The unfinished story of a dying river

This guest blog is part of a series intended as a dedicated space for the many global movements/campaigns around the globe confronting ecosystem destruction to share their stories, narratives and perspectives.

This guest blog was written by Soil Association Campaign Policy Advisor, Cathy Cliff.

On the 12th March 2024 the Soil Association launched Stop Killing our Rivers, a campaign calling for urgent government action to address the impact of intensive chicken farming on precious UK rivers.

The River Wye (rising as the Afon Gwy in Wales) flows for 155 miles from the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales to the Severn Estuary in the west of England. In 2020, a thick algal bloom extended along the river for more than 140 miles, killing much of the life beneath the surface. The bloom was caused by eutrophication – nutrients, primarily phosphates from the waste of industrially farmed chickens, had washed into the waters, causing rapid algae growth, starving the river of oxygen. Intensive agricultural activity had added to the pressures facing the river from other sources of pollution, such as sewage. For all the existing legal protections in place, the Wye was struggling to survive.

“Unfavourable-declining”

In 2023, the River Wye’s status was downgraded by Natural England to “unfavourable-declining” due to declines in key species that should be protected by its designation as a Special Area of Conservation under the Habitats and Species Regulations.

Phosphate pollution is a particular concern in the catchment, with excess phosphate in local soils resulting from the spreading of livestock manure running off into the river and causing algal blooms which remove oxygen from the water and block out sunlight, killing natural biodiversity.

Phosphate levels have been at dangerously high levels in the Wye for several decades, but it’s a rapidly growing poultry industry that has proven to be the ‘final straw’. The regulatory authorities in England and Wales have all identified intensive poultry farming as a key source of phosphate pollution.

Chickens are now the most numerous animals farmed in the catchment with more than 20 million birds being farmed at any one time, a quarter of all the UK’s chickens. Broiler or ‘meat’ chickens are produced in particularly high numbers in any one operation, especially when you take into account that the average broiler chicken lives up to only 40 days and there can be around 7 so-called “crops” a year in each unit. Many operations have multiple units.

Huge volumes of manure generated by the chickens in these units are spread on local land and are the source of phosphate pollution in the river.

This situation, where one of our most important conservation sites has been so heavily impacted by the presence of these intensive poultry units, is partly the result of flaws in the planning system. Largely, though, it’s our food system and ineffective regulation that has supported the tragic decline of the river.

Britain’s food system is held up by a consolidated supply chain with international food processing companies and supermarkets pulling the strings and putting pressure on farmers. Prices are kept low with the excuse that consumers want and expect cheap chicken, despite the fact that we pay less than half the price for a chicken today that we paid in 1971 and often for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Existing environmental regulation is clearly failing us, leaving a gap in both domestic and international criminal law where nature should be protected. But things could have been very different had an international law of ecocide been in place, as was originally intended.

A huge opportunity

When the International Criminal Court was established in 2002 to prosecute the crimes humanity considered the most serious (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression) it had also been intended that ecocide - severe damage to the environment - should be included. Although ecocide featured in many years of discussion leading to the ICC’s establishment, it was suddenly dropped. The reasons remain a mystery but with it, a huge opportunity was lost to create a powerful protection for the environment. The establishment of ecocide as one of the most serious crimes would have sent a strong message internationally that severe damage to the environment was unacceptable.

It would have reached into the boardrooms and cabinet offices of the world where many of the decisions which result in environmental destruction are made and changed the decision-making process. It would, in all likelihood, have influenced the decisions that have allowed unchecked proliferation of the intensive poultry units along the banks of the Wye. It is too late for ecocide law to prevent damage to the Wye - we are now forced to find ways to save it - but it can protect other rivers and precious ecosystems in the future.

If action is taken swiftly, the Wye might yet be saved, but other rivers and ecosystems in the UK are still at risk. We have identified 10 other rivers in England and Wales close to which a number of intensive poultry units have been given permission to establish. These rivers may also be at risk of chicken farm pollution, now or in the future, if production continues to expand. We need to reduce chicken numbers across the UK. Diets and production must rapidly and radically change.

What we really need is system change – we need to end the construction of intensive poultry units and reduce the number in existence. Remaining units should operate under a new permitting system applied at much lower population thresholds which include requirements for animal welfare and waste management.

We need a just and safe transition for farmers to move out of this damaging industry. Many farmers are locked into a long-term financial commitment to a poultry unit on their land, with loans having been taken out as part of a contract with a chicken processor.

This transition must be carefully managed to protect producer livelihoods and prioritise animal welfare. It will require change across supply chains, shifts in diet and a fair deal for farmers and consumers.

We need fewer chickens in existing poultry units via implementation of the Better Chicken Commitment, a set of standards that retailers and food service operators can sign up to, committing them to sourcing chicken meat produced as a result of less intensive practices, including slower-growing birds, less waste and reduced reliance on products like soya that are grown in sensitive environments overseas. We need industrial poultry phased out in schools and hospitals.