There are more than 1,000 US-style mega-farms in the UK, including some holding as many as a million animals, according to a new investigation. These mega-farms include poultry, pig, beef cattle and dairy units.

Two of the world’s leading development banks have pumped billions of dollars into the global livestock sector, despite warnings that reducing meat and dairy consumption is essential for tackling the climate crisis.

New figures reveal that the number of large industrial-sized pig and chicken farms in the UK continues to rise, with close to 2,000 across the country.

Half of the UK’s chickens are being produced by companies fully or partly controlled by US agribusinesses, according to an analysis of industry data, fuelling concerns of growing American influence over the British food sector.

The operators of industrial-scale livestock farms have received millions of pounds of public funds in the last two years, the Guardian can reveal, despite concerns over the spread of US-style factory farming across the British countryside.

Growing consumer demand for chicken meat could lead to an increase in the number of industrial-scale poultry farms being built across the UK, the head of Britain’s influential poultry lobby has warned.

Britain will need to build more mega-farms to keep it supplied with chicken, according to the head of the UK’s influential poultry lobby.

Thousands of British cattle reared for supermarket beef are being fattened in industrial-scale "feedlot" style units where livestock have little or no access to pasture. The findings sparked the latest clash over the future of UK farming.

Thousands of British cattle are being fattened in industrial scale beef farms, many of them US-style "feedlots" where livestock have reduced or no access to pasture.

Many of these units like the one in Herefordshire are giant US-style “megafarms”. Our investigation has discovered there now nearly 800 of these throughout the UK.

Demand for cheaper food and lower production costs is turning green fields into industrial sheds to process vast amounts of meat and poultry

Nearly every county in England has at least one industrial-scale livestock farm, with close to 800 US-style mega farms operating across the UK, research reveals.The increase in mega farms – described as “cruel and unnecessary” – is part of a 26% rise in intensive farming in six years, a shift that is transforming the British countryside.

Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses

More than a million chickens a year are dying while being transported to slaughter, according to official figures figures obtained by i and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which give rise to fresh concern over welfare standards in Britain’s £7.6bn meat industry.

But campaigners and MPs last night warned about the damaging effects of poor welfare and demanded rapid improvements. Neil Parish MP, the chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, said he wanted to see “immediate action” from the FSA and the industry to improve standards. He said: “It is essential that we maintain the highest animal welfare standards at each stage of the poultry and livestock supply chain - including transportation. Poor welfare standards lead to po

Cameras will be installed in every abattoir in England as part of government plans to reduce cruelty. The announcement was made as new figures obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism show an increase in the number of incidents where animals are subjected to needless pain or distress as part of the slaughter process.

Thousands of farm animals have suffered in more than 700 serious breaches of welfare rules in Scotland in less than two years, according to official inspection reports. Cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens have been found injured, ­emaciated, diseased or dead on arrival at abattoirs. Numerous animals were slaughtered while heavily ­pregnant or had to be repeatedly stunned before they were killed.

British farm animals are subjected to needless pain and distress six times a day on average as they are slaughtered, the Bureau can exclusively reveal. Reports by vets and hygiene inspectors detail more than 4,000 severe breaches of animal welfare regulations over the past two years, including instances of chickens being boiled alive and trucks of animals suffocating or freezing to death.

As falling milk prices push dairy farm out of business, new mega-dairies and feedlot operations of 700 or more cows are filling the void, writes Andrew Wasley. Never mind the pollution, slurry lagoons, and heavy plant on country lanes - do we want the cows that produce our milk confined to sheds? And what's the future for traditional dairy farmers with small, well cared for herds?

In a quiet corner of the English countryside lies a farm. It is almost completely hidden from public view - a private road leads up to the facility, dominated by several vast steel-framed buildings and conical feed silos. It is a scene that has become typical in Britain’s modern farming landscape - a livestock factory dedicated to the production of animal products with the highest possible efficiency. But these farms do not rear poultry or pigs. They are intensive dairy units...

The British countryside is being quietly populated with indoor “mega-dairies” each housing up to 2,000 cows without free access to pasture as farmers respond to plummeting milk prices by industrialising production.

In contrast to the vast US-style 'mega dairies' appearing in parts of the UK, one Sussex biodynamic dairy farm says small-scale milk production can work, both sustainably and economically. But does it really stack up? Andrew Wasley reports The Plaw Hatch farm shop, nestling in the beautiful West Sussex countryside somewhere between Forest Row and Balcombe, is how shops probably once were, and probably should be again in the future.

A leading high street bank has come under fire for part-financing the controversial Nocton 'super dairy' project which will – if approved – see the creation of the UK's largest ever dairy farm, housing at least 4,000 cows.

Advocates of Britain's biggest dairy farm, at Nocton, have sold the concept on the basis of its outstanding animal welfare and environmental credentials. But new evidence suggests this may not be possible without public funding. Andrew Wasley reports

The taxi picked us up, as arranged. The driver had been paid well above the going rate for this and wasn’t interested in the details. Privately, he must have thought it was unusual. Ferrying two foreigners and a fellow countryman deep into the black countryside, dropping them off in the middle of nowhere, returning at a predetermined time unless– as we’d warned him — he got a call stating otherwise.

Sitting in front of his computer in a neat office in a smart farmhouse in the village of Marden in Kent, Peter Hall talks me through his modern, high-tech approach to apple farming. The talk is of maximizing outputs, increasing yields, and disease and crop management, as well as how to meet the standards required by supermarkets.

The countryside around the village of Chagford, on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, is the stuff of picture postcards. Rolling hills, thick forests, deep valleys, gushing streams, lots of farms. The winding, narrow lanes that criss-cross the region follow the contours of the land closely; when the hill is steep, the road is steep; where a stream or river runs its course the road simply cuts right through - quite literally.

To passers-by, the red-brown earthy mound rising up from the path would probably warrant little more than a cursory glance. It looks like part of the steep bank which flanks the footpath cutting through this quiet corner of the Gloucestershire countryside. But the mound is actually a badger sett, home to an unknown number of the animals. Someone has crudely blocked most of the entrances with soil and stones. Spade marks are visible; so too are footprints.

Herded down a concrete shute, the horses -- black and brown and grey; fat, healthy, thin, lame -- have little idea of the fate that awaits them. But one by one, the horses are separated from those behind, a metal trapdoor swinging down to confine each to a metal box. There's blood and filth on the walls and floor. Flies buzz.

The discovery of horsemeat in burgers and ready meals has revealed how live horses are shipped across Europe in a complex and secretive business. And it's just part of a bigger global trade in livestock and poultry. Andrew Wasley reports

To the casual passer-by, the sleepy ambience of Bangalore’s University of Agricultural Sciences seems an unlikely place for a revolution. But pioneering academics from the university’s Department of Poultry Science have placed themselves at the centre of India’s growing resistance to intensive farming and corporate control of the food chain.

Video footage taken inside the premises of one of the largest pork suppliers to Tesco, the supermarket giant, has revealed conditions described as 'appalling' by animal rights campaigners. The scenes were uncovered at Cherry Tree Farm in Attlesborough, which is part of the giant Bowes of Norfolk group. Bowes supplies thousands of kilograms of pork, bacon and processed meat to Tesco each year.

Evidence suggests some are being killed illegally, their throats slit without any attempt to stun them beforehand. Under law, turkeys should be decapitated, have their necks dislocated or be stunned with an electric shock to prevent unnecessary suffering. Yet undercover footage shows birds writhing in pain minutes after their throats have been slit. The inquiry, conducted over the past fortnight by pressure group Compassion in World Farming, will today prompt fresh calls for control of the unregulated sector.