Farms Not Factories

20/08/2026

Animal welfare can be talked about in lots of ways, but Sophie Gregory brings it back to something simple.

“In terms of animal welfare, we actually start with the soil first. So we talk about healthy soil, healthy plant, healthy cow, healthy milk, healthy humans. Getting the soil biology and the soil working well to produce a healthy, nutritious feed for the cows is really important.”

It’s a reminder that care for animals starts long before the milking parlour.

Watch the Sustainable Food Trust of Sophie Gregory here: https://youtu.be/1_8oJlwzkMI?si=E0ocpCvLEP7ocq99

20/08/2026

In the Groundswell 2025 panel on glyphosate, Ian Wilkinson mentions how Rothemstead’s research methods are too limited to reveal the true cost of glyphosate to the soil. Below, he takes us through how he shallow ploughs his cover-crop pre planting his seeds to avoid using glyphosate.

‘Ian Wilkinson and Tim Parton will discuss their personal approaches and experiences of using and reducing glyphosate applications at FarmED and Brewood Park Farm. Discussion will be illustrated by evidence collected from their soils of glyphosate persistence; the effects of ploughing or direct drilling on soil structure and nitrous oxide emission potential; and the effects of ploughing or glyphosate application upon soil microbial biomass and community stress markers. The session objective is to raise awareness of the consequences of management decisions and how they can be remedied effectively.’

Ian Wilkinson, Cotswold Seeds; “In our case here, we know we’ve got a lot of carbon below the soil. We don’t want to be ploughing that. These are Cotswold soils and look just below my nose we’re into really stony stuff and the last thing we want to do is to be bringing that stony stuff up onto the top. If I used a sprayer and put glyphosate on that, I’d probably be needing four litres a hectare and I’m sure that that’s not what you’d be using on any cover crops or anything. So if we use glyphosate on the herbal ley, that’s a lot of active ingredient going into our environment. There’s something like 900 million tonnes of glyphosate used worldwide. Can you believe 900 million? Sounds an awful lot to me. And I think we’re going to be hauled over the coals on this at some point in the future. Grazing hard with cows or sheep that are even better for grazing hard, they just don’t kill perennial rye grass or rye grass/clover. They don’t do it. It’s going to regrow. Cultivation is of course the other option. But how do we do that without losing this good stuff? So we bought a shallow plough. This is a 100-horsepower tractor and it pulls a five-furrow plough. So it is literally ploughing at three to four inches deep. And I know one or two of you have had similar experiences. I met Robert Hyde down in Dorset, who’s a good friend, who told me he was using this plough and we copied what he was doing and it does seem to do a much better job than the previous one we used. The previous one was going really deep and I just kept looking at stones and I thought, this is completely wrong. After we ploughed, we power harrow, which makes it even worse at probably doing all this damage, Andy (pro glyphosate from Rothemstead), to you, but I don’t have a lot of kit. We’re a small farm so I could bring in other people, but I need to do it when the weather’s right and that’s the kit I’ve got, so that’s what I’ve done. When you’re sowing seeds, it’s the one thing I do know about, especially with small seeds, they nearly always need a good seedbed. Bigger seeds are slightly different. You can rough them in a bit. But when you’re sowing leys particularly, some of these seeds like a millimetre in size, they’re no good in a rough seed beds. We can’t get away with it with those. So you do need sometimes to cultivate. So I’m just saying there’s horses for courses, and cultivation is no bad thing when you’re sowing small seeds. Richard Gantler, I don’t know whether you’re in the room. Richard Gantler is running Yatesbury House Farm in Wiltshire and I’ve known Richard for at least 25 years and he was telling me about this system that he had developed down there in Wiltshire. Not the same soil type, but fairly light stuff, really. He rips the surface real shallow and probably three or four times to kill his ley. And this is midway through the process and you can see that it’s going to need cultivating again. But a couple of things here. You don’t need a skilled ploughman to do this. How many in the room can plough really well? I bet not many these days because they’re not doing it so much. But this is a job, and with greatest respect to students, but if you’re on student placement, you could do this job. Once it’s set, you just keep going and it is shallow. And it doesn’t seem to me to be doing damage at any depth in my eyes. This questions of course, around w**d control. If you go three or four times, this is a bastard fallow, really, so you need dry weather. This would be a good summer to do it, wouldn’t it? But can you even break the surface? But it would be a good summer to do it. And if you don’t do it this way and you shallow plough, you might get plants like chicory coming up after the ley. And you all know, if you’ve got herbal leys in the rotation, chicory is the good and the bad boy, it can be a pain in the ass when it’s in a cereal crop and if you can’t kill it, you get it with four litres of Roundup you wouldn’t get it with a cultivation necessarily, but I tolerate it. I’m very happy. I don’t need a perfectly clean field and regenerative farmers seem to get that bit. I’ve been trained to do the blueprint monoculture, perfect system, but I don’t mind a few w**ds in the crop. If they’re not doing any harm, I don’t mind at all.”

