MEGAFARM EUROPE.

Industrial-scale livestock farming is sweeping across Europe, with thousands of animal factories now operating across the continent, as a major investigation this week revealed. This rapid spread of factory farming is raising urgent concerns about animal welfare, pollution, disease spread and the economic impacts on conventional farmers.

Using EU data, satellite imagery and drone footage, we went on the trail of some of the largest chicken, pig and cattle farms currently in operation across swathes of Europe - including in Spain, Italy, Poland, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the UK - and documented them from the air.

Under EU wide regulations, large intensive pig and chicken farms require a permit to operate, and analysis of public records, internal EU data and freedom of information responses has revealed that there are now more than 24,000 industrial-scale chicken and pig farms running across the EU and UK.

A regulatory loophole means that intensive beef and dairy farms continue to be exempt from requiring an environmental permit, despite such units being linked to water and air pollution and other environmental and welfare impacts. In some European countries, large numbers of cattle are now year-round housed, without access to pasture, in so-called “zero grazing” confinement systems.

The largest type of farms, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or “megafarms”, have also, for the first time, been identified in many European countries. Some of these units can hold more than 1 million chickens or 30,000 pigs. The investigation also uncovered Europe’s emerging factory farm hotspots, including Spain, Italy, France and Poland, which have seen a growth in industrial animal production in recent years.

This expansion of factory production has multiple drivers, including controversial regulatory frameworks, agricultural subsidies, and growing consumer demand for cheap meat. At the same time, internal divisions within the European Commission hinder meaningful reform, according to campaigners. They say the focus remains on growth and competitiveness over sustainability and ethics.

Those behind intensive farming argue that such production models are necessary to feed growing populations, meet demand for cheap meat and dairy, and ensure food security. They claim that larger farms are typically tightly controlled with high welfare, health and environmental standards and ongoing investments to mitigate problems.

But in reality industrial animal farming is often accompanied by a catalogue of harms, including pollution of rivers, land and air, poor animal health and welfare standards, the spread of disease – including antibiotic resistant bacteria – economic impacts (including price squeezing) on conventional livestock farms, and increasing conflicts in rural areas between corporate-owned farms and local communities.

Responding to this week's investigation, Tilly Metz, MEP, said: "What is hidden is the truth, the true cost of meat. We are hiding the externalities that are in the meat production, and the consequences for the soil, for the environment, for the emissions, and that has to be to be paid by someone. But these costs are often not mentioned, and the price that the consumer pays is - right now- very cheap."

Photography: AGtivist / Google Earth / Landsat / Airbus Satellite / We Animals / Tommaso Galli (Greenpeace) / Tania Garnica (Greenpeace). All images show intensive livestock farms within Europe, including the UK.