UK livestock industry slams new environmental report

The UK livestock industry has criticised a new report about the industry’s impact on water quality and pollution levels in the British countryside. An independent report, commissioned by The Wildlife Trust, found that the scale of intensive production, often concentrated into “hotspot” areas was huge.

The report, called Quantifying the environmental risks from pig and poultry production in the UK, said that current legislation is often insufficient to manage the potential impacts of production. Waste from pig and poultry production is about 10.4 million m3 per year in the UK. The high level of nutrients found in the excreta makes it hard to use this waste sustainably, the report said.

More than a third of the UK’s total wheat crop is grown for pig and poultry consumption and the fertiliser and pesticide use associated with producing a high output crop risks more pollution and greater pressure on UK wildlife.

The report, produced by consultant Cumulus, revealed that more than half of England’s poultry are located in just 10 council areas while the majority of UK pig production is even more concentrated – located in just 5 local authorities. Such intensive production places a significant risk of large levels of highly concentrated waste accumulating in rivers and the environment.

Zooming in on the pig situation, the report said that pig units are located throughout the UK, but are often highly geographically concentrated. For example, of the 1,772 registered specialist pig holdings in England, 30% were in Yorkshire and Humberside, 26% were in the Eastern region, and 14% were in the South West. 15% of England’s breeding pig population is located in just one council area – North Yorkshire County Council. In Northern Ireland, just 2 district councils contain 66% of the pig breeding herd and 69% of the finishing herd.

A similar analysis was also conducted for the poultry industry. If left unabated, the report said, such high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous have negative impact on both water quality and wildlife.

In stating that more than 500,000 ha of land is used to grow the feedstocks required for pigs and poultry in the UK, the report identified another environmental impact. Those feedstocks are often grown using pesticides, fertilisers and practices which can impact soils, rivers and wildlife.

Whilst environmental groups applauded the report, the National Pig Association chief executive Lizzie Wilson rebutted the claims: “The pig sector is, by way of various environmental legislation, including environmental permitting, one of the most highly regulated sectors within agriculture,” she said.

Along with the poultry sector, she said the pig sector was responsible for just 2 pollution incidents last year, out of a total of 77 throughout the whole of agriculture. While grain was a significant component of pig feed, Ms Wilson said the sector also used more than 1 million tons annually of by- and co-products from the human food supply chain, which constituted about 44% of the total ration fed.

The British Poultry Council also rejected the report’s findings. Chief executive Richard Griffiths said the accusations were disingenuous: “They show a lack of understanding of how we feed the nation, from an organisation that would see the country go hungry for its ideology.

“The impact on wildlife and the environment are crucial considerations in all our activities; they are supported by science and regulated by government experts. This include the use of manure, the majority of which is used in power generation and the remainder as a valuable fertiliser for farmland.”

Tags: water quality, UK, Poultry, Production, pig, environmental, livestock sector