Food & Drink
Cheap meat and health
Leading UK doctors back call to end factory farming to improve public health.
22 May 2020
Compassion in World Farming and Sustain have released an interactive ‘Ammonia Map’, which for the first time indicates the ammonia emissions from industrial pig and poultry units.
The areas with the highest emissions correspond with the highest concentrations of large-scale intensive farms. This raises major concerns about air quality, the wider public health impact of industrial farming and damage to nearby ecosystems.
The map reveals clear pollution hotspots across the UK, with the most severe concentrations clustered in Lincolnshire, Herefordshire and Norfolk. These regions share one thing in common: a high density of intensive poultry and pig units that are driving dangerous levels of ammonia.
Ammonia, a nitrogen-based gas used to produce fertilisers and emitted from livestock manure, is essential for food production but it is now being released into the atmosphere at levels far greater than ecosystems can absorb.
Livestock production and fertiliser use account for more than 80% of global ammonia emissions. In the UK, agriculture is responsible for 89% of national emissions. As industrial animal production has intensified, so too have the environmental and health burdens associated with ammonia.
‘The spread of industrial factory farming must stop. Factory farming sits at the heart of the UK’s ammonia crisis. By cramming large numbers of animals into confined spaces and relying heavily on fertilisers, these intensive systems release far more ammonia than the environment or our bodies can cope with. The result is a cascade of harm – to the animals living in these conditions, to the people breathing the polluted air, and to the ecosystems absorbing the excess nitrogen.
‘If we are serious about protecting public health and restoring the natural world, we must confront the role of industrial livestock production and rethink how we produce food. The evidence is unequivocal. Confronting agricultural ammonia pollution head on is essential if the UK is to build a food system in which animals, communities and ecosystems can all thrive.’
ANTHONY FIELD
Head of Compassion in World Farming UK
In factory farms, large numbers of animals are kept in confined, crowded environments where manure accumulates quickly, creating high levels of ammonia in the air. These concentrations irritate animals’ eyes and respiratory systems, increase stress and heighten vulnerability to disease.
Once in the air, ammonia reacts with other pollutants to form fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. These microscopic particles penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease and premature death.
Emerging evidence also links long-term exposure to strokes, lung cancer, type 2 diabetes and dementia.
Globally, ammonia is responsible for nearly 40% of PM2.5 formation. In the UK, PM2.5 exposure contributed to an estimated 15,470 deaths in 2010, with modelling showing that reducing agricultural emissions could dramatically cut mortality rates.
‘As a GP, I see firsthand the toll that air pollution takes on people’s health – and ammonia from intensive farming is a major, yet often overlooked, part of that problem. The fine particulate matter formed from ammonia exposure drives heart disease, stroke, asthma and chronic lung conditions, and it is our most vulnerable patients who pay the price.
‘When factory farming releases huge volumes of ammonia into the air, the health impacts don’t stay on the farm – they reach our surgeries, our hospitals and our communities. Reducing these emissions is not just an environmental issue; it is an urgent public health priority.’DR AMIR KHAN
TV doctor and Compassion Patron
The environmental impacts are equally severe. Excess nitrogen from ammonia deposition acidifies soils, fuels algal blooms and degrades forests, grasslands, wetlands and freshwater habitats.
Intensive livestock systems – where large numbers of animals are kept in confined spaces – also expose animals to high ammonia concentrations that irritate the eyes and respiratory system, increasing stress and disease risk.
Recent modelling of UK cities highlight the scale of the challenge: across Leicester, Birmingham and London, 79% of the areas covered by the assessment exceeded WHO guidelines for PM2.5, contributing to an estimated 29,000–99,000 premature adult deaths each year.
Nationally, agriculture contributes up to 39% of urban particulate pollution, underscoring the clear link between farming practices and public health.
Compassion in World Farming’s report, ‘The Ammonia Pollution Problem’, argues that ammonia pollution is not an isolated agricultural issue but a systemic challenge that directly affects animals, people and the planet.
It calls for a One Health approach – recognising the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental wellbeing – and urges urgent action to rethink how food is produced and how nitrogen is managed.
‘Industrial animal production is sending our food system in the wrong direction. It is designed to extract profit, not to create good food or benefit our rural communities.
‘The nation’s health depends on us supporting farmers to produce more of the foods we need in the UK, through supply chains that pay properly and give power to farmers. We have a shocking deficit of home-grown vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans and pulses. This must be the priority for government, not handing more power to industrial food production.’RUTH WESTCOTT
Campaign manager at Sustain
Compassion in World Farming and Sustain are calling for an end to the expansion of factory farming, and for the government to support British farmers to produce more healthy food, including an end to unfair trading practices that are preventing farmers from making a decent living.
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