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News

The AGtivist: The 2.4 million tonne chicken poo problem without a solution

As the UK Gov signals plans to end multi-million-pound subsidies to power stations that process chicken farm waste, the question remains – what will be done with it?

Animal welfare Environment and ethics Renewable energy UK Gov Water
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News

Are Wildfarmed KitKats the future of regen farming… or its breaking point?

1.5 billion KitKats are made every year in the UK. A new partnership with British brand, Wildfarmed, changes the landscape, but to what end, asks David Burrows?

Regenerative farming UPF
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Features

Flood, drought, and building water systems to weather future food & farming shocks

Britain must stop thinking of itself as a damp country with enough rain-fed water to irrigate its farmland and adapt – fast.

Water Climate change Farming
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Features

Still in the bag? Supermarkets stall on UK Plastics Pact target to reduce packaging for fresh produce by 2030

A target of just 30% of supermarket fresh produce to be sold loose may not seem overly ambitious, but David Burrows is surprised to learn that only one UK retailer has hit the mark

Environment and ethics Packaging Plastic Supermarkets UK Gov
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How Big Ag tied “regen” to synthetic chemical inputs and shaped European farming policy

The same multi-billion-dollar companies producing synthetic agrochemicals are also lobbying for "regen agriculture". David Burrows smells a rat.

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Variant of MRSA linked to livestock farming poses potential risk to public health

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A growing movement for perennials could play a key role in future food security

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News from the farm: Creation, exits and truth

Business Community Employee ownership Ethical business Guy Singh-Watson
STORY OF THE WEEK

For fruit and veg we are already starting to occasionally see that, because we’re so reliant on produce from abroad, as soon as there is a geopolitical or a climate shock there are shortages on supermarket shelves Lucia Monje-Jelfs, Senior Policy Officer at The Soil Association

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Why is UK food self-sufficiency falling – and can we turn things around in time?

Sustainability UK Gov Farming Politics
News

The AGtivist: The 2.4 million tonne chicken poo problem without a solution

Animal welfare Environment and ethics Renewable energy UK Gov Water
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Dairy industry responsible for 71% of serious agricultural pollution incidents in England

Animal welfare Environment and ethics Dairy
Opinion

News from the farm: A change in the air & autumn immunity

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Is England’s Food Strategy at risk of being sold down the river to Big Food?

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Flood, drought, and building water systems to weather future food & farming shocks

Water Climate change Farming
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News from the farm: Spuds, pubs, cider and community

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The AGtivist

The AGtivist: Rise in demand for cheap chicken & eggs driving ammonia emissions & human health concerns

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FOOD, FARMING, FAIRNESS. Wicked Leeks is a digital news channel joining the dots between food, farming & people, published by @riverford ⬇️SUBSCRIBE

If parched fields full of withering, shallow-roote If parched fields full of withering, shallow-rooted, annual crops are the enduring picture of the countryside this summer, so are the verdant, resilient hedgerows that enclosed these very same fields. Answers to the climate crisis and poor yields are right in front of growers’ eyes: deep-rooted perennials – which could help us build resilience in the years ahead, writes Nick Easen. 

Most people are familiar with apples and rhubarb, hazelnuts and asparagus. But perhaps not with the likes of Nine-star broccoli or Daubenton’s kale. Yet with all of these perennials, growers only need to plant them once before harvesting them over multiple seasons. Hearteningly, there is now renewed interest in what they offer, including perennial grains. 

Many have long, extensive root systems; some are slow-growing. They are more hardy than the puny, often dwarf, fast-growing annual crops that are commonly planted. Farmers don’t have to plough each season, or extensively apply fertiliser and pesticides. This means they offer an antidote to both the climate and cost of farming crisis.

With today’s eye-watering energy, fuel and input costs could perennials finally be having their moment in the sun? Wicked Leeks explored their prospects seven years ago, yet over this period perennials have failed to receive wide-scale funding, extensive field trials or be adopted extensively by growers across the country.

“Perennials have so much potential, but they still do not seem to be catching on at a commercial scale,” explains Harriet Bell, Regenerative Farming Lead at Riverford Organic Farmers, which has been working with perennial kale. A lack of awareness, access to seeds, to plants, and to know-how, as well as greater upfront costs compared to annuals, are just some of the reasons why perennials have not taken off.

