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  1. Signatures
    11,944 out of 25,000
    Petitioning
    1. ES Planning Control (Derbyshire County Council)
  2. Created By
    Pig Business
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Foston Pig Factory, Derbyshire

UK Company, Midland Pig Producers (MPP) is applying (application CW9/0311/174) to build an indoor pig factory farm on a green field site near the village of Foston, Derbyshire. If the plans are approved it would be one of the largest factory farms in the UK, containing 2,500 mother pigs (sows) and around 25,000 pigs, with 1,000 going for slaughter each week.   

If you don’t want to see massive US-scale pig factories entering the UK, then please sign this petition and better yet, object directly by registering your opposition to the plans on the Derbyshire County Council website.

The local MP, Heather Wheeler, Friends of the Earth and the Soil Association have already objected alongside over 11,000 others. Make your voice heard now and help us reach our target of 25,000 - One objection for every pig that will be confined in this factory farm.

Because the pigs are confined in crowded and stressful conditions, and the piglets weaned before their immune systems have properly developed, they need antibiotics to keep them alive. The widespread use of antibiotics on farm animals has helped increase the number of antibiotic resistant diseases that pass from pigs to humans.

Despite the plans for an anaerobic digester which would process the waste and collect methane, there could still be air and water pollution from the waste slurry. Locals will also suffer from an increase in lorries transporting a thousand pigs a week out of the site and delivering animal feed and fuel for the anaerobic digester.

Many small farmers will be unable to compete with pork from such mega farms, as is outlined in the Soil Association and WSPA report.

You can find out more about the overuse of antibiotics in intensive factory farming and the potential threats to our health by watching our short 19min film 'The Dark Side of Factory Farming'.

Website: www.pigbusiness.co.uk

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Objection to Planning Application CW9/0311/174

Dear Sirs,

The Environmental Statement may be designed with the best intentions to persuade planners and the public that this development differs radically from other intensive pig units. However, it contains ambiguities that reveal that when it is in production the unit may not in fact be able to follow the procedures advocated.

The Issues:

Antibiotics and Gases - The result of routine antibiotic use will be antibiotic resistant bacteria diseases that can pass to humans. This, the WHO says is a, ‘serious concern given the alarming emergence in humans of bacteria, which have acquired, through this use, resistance to antimicrobials.’ Please see this report: http://www.jhsph.edu/bin/q/h/AntibioticResistantEntero.pdf

Human Health Hazards - The partially slatted floor system is not an innovation; it is used by many factory pig farms. The toxic fumes from the faeces and urine in the ‘water’ tanks under the slatted floors will no doubt damage workers’ health. A US report found that 25% of people working in intensive pig units suffer permanent lung damage.

The Slurry Storage Tank - Experience with lined tanks like this in the US has shown that, under the weight of the slurry water, with age the soil underneath them settles causing sharp rocks to move and puncture the lining material causing them to leak; thus contaminating the water table with pig waste and nitrates.

The Anaerobic Digestor - Although the digester destroys some antibiotic resistant bacteria, research suggests that it is not hot enough to destroy clostridium difficile which has been found in British pigs and may pass to humans. A 2010 report by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute found that although anaerobic digestion lowers the pathogen load in digestate, there is incomplete kill of some bacterial pathogens such as salmonella, listeria, E. coli and campylobacter.

Welfare - The proposal refers to ‘the potential elimination of tail docking’. If this turns out to be wishful thinking, they, like most intensive pig farms, will ‘potentially’ have to routinely tail dock which is illegal under EU and UK regulations. Tail docking would prevent the pig unit from achieving the RSPCA Freedom Food Certification – the anticipation of which has kept the animal welfare groups silent.

The Neighbouring Prison - If, after all there turn out to be the same problems of smell, disease risk and contamination as there are with almost all other intensive pig farms, the people who will suffer most will be the inmates of Foston Hall Prison. Their cells and yards are downwind from the prevailing westerlies, and their windows open towards the slurry and water tank, a likely breeding ground for flies which a recent US report has found can spread antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Increased Traffic - I notice that the plans do not offer solutions to the myriad of other external costs attributed to giant pig farms. Operating the site could mean 28 HGV movements every weekday, severely impacting the amenity and house values in the area.

I hope that you will take my views into consideration and reject this proposal.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

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