Speakers: Andy Neal, Ian Wilkinson & Tim PartonIan Wilkinson and ...

19/08/2026

Why is Glyphosate still on the market when it was classified as a probable human carcinogen in March 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialised branch of the World Health Organization.

‘Glyphosate is in the news again. The US Supreme Court has sided with Trump in protecting Monsanto (and Bayer) from legal immunity over Roundup-caused cancer. But what does it all mean? Let’s find out with Dr. Michael Antoniou, a world-renowned expert in glyphosate toxicology.’

Dr Michael Antoniou; “The key thing in the history of glyphosate is that in the early 70s, Monsanto Company in the United States discovered that it had very potent w**d-killing herbicide properties. And in 1973 or 74, it launched a product called Roundup, which is based on glyphosate as the w**d-killing agent. And the thing about glyphosate and the thing about glyphosate is that kills all plants, and the way it does that is it inhibits a biochemical pathway in plants. It’s known as the shikimate pathway for aficionados listening in. But this biochemical pathway, the shikimate pathway, is responsible, among other things, for manufacturing, synthesising certain crucial amino-acids, aromatic amino-acids that the plant needs to build its proteins. So when glyphosate comes in and inhibits this biochemical pathway, these essential amino-acids are not manufactured and the plant dies because it can’t make its proteins, it can’t grow. And this biochemical pathway, the shikimate pathway, is present in all plants. So glyphosate is what’s known as a broad spectrum herbicide. It kills everything. And so therefore you couldn’t spray your crop to kill w**ds and keep your crop alive because it would kill your crop as well. So for many years, glyphosate was used for w**d clearance before you planted your crop and those kinds of measures. So its use didn’t really expand very much because of its sprawl, broad spectrum nature. But 1976 is a very crucial year in the history of the substance. In 1976, Monsanto Company launched its first genetically-modified crops engineered to be tolerant to glyphosate. So now the farmer could grow his or her soybeans or corn maize, spray the crop, the crop would survive, but the w**ds will die. And that since the mid-90s, since 1996, with the rapid adoption of these genetically- modified crops, there are now many crops that have been launched that are tolerant to glyphosate. Not only corn, maize, soy, but also sugar beet, alfalfa, to name a few more. And what we saw then was an absolutely massive escalation in the use of glyphosate herbicides. Admittedly, the cultivation of these glyphosate-tolerant crops has remained concentrated in relatively few countries, in North America and South America and one or two other places as well. But this resulted in a massive increase in glyphosate herbicide, the environmental impact escalated enormously because it would kill w**ds. What are w**ds to the farmer are natural habitats for wildlife? The residues of glyphosate herbicides in foodstuffs and exposure to occupational exposure on the workers on the farms, as well as those in urban areas, say groundsmen at schools or playgrounds and golf courses and places like this, also massively increased, too. So we’ve had this massive increase in glyphosate herbicide exposure since the mid-1990s. At the moment, it’s estimated that something in excess of 700,000 kilogrammes of glyphosate herbicides are sprayed annually around the world as we speak, because it has become the most massively used herbicide in history, but actually the most massively used pesticide of any sort in history to this day.”

SHOW NOTES AND COMMENTS: https://corbettreport.com/michael-antoniou-on-the-dangers-of-glyphosate/

18/08/2026

AI data centers monopolise local water supplies and their low frequency hum, that’s audible to animals but not humans, is killing animals.

“You know it’s getting bad when a farmer said he hasn’t seen a single bee nearby since a data centre was built. But now it’s getting outright dystopian that another Texas farmer claimed every calf since the data centre arrived has been stillborn, meaning they have no signs of life. Clayton Tucker, who is running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, shared the rancher’s story at a public meeting. They believe the low frequency hum and vibration from a nearby energy facility are causing his cows to now sleep by the road. A similar story comes from Bell County, Texas. Fowler Farms reports that since the construction of a $700 million data centre within five miles of his property, it’s emitting constant noise, including low frequency sound that’s audible to animals but not humans. He says this is preventing them from breeding and can cause grown cattle to lose roughly 30% of body weight. The scariest part is the fact that we still don’t have any long term studies on the impact of these EMFs and data centres on animals. But what’s become undeniable is the new hyperscaling of data centres is putting real strain on rural land, water and power systems. Just in Texas, nearly 2 million acres and 20,000 farms have disappeared in just five years. With that number growing single day, it’s up to consumers to help put a stop to this. It has to start with supporting our local farmers so you can use the localised farmers market app to connect with these local producers.”

17/08/2026

AI data centers monopolise local water supplies and their low frequency hum, that’s audible to animals but not humans, is killing animals.

