Are factory farms infringing our human rights?

This summer, the High Court of Galicia found several government authorities guilty of failing to protect the human rights of citizens in the A Limia region of Spain because they allowed the expansion of polluting factory farming and failed to sucessfully regulate their operations. This judgement deals another blow to an industry that has been accruing heavy losses in the courts. We consider what English authorities should be thinking about in light of this judgement.  

What happened in Galicia?  

The Galicia region has seen a significant expansion in factory farming, and at the same time a severe environmental and public health crisis. The large quantities of manure and slurry from intensive farms in the region was linked to the contamination of local water bodies with nutrients and harmful bacteria. Despite scientific evidence and warnings of the harm caused by the units, local agencies continued to issue new permits, approved planning applications and failed to act on pollution violations. The community eventually took its fight to the courts. 
 
The judgement found in favour of the community on a number of provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Specifically, Articles 2 (the right to life), 3 (the prohibition of torture, including the state’s duty to prevent inhuman treatment by third parties), and 8 (the right to respect for private and family life). The UK is a signatory of the ECHR. Whilst decisions in European courts do not necessarily set legal precedent in the UK, they influence our courts’ interpretation of international treaties, and the Galicia judgement could signal the kind of situation that could constitute a similar breach here. 

The judgement identified the following authorities as having failed in their duty: 

• The Xunta de Galicia: A regional executive authority that has a wide remit as a policymaker and regulator. Its responsibilities include issuing environmental permits (similar to the Environment Agency in the UK), monitoring farm level pollution, enforcing rules and designating pollution sensitive zones. 

• Municipal councils: Have responsibilities for granting planning permission (like local authorities in the UK), as well as monitoring and ensuring the local water supply.

• The Confederación Hidrográfica del Miño-Sil (CHMS): a regulatory body that has oversight of water quality in the Miño-Sil river basin. It has regionalised responsibilities over water quality, which include water quality monitoring, water management and the enforcement of rules. 

The state of factory farming in the UK

It is now broadly accepted that intensive livestock farming is a major source of river and soil pollution in the UK, particularly in the River Wye catchment. The link between factory farming and river pollution has been acknowledged in scientific research, government reports, court cases, and even by the industry itself. The state of our rivers is a national crisis. According to the most recent government data, just 16% of surface waters - rivers, lakes, estuaries - meet "good ecological status" in England. This figure has not improved significantly since 2015.

The industrial livestock industry relies on the spreading of thousands of tonnes of manure to manage the waste produced in intensive, indoor units. In the UK, just ten large agribusinesses are responsible for producing almost double the excrement that is produced by the 10 largest cities in the UK and almost none of these companies have publicly accessible plans for dealing with their waste in a way that would prevent excess spreading and nutrient run-off. Huge quantities of waste, coupled with poor regulatory oversight has been accompanied by frequently violations of environmental rules.

While our nature declines, the number of units being granted planning permission and a licence to operate keeps growing. Between 2016-2023, the number of intensive pig and poultry units increased by 12%. In some areas, the number of factory farm animals has tripled since 2016, with Lincolnshire seeing a huge jump from roughly 10 to 30 million chickens. 

Whose responsibility is preventing pollution in England? 

As in Spain, prevention of pollution is split between agencies in England. The Environment Agency has responsibility for upholding the Water Framework Directive and preventing water pollution. It grants licences and permits (and can withhold them where it feels pollution is severe). It is responsible for checking that the conditions of these permits are upheld properly, and sanctioning companies that pollute. The Environment Agency has already been subject to a legal challenge by ClientEarth and WWF in 2022 for its failure to prevent nitrogen pollution from farms across England and in Herefordshire. 

As with municipal councils in Spain, local planning authorities (normally the district or county council) have responsibility for deciding whether new livestock units should be allowed. They also establish the overall priorities for the area through local plans and supplementary planning documents. Local councils are facing increasing resistance from communities, as well as more and more evidence of the harm industrial units cause in their area. A major factory farm application in Norfolk was refused in April following community pressure and planning permission for a factory farm in Shropshire was overturned through the courts in June.  

What could the case in Spain mean for factory farms in England? 

The remedial measures ordered by the court offer an interesting perspective at the potential consequences for industry and government authorities, should a case be brought here. They are: 

• Immediate action to stop environmental degradation in the Limia river basin and the As Conchas reservoir. This includes monitoring and enforcement of rules, publishing of water quality data and the demarcation of new nitrate vulnerable zones. 

• A moratorium on new or expanded factory farm licenses (pigs, cattle, poultry) in Ourense and A Limia/Baixa Limia, until environmental degradation is reversed. 

• A review of all existing environmental permits granted to factory farms, with scope to revoke licenses where permits are violated. Included within this are environmental inspections of all livestock facilities in the region within 6 months, particularly in relation to slurry storage and manure spreading.  

• Compensation paid out to claimants. 

How should English councils respond? 

The Galicia court ruling is the latest part of a growing case against industrial livestock for public health, our environment, and the law. Councils in England should establish strong local planning policies to ensure that they are supporting genuinely sustainable farming developments and reversing our pollution crisis. Local plans and supplementary planning documents should protect rivers, support forms of farming that further our food security and climate change objectives and be grounded in the simple fact that large polluting projects, like ILUs, must face proper scrutiny.  

If you are a local planning authority, we encourage you to join our Planning for the Planet network. If you and your community are impacted by factory farming, we encourage you to use our Activist toolkit. It will help you to stop new polluting factory farm developments from going ahead. 

In conclusion, congratulations to the communities in Spain who fought factory farming and won. The tide is turning against industrial livestock corporations who have been dumping their waste on our environment. The Galicia judgement may offer new and powerful routes to challenge regulators and councils in England over their negligence in protecting peoples’ fundamental human rights. After decades of campaigning, communities may have finally knocked factory farm corporations onto the backfoot.