Why we made the Activist toolkit

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.

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.

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

1. No more factory farms. Full halt on new intensive livestock developments.
2. Transparency and accountability in planning and regulation.
3. Our regulators and government to enforce and uphold the laws that exist to protect animals, people, and the planet.
4. Support for real solutions, like agroecology, local food systems, and fair farming.

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!