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News

Campaign for better school food gains momentum 

The Food Foundation renews the call for better standards and monitoring in schools as the government rolls out more free meals for children across the country

Activism Cost-of-living Health Inequality
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Features

The weakening link between our local abattoirs, organic meat and high animal welfare

The loss of the UK's smaller, local abattoirs would have devastating effects on the food system, finds Anna Zuurmond

Animal welfare Community
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The AGtivist

The AGtivist investigates the march of the megafarms (part two)

Aerial photography shows the extent of megafarm sprawl and spread across Europe, finds the AGtivist

Animal welfare Farming Meat
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The AGtivist

The AGtivist investigates the march of the megafarms (part one)

Government data shows that the number of “megafarms” in the UK increased by 21 per cent between 2017-2024

Activism Animal welfare Farming
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News

Poison for profit – EU exports 122,000 tonnes of banned pesticides

44 Highly Hazardous Pesticides, banned for EU use, are still being shipped to the African continent

Environment and ethics Pesticides
Features

Lack of agroecological funding could be costing us our future

Agroecology
The AGtivist

The AGtivist investigates the march of the megafarms (part two)

Animal welfare Farming Meat
Opinion

News from the farm: Rotations, civilisation, and the avoidance of dogma

Guy Singh-Watson News from the farm
STORY OF THE WEEK

The old money-making products no longer bring in such huge returns. Suddenly, attributes like freshness, quality, and health benefits become more desirable than hyper-palatability Henry Dimbleby

Features

The impact of weight loss drugs on what we eat and grow

UPF Health
Features

“Only X ingredients” range from M&S sparks debate around UPFs and classification

UPF Eating and drinking Health
Features

We’ve all heard of Veganuary. But what about “Regenuary”?

Regenerative farming Eating and drinking
News

Campaign for better school food gains momentum 

Activism Cost-of-living Health Inequality
The AGtivist

The AGtivist investigates the march of the megafarms (part one)

Activism Animal welfare Farming
Features

News from the farm: Returning to our roots, tubers & brassicas

Eating and drinking News from the farm Seasonality
WL Meets

WL Meets: Stephanie Slater, chief executive of School Food Matters

Activism Community Inequality
Features

The weakening link between our local abattoirs, organic meat and high animal welfare

Animal welfare Community
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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

The issue of megafarms has become something of a h The issue of megafarms has become something of a hot potato in the European Union, finds our anonymous columnist, the AGtivist. 

It has attracted the attention of concerned MEPs, particularly as officials grapple with the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies system, and pressure continues to grow around planned animal welfare reforms (long stalled within Brussels’ creaky bureaucracy). 

Last year, an analysis of so-called “returns” supplied by individual member states to the European Commission during 2023 and 2024 – detailing numbers and locations of permit holding poultry and pig farms – internal industry records, freedom of information (FOI) requests and satellite images revealed that, overall, the EU was home to an astonishing 22,263 industrial-scale chicken and pig farms, between them housing more than 516 million animals. 

This figure included 10,862 poultry farms raising birds for meat or egg production, 8854 fattening pig farms and 2547 pig breeding units. Overall, Spain was found to be home to the greatest number of industrial farms (3963), followed by France (3075), Germany (2930), the Netherlands (2667) and Italy (2146). 

Leading countries for industrial poultry farms were identified as France (with 2342 permitted farms), followed by Germany (1521), Italy (1242), Poland (1207) and the Netherlands (1181). Among the top countries for industrial pig farms were Spain (3401), Denmark (1532), the Netherlands (1486), Germany (1409) and Italy (904). 

Head to the link in our bio to read the full feature on Wicked Leeks.
The surging popularity of appetite-suppressing dru The surging popularity of appetite-suppressing drugs in the UK is already starting to impact major food retailers, finds Nick Easen. As obesity drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, shape eating habits they could also have a profound impact on supply chains and eventually what farmers grow across the British Isles, since the levels of uptake and investment is astounding.

At least 1.6 million UK adults are estimated to have used weight loss jabs in the past year. Some reports put the number as high as 2.5 million. Usage is soaring, and according to University College London, an additional 3.3 million people are also interested in trying them – that’s almost one in ten of the UK adult population. 

With obesity affecting up to 15 million people in the UK, and growing, the potential for these drugs is vast. Only 220,000 patients will receive the drugs via the NHS over the next three years. Millions are investing in them privately at a cost of £3,000 a year. But as these pharmaceuticals become more affordable and available in pill form, rather than injections, much greater uptake is expected.

“People are acquiring these drugs because they believe it’s the right investment for their health. They are having a profound effect with people eating less. This is now opening up conversations around the role food plays in health and the positive consumption of the right foodstuffs in peoples’ diets. There’s certainly a real opportunity for more fruit, veg and fibre,” explains Victoria Stevens, partner at investment firm Bramble Intelligence.

Supermarket chains are already starting to see the effects of these glucagon-like peptide, or GLP-1 drugs on food sales, with a switch to healthier, nutrient-dense choices, including more fresh food. It’s why a number of big retailers have now launched GLP-1 friendly ready product ranges. 

Read the full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.
Marks and Spencer this month introduced 12 new pro Marks and Spencer this month introduced 12 new products to its “Only X Ingredients” range. And the news has once again created quite a stir.

In March last year, the supermarket launched one-ingredient cornflakes, which stirred up the debate about simplicity versus health. 

Cornflakes and other cereals are often fortified with vitamins, but this can tip them into the ultra-processed foods (UPFs) category. 

Clean-label foods will be a “huge trend” in 2025 and onwards, explained one clinical nutritionist on social media at the time, who asked: “While the idea of simpler, less processed foods is appealing, is removing essential vitamins and minerals the right move?”

David Burrows looks into the impact of the new range, and asks where the debate on UPFs and classification is headed. Read his full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio. 

What do you think of this range?
The chief executive of @schoolfoodmatters vividly The chief executive of @schoolfoodmatters vividly recalls how the penny dropped when she took her children to their first day at primary school. “When I walked in, the office manager said to me, ‘sorry about the smell, that’s the lunch.’ There was this tacit acceptance that state school food would be terrible, so never mind,” explains Stephanie Slater to Nick Easen. 

She continues: “So I thought, I can try and fix this. In six months I will get it sorted – that was two decades ago. Today, it’s still a work in progress. But we are gaining ground! It was back in 2007 on the start of this journey when I was especially motivated after seeing a school boy holding a tray of slop masquerading as food. It was so awful. I knew we could do better.”

School meals really do matter, partly because the rates of food insecurity among British children has a reputation of being amongst the worst in Europe. Only five years ago, UNICEF, the UN children’s body, stepped in to fund a programme in Plymouth to alleviate child poverty. Over one in four children, at least 3.9 million, still live in households without reliable access to food each month.

The consequences of this appalling statistic for the nation’s young will be profound and enduring. A lack of nutritious food affects children’s physical health, emotional wellbeing, as well as cognitive and social development, not to mention academic performance. 

More than a third of teachers surveyed have said that pupils were too hungry to learn, jumping to 63 per cent in deprived areas. This is where a good lunchtime meal is vital and this is what School Food Matters has been focused on over the last 18 years.

“What keeps me up at night is when I see health inequality in the localities that we serve. Communities who aren’t able to support children with good food makes no sense to me, especially in a school environment where you’ve got 190 opportunities every year – the days that kids are in school – to feed them well. It frustrates me when I see poor practice.”

Read the full interview with Stephanie on Wicked Leek, via the link in our bio.

About us

Wicked Leeks is published by Riverford Organic Farmers.

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