Blog articles - Farms Not Factories

COVID-19 Impact – Expert Interviews: Dr. Lizzie Rowe - 21st May 2020

Dr Lizzie Rowe, is the senior research officer at the Sustainable Food Trust and a research associate at the University of Bristol. Lizzie tells us how poor welfare and squalid conditions in factory farms causes stress & disease in animals. And how the knock on effects have the potential to unleash viruses to human populations…. continue reading

COVID-19 Impact – Expert Interviews: Dr. Michael Greger, M.D. - 20th May 2020

Dr. Michael Greger, an American leading physician in clinical nutrition, spoke to us about the danger of further diseases emerging from factory farms. “We now have billions of feathered and curly tailed test tubes for viruses to incubate and mutate within. Billions more spins at pandemic roulette…” “Maybe COVID-19 is the dry run we needed,… continue reading

Case Study Four: Sussex Saddlebacks, West Sussex - 14th May 2020

The Harrises, part of Sussex Saddlebacks take it turn, with 13 other families, to look after their group of pigs. Most of the meat gets shared amongst group members, but surplus meat and weaners for fattening are occasionally sold on. They’ve implemented social distancing measures where possible, added time slots & ensured great hygiene, but… continue reading

COVID-19 Impact – Expert Interviews: Peter Stevenson - 12th May 2020

Peter Stevenson is Chief Policy Adviser for Compassion in World Farming and has worked in the field of farm animal welfare for 30 years. He explains that the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, jumped from wild animals to people, but there is no indication that it came from farm animals. However, factory farming in which large… continue reading

Case Study Three: Trefrawl Farm, Cornwall - 12th May 2020

Trefrawl Farm raises native bred Berkshire pigs in their woodland ‘piggy paradise’ where the pigs can express their natural behaviour. The farm delivers meat boxes to their customers doors. They believe in nose to tail eating with zero waste and package pork in quarter and half carcass boxes. Farmer, Nicola Hooper says that the current… continue reading

COVID-19 Impact – Expert Interviews: John Mettrick - 7th May 2020

John Mettrick is a small scale Peak District abattoir owner, who slaughters, processes and delivers all his meat in-house. He spoke about the need for a network of numerous small scale, local abattoirs in the UK as one of the essential pillars in a resilient, sustainable and high welfare food system. He says, ‘if one… continue reading

Case Study Two: Hampton Gay Farm, Oxfordshire - 6th May 2020

Hampton Gay breeds the endangered large black breed of which there are only a few hundred left. They have two breeding sows, Julie and Julia, and seven piglets at the moment. Life at the farm has carried on as normal, however farmer Charlotte Caldwell does point out that ‘one of the big differences we have… continue reading

Case Study One: The Heritage Hog, East Sussex - 6th May 2020

The Heritage Hog avoids commercial fast growing pigs in favour of slow growing breeds; allowing them to live as natural a life as possible by keeping them outside for their whole lives to be truly free range. With the farm geared towards supplying festivals and events halted due to the lock down, they are behind… continue reading

Pigs Killed in Food System Supply Chain Failure - 30th Apr 2020

COVID-19 has exposed the flaws in a centralised food system controlled by a few giant corporations. To be resilient to shocks, we need food systems to be diverse, small scale and local. With so many links in our just-in-time food supply chain – from producer, to grader, to packer, to wholesaler, to regional distributor, to… continue reading

Pig Business, The Full Tail - 24th Apr 2020

The launch of the Pig Business, The Full Tail – an uncensored version of Pig Business (2009) comes as US pork giant Smithfield Foods – featured in the documentary – slaughters 10,000 pigs stricken with African Swine Fever in a factory farm in Poland, and closes its packing facility in South Dakota where 700+ workers… continue reading

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