🗣️
“You know it’s getting bad when a farmer said he hasn’t seen a single bee nearby since a data centre was built. But now it’s getting outright dystopian that another Texas farmer claimed every calf since the data centre arrived has been stillborn, meaning they have no signs of life. Clayton Tucker, who is running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, shared the rancher’s story at a public meeting. They believe the low frequency hum and vibration from a nearby energy facility are causing his cows to now sleep by the road. A similar story comes from Bell County, Texas. Fowler Farms reports that since the construction of a $700 million data centre within five miles of his property, it’s emitting constant noise, including low frequency sound that’s audible to animals but not humans. He says this is preventing them from breeding and can cause grown cattle to lose roughly 30% of body weight. The scariest part is the fact that we still don’t have any long term studies on the impact of these EMFs and data centres on animals. But what’s become undeniable is the new hyperscaling of data centres is putting real strain on rural land, water and power systems. Just in Texas, nearly 2 million acres and 20,000 farms have disappeared in just five years. With that number growing single day, it’s up to consumers to help put a stop to this. It has to start with supporting our local farmers so you can use the localised farmers market app to connect with these local producers.”

17/08/2026

Corporations take governments to court to overturn, weaken or delay policies to protect consumers – it’s time to boycott them.

‘The world’s biggest ultra-processed food companies have filed scores of lawsuits challenging government policies that tackle junk diets, the Guardian can reveal. Ultra-processed food (UPF) is linked to harm in every major organ system of the human body and poses a seismic threat to global health. Worldwide consumption is rising and UPF now makes up as much as half the average diet in many countries, including the UK, the US and Australia. Governments around the world have adopted measures to fight back and safeguard the health of children and adults. Among the regulations are front-of-pack warning labels, marketing restrictions on unhealthy products to make them less alluring and taxes on junk food.

Publicly, the world’s biggest UPF companies insist they support the policies, are committed to helping consumers make informed choices and want to be part of the solution. But an investigation by the Guardian, in collaboration with academics, the non-profit newsroom Lighthouse Reports and a coalition of media partners across four continents, found many of these same companies are taking governments to court to overturn, weaken or delay the policies. In total, 235 lawsuits were lodged over health policies targeting UPF in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, the US and the UK from 2010 to 2025, the investigation found.’

‘Dozens of cases are ongoing. Of those that have been resolved, three-quarters were lost by the food giants. But the length of some of the legal battles added up to almost 600 years in court, the investigation found. Some of the ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits delayed the adoption of vital public health policies for years, while also tying up government and public health officials in complex and expensive litigation.’

Exclusive: Global investigation reveals 235 lawsuits have been brought against governments in five countries since 2010

16/08/2026

Yes, replacing factory farmed meat with pulses is part of the solution but so is sourcing meat from pasture-fed livestock.

‘But this focus on growth in the poultry sector to tackle food security has met with strong criticism. Ruth Westcott, a campaign manager at Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, said the plan to produce more UK poultry was a risk to UK food security, not a solution.

“Intensive poultry farming is highly resource-intensive, polluting and inefficient, so it can never be a solution to food security,” Westcott said.

Sustain and the campaign group Communities Against Factory Farming (CAFF) are calling on the government to axe its poultry growth plan and focus on homegrown sources of protein such as pulses, legumes, nuts and beans.’

Government’s food security push is said to rely on animal feed imports with vulnerability to supply chain shocks

15/08/2026

Certifying caged salmon is bound to lead to undermining organic standards. The Soil Association should stick to promoting and protecting wild salmon.

‘The organic certification body, the Soil Association, is warning it may withdraw from the farmed salmon sector unless higher standards are met. The organisation says while current standards are being satisfied, that’s not driving the improvements in the industry that they want to see. They cite high fish mortality, unacceptable levels of sea lice, and the use of harmful chemical treatments.’

The organic certification body, the Soil Association, is warning it...

14/08/2026

Across the globe most of our leaders are psychopaths.

“Wait, so Australia’s just approved a farm chemical banned by over 70 countries around the world? Paraquat is one of the most toxic herbicides on earth. There’s no antidote for it and even a tiny amount can kill you. It’s linked to Parkinson’s disease as well. The UK’s banned it, the EU’s banned it, even China’s banned it. But Australia, we’re like, yeah, nah, she’ll be right, mate. Why is our government exposing us to a risk that over 70 countries around the world have said is not acceptable? This isn’t a left wing question or a right wing question. It’s a public health question and it’s an accountability question. Albo, what’s going on? Why are you exposing us to these toxic chemical risks?”

13/08/2026

It must be a relief for agroecology NGOs to see the return of Angela Eagle in the DEFRA leadership role, rather than lobbying a newbie who is again programmed to fail to protect our precious farmers.

‘Dame Angela returns to Defra’s most senior position just over five weeks after leaving the department, where she previously served as a minister of state with responsibility for food security and rural affairs. She becomes the tenth person to serve as Defra Secretary since Andrea Leadsom was appointed in July 2016, highlighting the frequent turnover at the top of a department responsible for long-term farming and environmental policy.’

Defra Secretary Dame Angela Eagle has taken charge of the department following Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first Cabinet reshuffle.