Read the full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
Britain’s rivers and waterways, many already sever Britain’s rivers and waterways, many already severely polluted, could be at risk of further contamination after the government signalled it would end multi-million-pound subsidies to power stations which process vast quantities of chicken-farm waste in order to generate energy. 

The withdrawal of the payouts, which was confirmed by the government earlier this month, has prompted warnings that large volumes of poultry litter – a toxic mix of faeces, urine and bedding materials – could instead be diverted for use as fertiliser, where “run off” from farmland could result in fresh pollution incidents and a wider “waste management crisis.” 

As our anonymous columnist, the AGtivist, has reported before, waste from industrial-scale chicken farming has been blamed for blighting the iconic River Wye in Herefordshire and surrounding areas, as well as being implicated in the poisoning of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, the UK’s largest inland water source. 

Environmental scandals such as these, as well as stubbornly high levels of pollution linked to farming overall – one investigation last year uncovered more than 50 pollution incidents a month associated with livestock production – have refocused attention on the scale of the UK’s chicken industry, and prompted fresh questions around its ultimate sustainability. 

Around 1 billion chickens are now grown and slaughtered in the UK each year, and hundreds of factory farms – some confining more than a million birds – now populate swathes of the British countryside. These birds produce an immense volume of waste: the poultry industry generates as much as 2.4 million tonnes of chicken litter annually, according to some estimates. Disposing of such a huge amount of excrement has become a wicked problem for both the poultry industry and government. 

Read the full report on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
More than 40 mega-dairies exist across the UK, the More than 40 mega-dairies exist across the UK, the largest of them housing 2,600 cows. The number of farms keeping cattle indoors year-round has more than doubled over the past decade, increasing the volume of slurry that must be stored and managed, while existing infrastructure is failing to keep pace.

Meanwhile, UK organic dairy cow numbers fell by 6% between 2023 and 2024, continuing a decline since 2019. In 2024, organic dairy accounted for just 1.5% of cow numbers in the June consensus.

The current system, weighted towards farms with hundreds or even thousands of cows and billed as ‘more efficient’ and ‘lower carbon’, is driving increased pollution and exposure to the impacts of climate change. “[…] we cannot measure the health of the dairy sector by output alone,” said Gemma Lane, Land Use Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts.

Analysis of recent Environment Agency figures by The Wildlife Trusts calculated that dairy activity was responsible for 71% of serious agricultural pollution incidents in England alone – damaging rivers, contributing to algal blooms, reducing oxygen levels and harming wildlife.

However, unlike intensive pig and poultry units, large dairy and beef farms are not subject to the same government monitoring, meaning their size and environmental impacts are left largely unchecked.

Read David Burrows' full report on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
How can you be more energy efficient? Riverford's How can you be more energy efficient? Riverford's Head of Sustainability, Zac, has some clear information and advice on how to reduce your energy usage, reducing your impact, and saving you money. 

Around half of UK electricity generation comes from renewables. Whilst there is a lot still to improve with how the UK generates, prices, and distributes energy, great strides have been made in increasing generation of renewables – however, there still remains huge opportunities to take this further, with offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, tidal energy systems and more. 

Electricity supply accounted for nearly half (49%) of the UK’s total carbon emission reductions between 2008 and 2024, making it the primary driver of the UK’s overall progress towards Net Zero. 

Household energy use accounts for about 26% of total UK energy use (DESNZ, 2025). This is significant, but also a real opportunity for all of us to contribute to reducing our energy and carbon impact across the UK. From big changes like installing solar panels and air source heating systems, right down to everyday actions like making your own draft excluders, turning lights off or lowering your boiler’s hot water flow temperature by a degree or two – we all have the agency to contribute to a better energy system, and lower our carbon emissions collectively. 

You can read Zac's full article on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.

About us

Wicked Leeks is published by Riverford Organic Farmers.

Riverford organic farmers

Riverford grows and sells organic food through its award-winning veg boxes, delivering across the country to a loyal band of customers who share a passion for good food, good farming and good business.

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