local councillors and planning committee members are on the frontline of this issue. They ultimately hold the power to scrutinise these applications – and, where necessary, reject them in defence of their residents.

Factory farming is an intensive method of raising farmed animals that maximises production at the expense of animal welfare and community wellbeing. Chickens, pigs, and cattle are crammed into sheds for most – if not all – of their short lives. These industrial-scale units are not farms in any traditional sense, but processing plants designed to churn out meat at the lowest possible cost.

Today, around 85 per cent of the 1.2 billion animals slaughtered every year in the UK are raised in such systems. This rapid shift away from traditional farming practices has created consequences that reach far beyond the farm gate.

Those who live near these developments know all too well the cost. In Stow Bedon, Norfolk, villagers have endured the stench of ammonia from an intensive pig unit housing 7,000 pigs. Residents report nosebleeds, headaches, and breathing problems, with the smell so overpowering they can no longer sit in their gardens. One healthcare professional told the Daily Mail: “If you eat outside the food can taste like pig excrement. Sometimes it can be so strong it’s difficult to breathe when walking near the site.”

In Westhall, Suffolk, locals have suffered a different misery since a 40,000-bird chicken unit began operating. Every summer, swarms of flies infest homes, forcing residents to sleep under nets and keep windows closed during hot weather. Local councillor Beth Keys-Holloway warned that the mental health of residents is being damaged, describing the swarms as “horrendous” and “not normal countryside life.”

These stories matter because they illustrate the truth: factory farming does not merely affect the animals inside. It transforms village life for everyone around it – degrading the environment, harming health, and undermining the rural character people value.

Proponents argue that intensive farms create jobs and drive growth. Yet the figures tell a different story. Chicken production does not create many good jobs – one worker can manage 100,000 chickens, inspecting the sheds daily to remove dead birds and cull unhealthy ones. That is a pitiful return for communities asked to put up with all the associated downsides.

Worse still, these developments undercut the small-scale, higher-welfare farmers who form the backbone of our rural economy. These family farms, often passed down through generations, cannot compete with the economies of scale achieved by industrial farm animal units. The result is fewer opportunities for local farmers, hollowed-out rural economies, and the slow replacement of proud British farming traditions with corporate agribusiness.

For councillors committed to supporting local enterprise, the choice is clear: factory farms do not strengthen local economies – they undermine them.

Factory farms are also a threat to wider public health. Globally, around 70 per cent of all antimicrobials are used in rearing farmed animals, largely to prevent the disease outbreaks inevitable in such cramped conditions. This reckless overuse accelerates antimicrobial resistance – undermining modern medicine and making routine operations more dangerous.

We should also recall that previous pandemics, such as the 2009 swine flu outbreak, began in areas close to intensive factory farms. The lesson is simple: industrial animal agriculture is not only unpleasant for neighbours; it is a risk to us all.

The environmental case is equally compelling.

Factory farms are the single largest contributor of ammonia pollution in the UK, worsening asthma and lung function in adults and children. They are also significant sources of greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide, more potent than carbon dioxide. At a time when we are working towards net zero, do we really want planning committees approving developments that will lock in decades of new emissions?

Factory farming is not the future of British agriculture. It is a threat to our rural heritage, our environment, and our health. Every time a planning application for an intensive farm animal unit comes before a local authority, councillors face a choice.

You can wave it through – and in doing so, sign away the wellbeing of your residents for the sake of minimal economic benefit. Or you can stand up, ask the difficult questions, and, where the answers do not satisfy, reject these applications.

Conservatives have always stood for strong communities, self-reliance, and the protection of our environment. Standing against factory farming is not just consistent with those values – it is essential to uphold them.

It is time for Conservative councillors to lead, to listen to their residents, and to say loudly and clearly: factory farms are not welcome in our communities.