US-style mega-farms in Herefordshire face tough new regulations after high court ruling
Industrial poultry farms face tough new regulations around the disposal of chicken manure after a judge ruled it can be classified as waste and requires a detailed and transparent plan to dispose of it without damaging the environment. The high court ruling means new US-style mega-farms in Herefordshire will have to deal with poultry manure as if it was industrial waste. The ruling has implications for industrial chicken units all over the country. It comes as the English and Welsh governments announced £1m in funding to investigate the devastating pollution of the River Wye, where about 23m chickens are being produced in the river catchment at any one time. The health of the river, which flows for 155 miles from mid-Wales to the Severn estuary in England, has been downgraded by Natural England from “unfavourable-improving” to “unfavourable-declining”, meaning its condition is poor and worsening. Its decline has been linked to intensive chicken farming in the catchment from the spreading of poultry manure, which contains high levels of phosphate, on to fields, which then leaches into the river. Studies have shown 70% of the phosphate in the River Wye catchment comes from agriculture, although not all is chicken-related. One study recommended an 80% reduction in poultry manure in the Wye catchment to protect the river and called for a cut in the overall number of birds and for the exporting of manure out of the area.
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