Factory Farming: Fight Back is a joint Sustain and Bertha Foundation campaign that supports grassroots efforts to stand up to industrial livestock farming across the UK. Factory farms are devastating local environments, cruel to animals, and locking us into a broken food system that’s fuelling the climate crisis. We believe that this expansion is happening in part because vital information about the environmental impacts of factory farming is being withheld from the public and decisionmakers.
Campaigners outside Kings Lynn Council building before the Methwold megafarm decision | Credit: Lily O'Mara
Our story so far
Factory farming is expanding fast. Research by Compassion in World Farming found that the number of ‘US style factory farms’ has increased by 20% since 2016. While agribusinesses make record profits, communities are the victims of the destruction and harm these intensive units cause. In bad news for big business, but good news for the planet, communities are fighting back.
Our fight began with Planning for the Planet, a Sustain Alliance campaign to expose how the UK’s planning system is enabling the industrialisation of rural areas, rather than sustainable farming. We found that behind closed doors, cash-strapped councils have felt the pressure to approve huge new developments with almost no environmental oversight, and communities they impact have not had the information and opportunities they are entitled to to defend themselves and their environment.
Local resident campaigning against the Cranswick megafarm | Credit: Lily O'Mara
Our flagship campaign began in Methwold, Norfolk, where a proposed pig factory sparked local resistance. Residents, including those from the Cranswick Objection Group and other committed campaigners, organised, alerted us to flaws in the developer’s application, and forced the issue into the spotlight. After partnering with the Bertha Foundation as part of the 2025 Bertha Challenge on food and farming injustice, we worked with Food Rise and lawyers from Cornerstone Chambers to demonstrate that the application was unlawful – on the grounds that it did not include a full greenhouse gas assessment. As such, the council was unable to assess how the megafarm would impact local and national climate and nature recovery targets.
That campaign also helped uncover serious failures in how these farms are monitored and regulated. Alongside Terry Jermy, local councillor and Labour MP candidate, we exposed pollution risks and environmental permit breaches linked to pig farms across the region. He’s now calling for a full national review of factory farming.
Community residents in Shropshire join a procession to protect rivers from agricultural pollution | Credit: Eamon Bourke
At the same time, we worked with Food Rise and AGtivist to release a hard-hitting exposé of the staggering rate of environmental breaches inside UK’s intensive pig and poultry in the Guardian. Further FOI requests from Terry Jermy found that intensive livestock units had breached their environmental permits over 7000 times in the last 10 years.
We’re building pressure, from the ground up, to stop new factory farms and hold the regulatory system accountable. We want to support councils to use the planning system to enable sustainable farming, not industrial livestock, and we want to help communities have the information and power they need.
What we’re fighting for
- No more factory farms. Full halt on new intensive livestock developments.
- Transparency and accountability in planning and regulation.
- Our regulators and government to enforce and uphold the laws that exist to protect animals, people, and the planet.
- Support for real solutions, like agroecology, local food systems, and fair farming.
More campaigners in Methwold outside the proposed site | Credit: Lily O'Mara
Take action
This is a people-powered, community focused campaign. Here’s how you can get involved:
- Resist a factory farm: Facing a proposal? We’ll support you to take action. Check out our activist toolkit.
- Join the network: Be part of a growing community of local campaigns across the UK.
- Support investigations: Alert us to breaches in your area and support undercover work that holds the industry to account.
- Back legal action: Keep an eye out for opportunities to support us take strategic cases to court.
- Speak up: Email your MP or local councillor, attend a planning meeting, or host a community event.
Factory farm expansion relies on complacence and inaction. We're not giving it either.
Need our help taking on a factory farm? Please get in touch. Let’s get to work!
Contact:
Lily O'Mara - Climate Justice Fellow, Sustain
Ruth Westcott - Campaign Manager, Sustain
Activists in Methwold hold up white banner with black writing that says: NO! NO! NO MEGAFARM!. Credit: Lily O'Mara
Food for the Planet: Helping local authorities to tackle the climate and nature emergency through food.
