Following the recent circulation of a specific clip from the BBC Radio 4 Podcast, Radical with Amol Rajan, the NPA has written to the BBC on behalf of members to highlight the inaccurate information that it portrays and to register our formal complaint.
It is simply erroneous to suggest there are any farms in the UK anywhere close to having 100,000s of pigs on them. During the interview James Rebanks wrongly conflates pig ownership and the size of pig farms/holdings.
According to the most recently available government data, the average size of a UK pig farm/holding is 476. Even once you remove holdings of less than 10 pigs, it is still 938. In terms of female breeding herds specifically, the average size is 71 sows or 154 sows, once you have removed holdings of less than 5 pigs.
As part of our complaint we also stressed that the pig and poultry sectors are both highly regulated sectors and it is therefore irresponsible to suggest there aren’t any regulations in place to govern these farms. Indeed, in England those farms with 2,000 places for production pigs (over 30kg) or 750 places for sows must have an environmental permit, enforced by the Environment Agency and comply with more stringent regulation. At present, this is unique for the pig and poultry sectors.
BBC Radio 4’s decision to clip and promote this section of the podcast is an active choice and has further spread this inaccurate information. Across their various social media accounts this clip has ironically now had 100,000s of views.
Given the misinformation this clip continues to spread, we have asked that the BBC to remove the clip and issue a correction.
