NFU president Peter Kendall has said he believes the UK should build mega-farms of the type seen in the United States. He said the government should encourage such units in order to achieve national food security, as Britain is currently only 62 per cent self-sufficient. 

Kendall said the UK needs mega-farms housing tens of thousands of animals to maintain affordable food production and high standards of animal welfare. Speaking in The Guardian, he said “The challenge of feeding everybody with the constraints of climate change and weather shocks is so great we'll need a complete rethink.”

The union president was responding to findings from the AHDB which suggest that land constraints facing China are as much of a problem in Britain; this country is home to only 5 per cent of China’s population, but has less than 3 per cent of its land area. However, whereas around 70 per cent of land in the UK is given over to agricultural purposes, of China’s 1.4km2 of arable land, only 1.2 per cent (116,580km2) is permanently farmed and 525,800km2 is irrigated. Furthermore, much of China faces problems including depleted aquifers which have led to reductions in production in recent years, a problem the UK does not currently face.

Average farm size is on the increase in the UK and across Europe, though farms of the scale seen in the United States and Saudi Arabia are practically non-existent. Livestock production in the country is declining and food policy experts have urged governments around the world to encourage more sustainable dietary patterns, including reducing meat and dairy consumption, to achieve global food security in the face of population increases and climate change.

Nevertheless, Mr Kendall gave his support for large-scale operations such as those being planned in Derbyshire and Powys, which would hold 25,000 pigs and 1,000 cows respectively. An AHDB report into mega-farms, conducted in March, concluded ambiguously that the model’s impacts can be “both good and bad for animal welfare and the environment.”

However, as well being viewed with extreme hostility by the British public, such farms have critics in the industry who claim that increased antibiotics use necessitated by intensive indoor rearing has implications for growing resistance to medicines. Critics also claim that the mega-farm model carries an unacceptable environmental footprint and will result in overconsumption; barriers to mega-farm proposals in the UK have included concerns over waste produced by the farms and increases in water use needed for such intensive production.

Rural groups who oppose scaling-up farms have warned the mega-farm model will lead to a ‘go bigger or go bust’ mentality, as has happened with dairy production in the United States, affecting the UK's smaller farmers and impacting on rural life.

Kendall puts forward environmental case

However, Kendall suggested that, as larger units are more profitable, agricultural companies involved are able to afford better equipment and expertise, enabling them to boost animal welfare, reduce environmental impact and hire dedicated veterinarians. Although proponents of large-scale farms have pointed out that the model has benefits, including using waste to create renewable energy, animal welfare groups including Compassion in World Farming have said that rearing animals outdoors has environmental benefits and larger units, which do not often employ many more workers, make it more difficult to identify and treat sick and injured animals.

Despite expressing support for the model, Mr Kendall did not commit wholly; he said "This is about a few experimental versions, so we can see whether it lowers greenhouse gas emissions, see whether it's welfare friendly, see what the impacts are on the environment."

In countries around the world which have scaled up production, inherent problems have been associated with the mega-farm model; a 22,126km2 ‘dead zone’ in the Gulf of Mexico is the result of eutrophication caused by waste from huge CAFOs operating in the Midwest.

In Chile, government intervention was necessitated last week after locals blockaded the road leading to a pig farm with a capacity of half a million animals, forcing staff to evacuate. The evacuation resulted in thousands of animals dying and led the waste treatment unit to overflow, threatening drinking water in the area.

Although Agrisuper, the Chilean company which owned the farm, said its operation meant pigs did not have to be transported to slaughter, providing welfare and environmental benefits, locals living near the farm rioted after nine months of unheeded complaints that fumes from the plant were causing sickness and headaches. The government elected to close the plant. Similar problems have been reported at the company’s other large-scale farms in Chile, where chickens and pigs are reared.

Last year plans for an 8,000 cow dairy in Lincolnshire were rejected over concerns of water pollution to an aquifer supplying drinking water to Lincoln, though two more large-scale sites are currently being considered elsewhere in the UK.

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