Government plan to relax rules on industrial chicken farms is wrong

‘It is already clear that industrial chicken farming is unsustainable long term, with frequent disease outbreaks, energy price hikes and extreme weather.’ Photograph: Mark Henderson/Alamy

The government’s intention to relax planning regulations to allow for more industrial chicken units is immensely shortsighted (UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying, 2 April).

These proposals would effectively commit the UK to business as usual for chicken production, one of the least resilient and most cruel farming systems we have. It also shows a worrying lack of ambition for our upcoming UK food strategy and 25-year farming roadmap.