UK's intensive farming hotspots have 79 times more chickens than people, data shows

"The exponential rise in large intensive poultry units (IPUs) in the valleys is a key driver of river pollution. Chicken dropping contains more phosphates than any other animal manure, which starve fish and river plants of oxygen."

"In the last five years the number of chickens reared for eggs or meat in intensive units has risen from an estimated 46 million to more than 51 million at any one time."

"Shropshire is home to more than 20 million industrially farmed chickens at any one time, one of the densest concentrations of IPUs in Europe."

"Data shared with the Guardian reveals the growing scale of intensive chicken farming across Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Powys, as councils lack comprehensive tracking on IPU development."

Read at www.theguardian.com