Welcome
Too Much Slurry is a campaign against the harm caused to local communities by Intensive Farming and by anaerobic digesters.
The harm is UK-wide and we hope to provide a website that threatened communities can go to when trying to protect:
- their environment,
- their quality of life, and
- their health
from the consequences of Intensive Farming and Anaerobic Digesters.
The threat is caused by the owners of large agribusinesses who ignore their responsibilities to their neighbours and ignore inadequately policed regulations.
Our hope is that together we will achieve change.
The Industrialisation of Farming
Over the last fifty years there have been major changes in farming.
Changes in animal husbandry, in farming practices, in the size of farm machinery, in the increased use of chemicals etc. etc. etc. have together produced a revolution in the way we use the countryside.
We see the results of this revolution in a variety of ways:
- the relocation of animals from field to barn so that more and more of our fields are empty of animals;
- the ever larger agricultural machinery we now encounter on our roads;
- the way fields are cultivated and used e.g. fields full of polythene tunnels or solar panels; fields used as “spreading fields” on which waste from intensive farms or anaerobic digesters is heavily spread three, four and even five times a year;
- the removal of hedgerow and spinney; and
- the blanket use of antibiotics to keep intensively farmed animals “healthy” in extraordinarily crowded conditions.
We are witnessing the industrialisation of farming.
Intensive Dairy Farming
A significant step in the industrialisation of farming is the move to intensive dairy farming.
Across North Devon there has been a move to intensive dairy farming over the last ten years that is already blighting the whole community. A map of “Ammonia Hotspots across the UK” published by Defra in 2019 shows that North Devon has already become an area with the highest level of ammonia pollution in the UK, on a par with West Wales and Northern Ireland. It is simple insanity that these beautiful communities are now “ammonia hotspots” as the result of intensive farming i.e. the air contains so much ammonia as to be a hazard to human health and to cause damage to flora.
The various authorities responsible for monitoring the way in which these intensive farmers carry out their activities are impotent in the face of the tidal wave of industrialised farms.
The impact upon the residents living close to an intensive dairy farm is to destroy their quality of life.
These residents repeatedly suffer the stench from the slurry (which is inherently different to the historic smell of cow dung). They suffer the noise of large tractors pulling 4,000 gallon slurry tankers as they roar past their homes. Millions of gallons of slurry are spread around them each year. They suffer headaches and coughs from the air pollution that is generated around their homes, their eyes sting and they have good reasons to fear the long term consequences for their health.
The impact is significant upon many residents in the area and not just upon those in the immediate proximity. The stench occurs over a wide area. The increased volume of large vehicle traffic changes the ambiance of an area. The damage to roads and verges that results is highly visible. The air pollution that results and the damage to the watercourses affects the whole community.
In addition local businesses in the tourist industry can be greatly damaged.
And this is just the beginning.
Across North Devon there are more and more farms that have developed large facilities for intensive dairy herds and nearby residents are already affected by their activities. The most sobering fact is the reluctance of the various authorities (local planning authorities, the county councils, The Environment Agency, Public Health England etc.) to deal with the obvious pollution caused by these large industrialised facilities.
The Issue is “UK Wide”
Although some are not affected by these developments at the moment, it is only a matter of time until it adversely affects the quality of life of all those in the rural community in North Devon. Similar developments have already been seen in other communities across the UK.
Although “Too Much Slurry” originates from a desire to protect a single community, it is clear to all of us that the issues we face are faced by other communities across North Devon, across the South West and indeed across the whole of the UK.
Our Objectives
We wish to prompt the effective regulation of this movement towards the industrialization of farming and we are seeking to change the planning regulations to protect residents and communities close to intensive farms (whether they be dairy, beef, pig or chicken farms) or close to Anaerobic Digesters (“ADs”) that produce digestate that is then spread in vast quantities on nearby fields.
A simple step would be to characterize fields that receive the slurry from intensive farms or digestate from Ads as “spreading fields” and to require planning permission for fields to be used as “spreading fields”. In that way the frequency, the timing, the intensity and the manner of spreading can be subject to regulation as can the content of the slurry or digestate. All very modest requirements when one considers that homes will abut the “spreading fields” upon which the slurry is spread. And when the spreading of slurry becomes the principle value generator of a field it is difficult to maintain that the field is being used for “agricultural purposes”.
A simple step would be to require all Local Authorities to monitor impact upon the air quality, the water quality and the volume of traffic surrounding intensive farms and ADs.
A simple step would be to reject all retrospective planning applications when the developer (be they intensive farmer or AD owner) did not apply for prior planning permission in order to obtain a planning advantage and to require the immediate removal of the un-authorised development..
A simple step would be to require all intensive farms and ADs to be licensed with conditions of use that are easily enforceable by Local Authorities on behalf of affected residents and businesses.
We also wish to prompt research into the health implications upon the human population of the frequent spreading of millions of gallons of slurry or tons of digestate close to homes and communities.
What You Can Do
To achieve our objectives we require the active support of as many people as possible.
We are asking everyone to:
- email your local MP and express your concern about what is happening around you;
- send the same email to your County Councilor, your District Councilor and to the Chairman of your Parish Council;
- send the same email to the head of the planning department of your local authority and copy the chair of the Planning Committee of that local authority;
- send the same email to the local environmental groups that work for the area in which you live and ask for their help;
- if you are willing to make your objection public, please copy your email to info@toomuchslurry.co.uk and we will put your locations problems up on the website to generate support for you;
- copy your letter to your neighbours and ask them to do what you have done; and finally
- register on Too Much Slurry.
(That may appear to be a lot to do but in reality the actions involve writing one email clearly expressing the problems your community faces and then sending the same email it to various people.)
Alone we can do nothing. Together we can protect our homes and our environment from this real and growing threat.
We Are Pro-Farming
Finally, can we make it clear that we are not “anti-farming”.
We are against practices that have developed recently without regard to the well being of the communities in which farms are located.
We know from conversations with many of our neighbouring farmers that they too share our apprehension about the move to intensive farming. They tell us that the problem is money. The money behind the large intensive farms is just too great for many farmers to refuse to co-operate with the intensive farms and that money dominates the farming agenda in both the local and national community. That wall of money is buying up traditional farms as farmers die and their children decide not to farm OR as farmers decide that the economic benefit of selling land and banking the proceeds far outweighs the economic benefit of farming the land.
Many of our neighbouring farmers also share our view that the planning rules & processes governing development in the countryside have not kept up with the consequences of this move to larger & larger herds. The know that the highways’ authorities, planning departments and environmental agencies have all turned a blind eye to the problems associated with these larger herds and factory farming techniques and they know that this is encouraging the development of other intensive farms.
Communities Affected Across The UK
We are now in contact with more than twenty different communities across the UK damaged by the storage and spreading of slurry or digestate. These locations are listed here.
We believe that these twenty different communities are just the tip of the iceberg and we urge every individual who is affected by the storage and spreading of slurry or digestate to contact Too Much Slurry by emailing us at info@toomuchslurry.co.uk.
Together we can bring change.